Trump SoHo Renamed Hotel Dominick After Business Suffers Under President's Brand

The Trump SoHo, New York, was rebranded as The Dominick Hotel, Thursday midnight, according to a report by KITV, an ABC-affiliated television station.

“Today, effectively, is our last day as Trump SoHo,” Nicole Murano, director of marketing and communications of the Manhattan hotel, said Wednesday. She also stated the process of transition will be smooth.

The report said all the reservations made under the name of Trump SoHo will be honored and not cancelled. CIM Group, which owned the building from 2014, will maintain their ownership of the property.

The Trump Organization along with the CIM Group announced in November they will be discontinuing their ties by the end of the year due to reports which stated the prices of the hotel rooms were falling throughout the year.

According to Murano, The Dominick Hotel will be managed by a CIM Group affiliate and it will also be a part of Preferred Hotels & Resort’s Legend collection.

Due to falling business of the hotel, a restaurant by the name of Koi shut down its operations, the KITV report said. Also, in December 2016 basketball player LeBron James refused to stay there, which again signaled the depreciating business of the hotel.

Trump SoHo was also mixed in controversies, said the report. The establishment was linked with a Russian ex-con, Felix Sater, who was involved in the initial licensing deal of hotel, which made development of the property possible.

According to Murano, the sign stating “Trump SoHo” will stay in its place for the time being. It will be eventually replaced by the sign of the new name. The Trump Organization and the CIM Group did not comment on the matter upon request.

A bellman who worked at the hotel said Wednesday morning, when asked which hotel he worked for now, “Nobody knows,” the Washington Post reported.

The Trump SoHo opened in 2010 and consisted of a lavish two-story Italian restaurant along with a pool bar and a library cafe which overlooked the lobby, the hotel's official website said. The property attracted celebrities and numerous sports teams also stayed at the venue. Sports cars could be seen outside the hotel along with a velvet rope to keep out paparazzi.

However, the property struggled to get investors for buying the individual condominiums which were rented as hotel rooms. Lenders started to write down debts on the hotel later in 2010.

According to public filings, less than one-third of the units were sold, which resulted in the CIM Group taking over the property in 2014.

The report also stated although the Trump Organization still kept itself the manager of the property, the explosive nature of Donald Trump’s politics started to affect the brand value of the hotel. The sports teams and the celebrities stopped coming and this happened at a time when New York’s hotel industry as a whole was going through a slump.