Trump Hotels’ self-reinvention? Not so tremendous so far

In Mississippi, the Trump Hotel business is booming. Four hotels are on the rise in three delta towns and developers have already secured key tax breaks to build them.

Go north, west or east of the Magnolia State, however, and virtually nothing is moving forward, Bloomberg reports, in a new look at the company hotel business.

The Trump Organization previously announced the creation a new hotel brand, Scion, and boasted of more than 30 letters of intent for development deals. But no developers have followed through on tentative licensing arrangements in Dallas, Seattle, Denver and San Francisco.

Some hospitality analysts and development heads who spoke to Bloomberg said the Trump brand has become too toxic.

“These Trump brands just have not gotten legs yet,” said Drew Dimond of Dimond Hotel Consulting Group. “I haven’t heard one developer mention that’s a brand they’d want.”

Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel, which opened before Donald Trump took office, is perhaps the sole success story in the last year. The Trump Organization lost its licensing deal with CIM Group at Trump Soho last year, its Chicago hotel can’t find a tenant for an empty 60,000-square-foot retail space, and abroad the Trump name has been removed from hotels in both Toronto and Panama.

Despite this, Trump Hotels, led by Eric Danzinger, insists the company revenues are strong. [Bloomberg] — Will Parker