Trump Plaza New Rochelle dumps Trump Org as property manager

Downtown luxury tower is the second Westchester condo to switch to AKAM since August

Trump Plaza New Rochelle at 175 Huguenot Street and Donald Trump (Getty, Anthony22/Wikimedia)
Trump Plaza New Rochelle at 175 Huguenot Street and Donald Trump (Getty, Anthony22/Wikimedia)

The Trump Organization’s property management footprint keeps shrinking as condo boards vote to distance themselves from the former president’s controversial brand.

The board at Trump Plaza New Rochelle, a 40-story luxury tower at 175 Huguenot Street in downtown New Rochelle, has elected to switch its management agent from the Trump Organization to AKAM, according to a memo to condo owners reviewed by The Real Deal. The change is effective Oct. 1.

The New Rochelle board reached the decision “after a comprehensive management search and due diligence process,” the notice read. Changing the building’s name is a separate issue from switching the management agent, and will be decided through a vote by unit owners, according to sources familiar with the matter, who noted that they expect a name change to receive broad support among unit owners.

AKAM did not respond to a request for comment. Trump Org executive Eric Trump, son of former President Donald Trump, declined to comment.

The New Rochelle tower’s decision marks the second time in a month that a loss for the Trump Org has resulted in AKAM’s gain in Westchester County. In August, the 35-story Trump Tower at City Center in White Plains informed residents that AKAM is now that building’s management agent, lohud reported, after condo owners voted to dump the Trump name and branding.

The Trump Org had managed that property since it was built in 2005 by the Cappelli Organization, a prominent local developer that also built the New Rochelle tower.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

If the New Rochelle condo owners support losing the name, it would leave only one remaining Trump-branded complex in Westchester: Trump Park Residences in Yorktown, another Cappelli-developed property. Sources familiar with the property said the active-adult community is also in the process of rebranding and switching a management firm. But a Yorktown town employee told The Real Deal that the property’s front sign still maintains the original name.

Condo boards distancing themselves from the Trump name are not limited to Westchester. In Fairfield County, Connecticut, the condo board of Trump Parc Stamford unanimously voted to remove the Trump name from the building’s exterior, which now reads, “Parc Stamford.” But it was Trump Property Management that had decided to end its contract with the building in December, according to the Stamford Advocate.

The change at Trump Parc Stamford came weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which directly prompted the condo board at Trump Plaza in West Palm Beach, Florida, to change its name in late January.

The owners or boards of at least five former Trump branded buildings in New York City, including Trump Place at 120 Riverside Drive, voted to drop the name after Trump’s election in 2016.

Even Trump Bay Street in Jersey City, a 50-story residential tower co-owned by Kushner Companies and KABR Group, has recently rebranded the luxury rental complex as simply 65 Bay Street. Kushner Companies and KABR Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read more