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Trump stands by contract with tower condo owner
Concluding his testimony on Wednesday afternoon in a civil trial in downtown Chicago, Trump said it was his hotel management company’s chief operating officer who convinced him it was a bad idea to put a condo board in charge of the facility. Trying to spare them the risk and what he called “massive” revenue fluctuations, Trump offered instead to pay the condo association $500,000 per year to let him run the facility. In August 2006, a few years before Trump Tower opened, Jacqueline Goldberg bought two units – one for $1.2 million and the other for $971,000. She says she was told the common elements in her condo building could generate $5 million in revenue per year, an offer later rescinded. She is suing to get back a $500,000 non-refundable deposit. During an often volatile exchange over about four hours, Goldberg’s attorney, Shelly Kulwin, grilled Trump relentlessly, at one point debating what the word “grand” in “grand ballroom” means. When Trump appended a response with a claim that Goldberg “defaulted on two units,” Kulwin got angry. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve kept urging the two to keep the testimony moving, telling them both, “My guess is there are other places you’d rather be.”
Trump disputed the claim that the loss of the food and beverage facility as a common element represented an annual loss to unit owners of $5 million. “The number you gave is a gross number,” he told Kulwin. “You forgot to deduct a thing they call ‘expenses.’” Food and beverage operations – in general and at Trump – do not make much money, he says. “Unit owners are lucky they made that deal” to allow him to take over operations. Though resisting Kulwin’s assumptions at every opportunity, Trump did say that by 2007 he was “most concerned” with the possibility that a condo board could replace his management company, something he says would be “potentially very bad for the property.” Goldberg, according to Trump, first tried to get him to take out the clause in the contract allowing him to take back common elements. After he declined, Trump says Goldberg still bought the units. “And then she sues me – incredible!”
Defendants are 401 North Wabash Venture, LLC, and Trump Chicago Managing Member, LLC, represented by Novack and Macey, LLP. Lead attorney Stephen Novack has also represented Chicago entrepreneur Sam Zell. The case was originally filed in Circuit Court on October 14, 2009. The jury trial was scheduled to continue on Thursday and into next week. Lawsuit “a disgrace,” says Trump Trump usually spent courtroom breaks in small waiting rooms, guarded by U.S. Marshals. Coming back from lunch on Wednesday, however, he found himself confined to a small hallway, told to wait there like everyone else. “I’d rather be out here with you,” he told the small crowd of spectators before a Marshal instructed him to stand apart from them. While waiting for the jury to return, he could be seen chatting amiably with the judge. “This is a disgrace,” Trump told reporters after his testimony. He says Goldberg is using the lost common elements like the grand ballroom “as a ruse to get her money back.” “It’s so wrong what she did,” said Trump, adding, “nobody that I have ever seen has played the ‘age card’ better than her.” “I love Chicago and I love the building,” he told reporters, referring to Trump Tower, before darting into a waiting limousine.
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