Could Upper East Side Buildings Ditch Trump's Name?

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — In the wake of this month's violence in the nation's capital and the end of Donald Trump's presidency, some on the Upper East Side have begun to speculate whether Trump's moniker could be dropped from his name-branded buildings.

"I would certainly love to stop seeing his name as I’m walking through my neighborhood," resident Arthur Gwynne told Community Board 8 during a public meeting last week.

The Upper East Side hosts a large fraction of Trump-branded buildings — three of the roughly 10 buildings bearing his name in Manhattan are within the bounds of Community District 8.

They are Trump Palace on East 69th Street, Trump Plaza on East 61st Street, and Trump Park Avenue, on the corner of East 59th Street.

The building manager at Trump Palace is considering removing Trump's name from the building's facade, where it is spelled out in gold lettering, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Building resident Michael Schoeman told Patch on Monday that he's "heard rumblings," but is skeptical about what the name change would accomplish.

"I don’t understand what it would do," he said. "But it’s not up to me, it's up to the board to do whatever they want."

Trump, now a Florida resident, has long since sold many of his New York high-rises, which retain the Trump name only for branding purposes. Some, including the Palace and Park Avenue buildings, are mostly co-ops that Trump himself does not own, according to a 2013 report by The Real Deal.

Some properties have already shed the Trump label, like the former Trump Place complex on the Upper West Side, whose residents voted in 2019 to remove signs bearing his name.

Gwynne, during the CB8 meeting, suggested that the board send a letter to the remaining properties in the neighborhood, asking them to remove Trump's name.

"I would certainly like to patronize some of the businesses in those buildings without getting a bad taste in my mouth," he said.

City Councilmember Keith Powers, whose district includes all three Trump-branded buildings on the Upper East Side, indicated Monday that he would be open to such efforts.

"I would be happy to never see the Trump name again in New York City," Powers said.