Donald Trump’s Chicago property tax cut by 30% because retail space in the city’s Trump Tower was mostly empty, report says

• Trump’s Chicago Tower got $ 300,000 in tax relief for its vacant retail space.

• The estimated value of the building’s retail space has fallen by about 37%, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

• With a lower valuation, Trump’s tax bill for 2020 would have dropped to $ 698,399, from around $ 1 million.

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Former President Donald Trump’s property tax was reduced for his Chicago office tower because the building’s commercial space was mostly vacant, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The building’s retail space saw its estimated value reduced to $ 12.5 million from $ 19.9 million, according to the report. The assessed value was reduced by around 37% as around 95% of the area was vacant, according to the report.

“We gave a discount based on the vacancy,” a spokesperson for the assessor’s office told The Sun-Times.

With the drop in valuation, Trump’s property taxes for commercial space fell to $ 698,399 for 2020, from $ 1 million the year before, according to the report.

The glass-fronted Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago takes pride of place on the city skyline. It sits along the north side of the Chicago River, straddling the line between the Loop and River North neighborhoods.

The building’s official website describes it as “a showcase of bold style and appealing design set along the Chicago River.”

But it has struggled to attract commercial tenants for the lower three floors, including its downstairs retail space, according to reports.

The building “was losing money hand in hand,” Vanity Fair said. Profit from the tower fell 89% in the four years ended 2018, the Washington Post reported. A real estate blog, The Real Deal, said in 2019 that the building was “Chicago’s biggest retail failure.”

The revaluation of the building came months after officials in Illinois said the value was assessed above what it should have been in 2011. In July, the Cook County Board of Review ruled that Trump owed a $ 1 million tax refund that year.

The building’s official website declared the Chicago Tower to be the fourth tallest building in the United States. Wikipedia now ranks it seventh, with three new New York towers higher on the list.

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