Mar-a-Lago on the Market? Real Estate CEO Tells CNN Host Why Trump May Need to Sell with Major Deadline Coming Up
A real estate expert told CNN this week that former President Donald Trump could sell one of his high-profile properties by Monday in order to prevent the state of New York from seizing his assets.
Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman told network host Erin Burnett that Trump’s prized Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, could be a hot commodity immediately.
The historic resort could be so hot, Freedman said, that it might sell in just a few days.
That would give Trump an opportunity to perhaps post the $464 million bond he must front by Monday in order to placate New York Attorney General Letitia James while he appeals a judge’s ruling that he defrauded the state of New York by inflating the value of his real estate assets.
“I think he’d need at least 30 days to get any of these properties sold,” Freedman told Burnett during the CNN interview.
“Mar-a-Lago, potentially, that could be something that could be sold quickly. I think the valuation is something in the hundreds of millions, and I think there could be a buyer for something like that.”
Burnett noted that in such a scenario, an interested buyer would have to be willing to write a check on the spot.
Freedman did not appear convinced that such a buyer was not out there.
“There could be plenty of international people who want to buy that property,” she said. … “Palm Beach is like the Nvidia (an AI company) of real estate. It’s just shot up like a rocket.”
Burnett noted that selling Mar-a-Lago could help Trump liquidate as much as $240 million.
But both the CNN host and her guest appeared lost on the fact that New York’s case against Trump was built on the claim that Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties were not worth anywhere near what Trump said they were when he sought loans using them as collateral in previous years – all of which were paid back.
As Newsweek noted last September, James argued that the property could have recently been worth as little as $18 million:
The outlet reported:
“James claims that Trump falsely valued his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida from 2011 to 2021 at $347 million to $739 million based on the premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed for residential use.
“James said during this same period, the resort was assessed by Palm Beach County as having a market value based on its restricted use as a social club as ranging between $18 million and $27.6 million.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron, who heard James’ case against Trump, ultimately ruled the former president lied to banks to secure favorable loan terms.
Still, according to CNN’s Burnett and her guest, Mar-a-Lago might be worth as much as a quarter-billion dollars, even for a seller in a bind.
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