New Trump Tower Fifth Avenue Tenant

Trump Tower Fifth Avenue, also known as Trump Tower Commercial LLC located at 721-725 Fifth Avenue, has a new significant tenant that has not been publicly reported.

In February 2022 Axos Bank in California provided a $100 million mortgage to Trump Tower Commercial LLC. In February and March 2022 Axos Bank and Eric Trump (for Trump Tower Commercial) signed Subordination, Non-Disturbance and Attornment Agreements with two tenants per public ACRIS real estate filings.

One tenant agreement was with Gucci, which the New York Times reported in 2021:

For the past 14 years, Gucci has leased 48,667 feet at the base of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, making it the building’s biggest commercial tenant.

In March 2022 Axos Bank and Eric Trump (for Trump Tower Commercial) signed a similar tenant agreement with 730 Fifth Upper LLC c/o Aman New York and signed by Francis Scola, the CFO of OKO Group founded by Vlad Doronin. OKO Group has developed Aman New York in the Crown Building at 730 Fifth Avenue across the street from Trump Tower.

730 Fifth Upper LLC signed the lease with Trump Tower on February 24, 2022.

It has not been reported that Aman is a tenant of Trump Tower, significant enough to be one of only two tenants including Gucci to sign a Subordination, Non-Disturbance and Attornment Agreement with Axos Bank.

In addition to Gucci and 730 Fifth Upper LLC, there is also a Subordination Agreement between Axos Bank and various Trump businesses listed as tenants including The Trump Corporation, T Tower Retail LLC, Trump Tower Commercial LLC and Trump Restaurants, LLC.

There is no indication of any irregularity in these agreements, and the terms of the Trump Tower lease agreements with Gucci or with 730 Fifth Upper c/o Aman are not known. But it is important to track the large tenants in Trump properties as they often provide significant revenues and cachet to the Trump Organization. As noted in the New York Times story on Gucci, several Trump tenants have come under public scrutiny and pressure in recent years and many such as Nike and Tiffany have ended their leases.

A few highlights about Aman New York and OKO Group

A 2019 press release said: “Aman and OKO Group announce a construction loan of $750M arranged by Cain International for the development of Aman New York in the iconic Crown Building in Manhattan.”

Russian billionaire Vlad Doronin, who founded Moscow-based Capital Group, owns Aman Resorts and is chairman and CEO of OKO Group. Cain International, founded by Todd Boehly and run by Jonathan Goldstein, is partnering with Doronin and Aman on several deals in Florida including a condo in Miami and a new $97 million joint venture in Fort Lauderdale.

Todd Boehly, the co-founder and CEO of Eldridge Industries which owns Cain International, also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Lakers, and various other teams and businesses. Boehly was recently in the news as the lead of a consortium with Clearlake Capital that completed a £4.25 billion takeover of English soccer club Chelsea, purchased from U.K. sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

In July 2022 a New York Post article said “the city’s biggest sale of the year is a $74.34 million penthouse on Fifth Avenue. The splashy sale is at the Aman New York, across the street from Trump Tower in Midtown.” The July 2022 ACRIS filing lists the purchaser Albatross Apartment LLC c/o Zedra Trust Company (Suisse) and the deed is signed by Zedra employees Bhavnita Gosrani and Abigail Tipton but under the name of affiliated company Draze Management.

Note that research on Zedra quickly led me to recent reports that Zedra set up companies linked to Roman Abramovich who had $7 billion in assets on the island of Jersey. However, Zedra has offices and clients worldwide and there is no indication that the purchaser of the Aman penthouse is Abramovich or anyone affiliated with him. An anonymous shell company obscures the identity of the largest purchase in New York City this year.