ABOVE: The 40-story Trump Plaza high-rise in New Rochelle was part of the suburban city’s downtown revitalization effort. PHOTO: LP Media
Tenants fighting to keep the name maintain the [2022 directors’] vote should have been the end of the story, accusing them of [wait for it] ‘drumming up support to dump Trump.’
By Jack Morphet and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon | The New York Post
A group of Westchester County residents is in a frantic fight to keep Donald Trump’s name emblazoned on their luxury high-rise — claiming a rigged condo election could foil their bid, The Post has learned.
About two dozen tenants at the 40-story, 194-unit Trump Plaza in New Rochelle want the former president’s name to stay on the building even after his management company got the boot but say anti-Trump members of the condo board are trying to fix the system in their favor.
“They promised us that they would be an apolitical board, but they’re not. This is all political,” said Monserrate Fisher, 79, who has owned a unit in the building since 2010.
The move to strip “Trump” from the tower — one of only two major residential properties in the county still carrying his name — failed to garner enough support at a 2022 condo board vote, the residents said.
That should have settled the dispute, but instead, some residents of the building have apparently launched a campaign to get their way.
“They didn’t get the votes. This needs to stop,” said Al LePore, 65, who owns a unit with his wife Gina. “They won’t stop until they get their way.”
“The board is hardcore. They won’t talk to us because we are Trump supporters. You have to keep your political views to yourself in something like this,” LePore added.
“They hate the man, and they’re on a mission to destroy him in New York.”
The glitzy tower was built in 2007 as part of the suburban city’s downtown revitalization effort, serving as a crown jewel in the middle of a once-underwhelming metropolis.
The condo board voted in 2021 to officially get rid of the Trump Organization and turned over management to real estate giant AKAM — although the Trump name remained firmly attached to the façade.
But while a small cluster of owners and renters embrace the upscale image once associated with Trump’s name, others say the ex-president’s subsequent controversy and legal wrangling is a sign that it was time to let go.
“While there is a small and very vocal group of owners who do not support the name change, there is a silent majority who we believe support the name change,” board president Gerg Root told The Post in an email this week.
“After carefully studying the issue, we believe it is financially in the best interest of unit owners’ property long-term values,” he said.
Root conceded that the move to remove the name failed to pass during the 2022 vote by condo owners — but only because not enough members showed up to vote.
“While it is correct that a vote on a name change was held in 2022, note that of those who voted 70% were in favor of a name change and 30% opposed,” he wrote.
It wasn’t enough for the super majority tally that is necessary to make the change, Root said.
The tenants who are fighting to keep the name on the front of the building maintain the vote should have been the end of the story, and accused board members of circulating letters and a Q&A throughout the building to drum up support to dump Trump — even urging owners to vote by proxy.
So far it hasn’t worked, as the necessary two-thirds vote has yet to materialize.
“I definitely do not want the name changed,” said Gina LePore, 68 “I don’t see a reason why. They can’t convince me why. We don’t all necessarily love Trump — some of us do. I’m a Trump supporter — but I don’t allow that to cloud my vision.
“Just give me the facts. The so-called facts they’ve given us weren’t facts, they were opinions” she said.
The Trump name remains attached to Trump Park Residences in the northern Westchester town of Yorktown, but other remnants of the former president’s luster in the county have been removed.
In 2021, condo owners voted to rename the former Trump Tower in White Plains, the county seat, and replace it with the more benign tag of The Tower at City Place.
Big Apple high-rises once pegged with Trump’s name have also stripped it clear in recent years, including an Upper West Side tower that voted to remove his brand in 2018.
Three other buildings in the neighborhood voted to do the same two years earlier.
Once synonymous with luxury, the Trump name has fallen out of favor in Democrat-dominant states like New York following his string of legal tangles and political views that are out of step with liberals.
“I’m very upset,” said Gina LePore. “We moved into the building because of the Trump name, before he was political. His buildings were luxury buildings and everything he touched he made beautiful.910
“We were so excited when we moved here and that could just be taken away from us,” she said.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the value of the property,” LePore added. “There’s no glut of apartments for sale here, as soon as they come on the market they’re sold quickly.”