Page 52 - 2

TR U M P STR A TEGI ES FO R R E A L ESTA TE

It is easy to understand that when this lawsuit was filedtostopthe
building, the lenders who had agreed to finance the construction of
the buildinggot nervous. They felt that there was a real possibility
that the building might never be built as Trump envisioned it. But
Trump had a Plan B. He established a relationship with Daewoo—
one of the largest corporations in Korea—who was willing to be his
partner and would guarantee repayment of the loan if the planned
building did not materialize. So now the mortgage lender wasn’t wor-
ried about the adverse publicity or the lawsuit because they had this
billion dollar company, Daewoo, which is the equivalent of General
Motors in Korea, to guarantee repayment of the loan if necessary.
Meanwhile, the building kept going up. The opposition tried to stop
the construction. They claimed that if Trump’s building was allowed to
be built they would lose their beautiful views of the East River. They
filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and the City of New York for
wrongfully issuing the building permit; but Trump filed a countersuit
that sought damages as a result of the opposition’s lawsuit and a judg-
ment that the building permit was properly issued. The court basically
ruled that the city had every right to issue the permit and Mr. Trump
had every right to build the building under the permit. They were not
going to issue an injunction in this case because the damages would
be horrendous and it was unlikely that Trump’s position would be
overturned on appeal. They allowed the construction to proceed.
The opposition lost in the lower courts and eventually took their
lawsuit to the Court of Appeals—the highest New York State court.
The Court of Appeals didn’t even review the case to consider over-
turning it. Their comment to the plaintiffs was, “If you don’t like the
zoning law, change it. But any subsequent change to the zoning law
will not affect this building which is being built in accordance with
the law as it now exists.”
Trump World Tower isnow one of the most luxurious resi-
dential towers in the world and enjoys a five-star rating. Many of

28