Trump Hotels Reveals Plan To Triple Number Of US Locations As Contractor Files $2M Suit For Unpaid Work

Politico reports:

An electrical contractor is suing President Donald Trump’s Washington hotel for $2 million over what the contractor contends are unpaid bills for “nonstop” work performed to open the luxury lodging at the Old Post Office Building last year.

The suit filed in D.C. Superior Court by Laurel, Maryland-based AES Electrical, also known as Freestate Electrical, contends that the company was instructed to rush work on electrical and fire alarm systems at the hotel in advance of a visit then-candidate Trump made there for a “soft opening” in September and again for the “grand opening” of the hotel in October.

“Acceleration of Freestate’s work required Freestate’s crews to work nonstop, seven days per week, 10 to 14 hours per day for nearly 50 consecutive days, prior to the ‘soft opening,’ at significant additional cost and expense for which Freestate expected payment,” the complaint filed by attorneys Roger Jones and Nicole Campbell says. “Subsequent to the Hotel’s ‘soft opening,’ Freestate was required to continue its acceleration efforts and the performance of extra work in order to permit the ‘grand opening’ of the Trump Hotel by October 26, 2016.”

Bloomberg reports:



President Donald Trump’s hotel-management company wants to expand its namesake luxury hotels across the U.S. while it holds off on new overseas business, its chief executive officer said. “There are 26 major metropolitan areas in the U.S., and we’re in five,” Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger said after a panel discussion Tuesday at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles. “I don’t see any reason that we couldn’t be in all of them eventually.”

Having Trump hotels in 26 cities would triple the current total. Trump’s company manages eight namesake hotels in the U.S., some of which the Trump family owns. Danziger, who joined Trump Hotels in August 2015, said that Trump Hotels is considering opening luxury properties in Dallas, Seattle, Denver and San Francisco, where he started his career in 1971 as a bellman at a Fairmont hotel.

New Trump-branded luxury hotels would be only in major cities, while the company’s new lower-priced Scion-branded properties will also be located in secondary and tertiary cities, Danziger said during the panel discussion. The first Scion hotel will open this year, he said.