[custom_adv] Trump Tower is a 58-floor, 664-foot-tall (202 m) mixed-use skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Trump Tower serves as the headquarters for The Trump Organization. [custom_adv] Additionally, it houses the penthouse condominium residence of the building's namesake and developer, U.S. President Donald Trump, who is also a businessman and real estate developer. [custom_adv] Several members of the Trump family also live, or have resided, in the building. The tower stands on a plot where the flagship store of department-store chain Bonwit Teller was formerly located. [custom_adv] Der Scutt of Poor, Swanke, Hayden & Connell designed Trump Tower, and Trump and the Equitable Life Assurance Company (now the AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company) developed it. Although it is in one of Midtown Manhattan's special zoning districts, the tower was approved because it was to be built as a mixed-use development. [custom_adv] Trump was permitted to add more stories to the tower because of the atrium on the ground floor. There were controversies during construction, including the destruction of historically important sculptures from the Bonwit Teller store; Trump's alleged underpaying of contractors; and a lawsuit that Trump filed because the tower was not tax-exempt. [custom_adv] Construction on the building began in 1979. The atrium, apartments, offices, and stores opened on a staggered schedule from February to November 1983. [custom_adv] At first, there were few tenants willing to move in to the commercial and retail spaces; the residential units were sold out within months of opening. Since 2016, the tower has seen a large increase in visitation because of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent election—both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns are headquartered in the tower. [custom_adv] Donald Trump—the son of Fred Trump, a real estate developer in Queens and Brooklyn—had envisioned building a tower at 56th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan since childhood, but only formulated plans to develop the site in the mid-1970s, when he was in his thirties. [custom_adv] At the time, the Bonwit Teller flagship store, an architecturally renowned building built in 1929, occupied the lot. The site was next to Tiffany's flagship store on 57th Street, which Trump considered the city's best real-estate property. [custom_adv] Approximately twice every year, Trump contacted Bonwit Teller's parent company, Genesco, to ask whether they were willing to sell Bonwit Teller's flagship store. Trump said the first time he contacted Genesco, "they literally laughed at me." Genesco continued to decline his offers and, according to Trump, "they thought I was kidding." [custom_adv] In 1977, John Hanigan became the new chairman of Genesco. He looked to sell off some assets to pay debts, and Trump approached him with an offer to buy the Bonwit Teller building. In February 1979, Genesco sold off many of the Bonwit Teller locations to Allied Stores, and sold the brand's flagship building to the Trump Organization. [custom_adv] At the time, the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States owned the land, while Genesco had a long-term lease on the land, with 29 years remaining. If Trump were to buy the land, his tower's ownership could be transferred to Equitable in 2008, once the lease expired. [custom_adv] Equitable initially refused to sell the land to Trump, but the Trump Organization bought the lease instead, and Equitable exchanged the land in return for a 50% stake in the construction project itself. This was more profitable for Equitable, since they were getting only $100,000 per year from Genesco for the use of the land, while a single condominium in the tower could be sold for millions of dollars.
