A doctor who was named to former President Donald Trump’s fitness council has slashed the prices on four units at Trump International Hotel & Tower, the latest sign of trouble for investors at the 98-story skyscraper on North Wabash Avenue.
Stephen Soloway, a New Jersey rheumatologist who wrote the book, “Bad Medicine: The Horrors of American Healthcare,” is listing the units for $2.25 million combined, down from $4.3 million in March 2020, according to Crain’s. That’s a near 50 percent price chop for the units on the 23rd, 24th, 25th and 27th floors. They are being sold individually, the report noted.
In 2018, Soloway worked with Donald Trump Jr. to quash an effort by board members of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York to remove the Trump name from the property. The same year, he was appointed to the former president’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, a distinction noted on his book cover. He later withdrew his name from the council, according to Crain’s.
Soloway, who was an early investor in the Chicago property, did not return a call for comment, the outlet reported.
At Trump Tower in Chicago, condo and hotel prices have been in steady decline. Last summer, a report showed condo prices averaged $566 a foot, down 25 percent year over year; and down 42 percent from 2018. Hotel rooms also dipped, and could be purchased for less than $200,000, the report showed.
In 2018, an investigation by The Real Deal found that Trump Tower in Chicago was the biggest retail failure in the city’s modern history.
And last month — just days after the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol — Alderman Gilbert Villegas vowed to introduce an ordinance to remove the 20-foot tall “TRUMP” sign affixed to the tower. Separately, investigations by Manhattan and New York state’s top prosecutors continue into the former president’s business dealings. [Crain’s] — Alexi Friedman