Due to the financial woes related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the local animosity towards the presence of a Donald Trump-branded property in Vancouver, the eponymously named hotel, The Trump International Hotel and Tower, filed for bankruptcy on August 26. According to documents filed with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada, the company that owned the hotel reported nearly CDN $4.8 million (US $3.6 million) in total liabilities.
The hotel’s owner TA Hotel Management Ltd. Limited Partnership, a subsidiary to Malaysia based TA Global Berhad, cited coronavirus as the underlying cause of its struggles to garner revenue as the primary cause for the hotel’s poor financial performance and returns. The company announced on its website that “Its ongoing expenses since the outbreak of COVID-19 and lack of revenue has placed TAHMLP into a position of insolvency.”
The hotel reportedly filed paperwork on August 26 that reflected CDN $4.79 million in liabilities with only a mere CDN $1.1 million in assets. The hotel’s revenue declined 4% in 2019 due solely to a lack of food and beverage sales.
The hotel had opened to a rocky start in February of 2017. Around 200 individuals had gathered to protest the hotel’s very existence at a ribbon-cutting ceremony that was in attendance by the likes of Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and the CEO of TA Global Berhad, Tiah Joo Kim, with local politicians being notably absent. Kim is the son of Tiah Thee Kian, who, according to Forbes, had been ousted 15 years earlier for falsifying information to a Malaysian securities commission and forced to step down from his TA Global board position.
In a Forbes interview, Kim revealed that his firms had invested around $138 million in the project, reportedly paying 5 percent to the Trump Organization for the usage of the Trump brand. Kim expressed enthusiasm over the deal and had shared on social media news of the Vancouver Towers’ winning of Americas Property Awards, which included ones for hotel interior and architecture. However, the hotel came under scrutiny by an FBI investigation of Trump’s business dealings during Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
The hotel had boasted a 250 person staff, 147 guest rooms, 217 condominiums and a ballroom. It remains as Vancouver’s second-tallest building.
The hotel’s creditors are expected to attend the first of a series of meetings on Sept. 16.
