The rest of the residential units are all owned individually by their occupants.
This might actually be a brilliant move on Trump's part. If the State of New York seizes Trump's assets in New York, they will be required to document a fixed value of them to determine how much they are worth compared to the fine he owes. Once they do that, the State of New York and the prosecution team will be exposed to the same civil charges they brought against Trump for "fraudulent" real estate appraisals.
Some of the legal experts I saw this morning said, it’s very difficult to know how much equity Trump actually has in his properties, since he keeps that information very private. The equity is what counts, if they are actually trying to excise money from Trump, and not from some bank that might actually own the building close to outright, but it just happens to have Trump’s name on it for marketing.
Therefore they hypothesized they may try to call Trump and his accountants in, and attempt to force them to testify under oath as to which properties have the most equity, and then use that as justification for why those specific properties are being targeted for seizure. In that scenario, Trump Tower may not be high on the list, as its individual condos are mostly owned by others.
What would be interesting is if they determine Mar-a-Lago is the property that he has the most equity in, and used that as justification to try to seize it, even though it is his personal home, and not even in New York. That attempt would be the one that would probably gather the most sympathy, even over Trump Tower.
Why Trump hasn’t filed the plea with a federal court for an 8th amendment violation yet, is the question for me. I’m thinking it indicates he’s either going to try to play this politically, more than legally, as this article infers, OR, more likely, he has a suitor or suitors waiting in the wings waiting to bail him out at the last minute, if needed. He still has some time, while he’s waiting on the ruling to see if the fine will be reduced under that appeal.
Bingo. Force their hand to reveal the farce they created.
“ This might actually be a brilliant move on Trump’s part. If the State of New York seizes Trump’s assets in New York, they will be required to document a fixed value of them to determine how much they are worth compared to the fine he owes.”
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If they undervalue those assets, trying to be consistent with their allegations, then everyone owning a piece of those properties can file for a partial refund of property taxes. More damaging to NYC (and, thus, NYS), going forward the property taxes on not just those buildings, but hundreds of others, will be lower, perhaps significantly so. It will destroy NYC’s budget, and cause an exodus of RE business from NY.
As the old Chinese saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.”