Trump International Hotel in Vancouver closes permanently

The Trump International Hotel in Vancouver has closed permanently just three years after opening, and the management company that owns it has filed for bankruptcy.

Hotel operator TA Hotel Management Partnership Ltd. filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, according to documents obtained by CBC News.

The front entrance to the hotel has since been boarded up. Workers at the front concierge desk told the Canadian outlet that the hotel is empty and staff is gone.

A union representative for hotel staff told CBC the news came as a shock and staff learned of the closure from media reports. 

The land and building is owned by TA Global Berhad, a multinational Malaysian property company headed by Tiah Joo Kim, who pays Trump’s company to operate the hotel and license the Trump name.

The bankrupt filing showed TA Hotel Management had assets of $1.1 million and debts of $4.8 million. Grant Thornton Ltd. was named bankruptcy trustee.

TA Global has cited the pandemic for the shuttering of the hotel. More than 200 employees were laid off in April at the onset of the health crisis. 

The $360-million complex featuring the 147-room hotel opened just weeks after Trump’s inauguration. The February 2017 ribbon cutting featured three of the president’s children — Donald Jr. Trump, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump.

The Hill has reached out to TA Global and the Trump Organization, owned by the president but run day-to-day by his eldest sons, for comment. 

The hotel was deeply unpopular among locals, and protesters often gathered outside, including on its opening day, The Vancouver Sun reported. 

Gregor Robertson, who was Vancouver mayor at the time, asked for the name of the U.S. president to be removed, saying at the time that there was “no more place on Vancouver’s skyline than his ignorant ideas have in the modern world.”

This is the third Trump-branded hotel to have cut ties with the president’s brand since he entered office, The Washington Post reported. The owners of the Trump hotels in Panama, Toronto and Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood have all since re-opened under new names.