- Cushman & Wakefield valued Donald Trump's stake in 40 Wall Street at $220 million in 2012.
- Three years later, the real estate firm said the same stake had more than doubled in value, to $550 million.
- "Good question," a firm lawyer told the AG, when asked to name another building that had doubled in value.
Donald Trump's real estate appraisers still can't explain how, back in 2015, his stake in the skyscraper at 40 Wall Street more than doubled in value in three years, according to a new court filing by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"That's a good question," a lawyer for real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield told the AG's office in January, according to the latest paperwork volley in James' years-long fight for documents in her investigation of The Trump Organization.
The "good question" had been posed to Cushman attorney W. Scott O'Connell by lawyers with James' office during a Jan. 5 meeting about documents she is seeking from the firm, according to the filing.
Cushman had valued Trump's lease in the 70-story skyscraper at 40 Wall Street at $220 million back in 2012, when Trump used it as collateral for a loan from Capital One Bank, the AG says.
Three years later, the firm appraised Trump's interest in the building at $550 million — more than doubling its value — when Trump successfully used it as collateral for a $160 million loan from Ladder Capital Finance, the AG alleges.
"At our meeting on January 5, 2022, you asserted that this valuation increase resulted from an overall increase in the New York real estate market between 2012 and 2015," Assistant Attorney General Austin Thompson wrote in the latest court filing.
"We asked you if you could identify any other similarly situated buildings that more than doubled in value (which you acknowledged was a "good question") and you promised to look into it," Thompson asked the Cushman & Wakefield lawyer.
"Eight weeks later, however, we have received no follow-through from Cushman on any of the factual questions it committed to answer at that meeting."
Cushman attributed most of the increase in appraised value to what it described as a hike in assumed rental rates in the building, the AG said.
But "in June of 2015, the same month as the date of the Appraisal," the rent roll for 40 Wall Street showed "rates 10 to 17 percent below the assumed market rate," the filing said.
James has said in previous court papers that Capitol's own 2015 valuation of Trump's stake in the building came in at $257 million. Ladder Capital handled the loan after Capitol declined to restructure the mortgage on the property, the AG has said.
Trump owns a "ground lease" to the office building, not the building itself.
James has accused the appraiser of failing to fully comply with four subpoenas she has issued, since 2019, seeking documents explaining how it arrived at values for multiple Trump properties.
On Friday, she asked a judge to compel Cushman to comply with the subpoenas. That request is pending.
"Any suggestion that Cushman & Wakefield has not responded in good faith to the Attorney General's investigation is fundamentally untrue," a company spokesperson said Monday of the AG's allegations.
"The Attorney General's filings do not accurately depict Cushman & Wakefield's responses to prior subpoenas and inquiries. We stand behind our appraisers and our work."