Donald Trump is suing the District of Columbia over an “excessive” tax bill for his upcoming luxury hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.
According to the suit, filed by Trump’s lawyers on Thursday in the D.C. Superior Court, the city has requested that the billionaire pay around $1.7 million in tax for what the legal filings described as a “non-operational building undergoing a massive conversion to a hotel.”
Trump reached a $200 million deal with the General Services Administration in 2013, allowing him to turn the Old Post Office Pavilion into a luxury hotel. Properties owned by the federal government and leased to private companies were previously not taxed, but that changed in 2013 when District officials settled a tax dispute involving Union Station.
Trump’s lawyers claim that tax assessments of the property mischaracterized it as a “fully functional and rent-producing commercial office building” even though the building is expected to remain under construction until its completion this September. The suit requests that city officials reduce the appraised value and refund the excess tax paid by Trump in 2015 and 2016.
Existing luxury hotels within D.C., including the Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis, received much lower appraisals in comparison to Trump’s upcoming hotel, which city officials initially valued at $98 million, the suit alleges.
William Bosch, one of the attorneys representing Trump, described the suit as “a routine and customary practice that thousands of property owners in the District and many more across the country have used to ensure that their assessments are fairly established.”
Trump is also entangled in another lawsuit involving his latest hotel project and celebrity chef Jose Andres. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee sued Andres for $10 billion last August after he declined to pursue construction of a restaurant inside the hotel due to his opposition to Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants.
