No. of Recommendations: 8
I did. It's right next door to the club and he played there as President a lot.
It's not right next door to the club. It's four miles away, out near the airport.
Even then, you have to at least admit that the judge's mention of $27M for the entire thing...is laughable. There's literally zero possibility of anyone paying that little for MaL were it to hit the market. Zero.
It wouldn't have sold for vastly closer to that amount than the amount Trump was valuing at, and I don't think noting the appraised value of $27M is laughable at all. We're not talking about current prices - we're looking at the 2010's. I don't think that you could have gotten much more than $30M for Mar-a-Lago on the open market back then, because it's got a lot of problems.
It's too big to be really usable for a single-family residence. It lacks the amenities that many Florida club facilities do (no beachfront, no marina, no golf course). The main structure is on the "wrong" side of the lot from the waterfront, which means nearly the whole property is just empty lawn and will remain that way. It can't be used as a hotel - and since all it's members will live locally, there's not all that much value or use for all those extra bedrooms. So you have a ton of expense for a lot of facility that doesn't generate any value. Because it's historic and zoned for residential/private club, you can't change any of those things.
