Did Donald Trump Build 40 Wall Street? The 1930 Skyscraper That Lost the Height Race to the Chrysler Building

The Trump Building entrance and lower floors at 40 Wall Street in the Financial District of Manhattan

The Trump Building, 40 Wall Street. Photograph by Bjoertvedt, via Wikimedia Commons. Released into the public domain by the photographer.

No. Donald Trump did not build 40 Wall Street. The tower was finished in 1930 as the Manhattan Company Building, and Trump bought the right to operate it in 1995, 65 years later. The name on the entrance now says "The Trump Building," which makes the history easy to get backwards. This article covers who actually built it, how it lost a famous race to the Chrysler Building, how it passed through a series of owners before Trump, and what he owns today.

Who built 40 Wall Street?

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1995 designation report is the best single source. It says the Manhattan Company Building was built in 1929-30 by the developer George L. Ohrstrom and the 40 Wall St. Corp., and that H. Craig Severance was the architect, with Yasuo Matsui as associate architect and Shreve & Lamb as consulting architects. Starrett Brothers & Eken were the builders and Moran & Proctor the consulting engineers. The Manhattan Company, which had founded the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1799 and owned the site, was to be the main tenant.

The report says the project was announced in April 1929, and that the 71-story, 927-foot skyscraper was ready for occupancy in May 1930. That is a year of construction, which the report calls unprecedented. As many as 2,300 workers worked three shifts, twenty-four hours a day. A golden rivet was driven into one of eight main steel columns at a July 1929 ceremony, and the New York Times noted that each column weighed about 22 tons and carried about 4,600,000 pounds. The steel frame was finished in November 1929 and the masonry went up at about a floor a day. Paul Starrett of the builders later said it was "the most complicated" job he had handled and "the most successful."

The Bank of the Manhattan Company Building at 40 Wall Street photographed by Irving Underhill around 1930

The Bank of the Manhattan Company Building, 40 Wall Street, photographed by Irving Underhill. Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Why did 40 Wall Street lose the race with the Chrysler Building?

The report describes "an intense rivalry" between the Manhattan Company Building and the Chrysler Building as both rose, which it says was often described as a battle between former partners, Severance and William Van Alen. The Chrysler's top had been built in secret, and its spire brought the building to 1,046 feet. The Manhattan Company Building, at 927 feet, lost the height contest. The report adds a detail that its backers could still claim: the observation point at 40 Wall Street was at 836 feet, higher than the Chrysler's at 783 feet. Both were soon passed by the Empire State Building.

The design is Art Deco with some older touches. The base is clad in granite and limestone, with a classical colonnade that matches Wall Street's bank buildings, and the tower is buff brick with terra cotta ornament, ending in a pyramidal roof of lead-coated copper with a spire. The report notes that contemporary writers called the detailing "modernized French Gothic." It lists 43 high-speed elevators. The top floors originally held machinery, recreation facilities and the observation platform.

What happened between 1930 and the Trump purchase?

The building opened just months after the stock market crash of 1929. According to the landmark report, many early tenant commitments fell through, and the owners struggled for a decade to fill the space. The building went into foreclosure in August 1940 and was auctioned in September for nearly $11.5 million, which the report says was the largest recorded real estate auction bid up to that time.

The Bank of the Manhattan Company merged with Chase National Bank in 1955. Forbes reports that in 1959 a real estate firm consolidated ownership by paying $32 million for the leasehold and the three separate parcels of land under the building, and the report names William Zeckendorf's Webb & Knapp as that buyer. Forbes says the land and the lease were split up again the next year. The report says the leasehold changed hands again over the following decades, and that a group of investors headed by Walter Hinneberg Jr., a German shipping family member, bought the land at the end of 1982. Forbes puts that price at $70 million, citing the report.

The same period brought the building's strangest ownership episode. The report says Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos of the Philippines were the actual, secret owners of an interest in the leasehold, and a court order froze the Marcos assets in the United States, including 40 Wall Street. In an August 1989 auction the Bernstein family won the leasehold bid at $108.6 million, but the leasehold went instead to Jack Resnick & Sons, the second highest bidder, for $77 million. Citibank, which had invested around $80 million in the building, stopped financing during the real estate slump and put the building up for sale in foreclosure in May 1993. The New York Times reports Kinson Properties of Hong Kong paid $8 million for it in 1993.

Looking up the facade of the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street toward its tower and pyramidal roof

Looking up the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street. Photograph by Bjoertvedt, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

What exactly did Donald Trump buy?

He bought the leasehold, not the land. The New York Times reported on December 7, 1995 that Trump completed the purchase the day before, buying the building, "across the street from the New York Stock Exchange," from Kinson Properties. The Times called it a 70-story building with 1.1 million square feet and said the price was estimated at less than $8 million. Other outlets give far smaller figures. Forbes says Trump picked up the building from Citicorp for $1.3 million, and The Real Deal also says $1.3 million, while Reuters says he bought it for $1 million. This article does not choose among the figures. Forbes also reports he signed a 64-year ground lease with the Hinneberg family, which owns the land.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission had already held its hearing. Its report says that at the public hearing on September 19, 1995, "Donald Trump, then the prospective purchaser of the leasehold, testified that he would support designation," and no one opposed it. The commission designated the building a landmark on December 12, 1995. The building's own website says it was designated in 1998, which does not match the commission's report, so this article follows the report.

Trump's website says he invested more than $200 million in restoration. That figure is the company's claim, and the sources read do not verify it independently.

How tall is it? The numbers differ

The landmark report says 71 stories and 927 feet. The Times in 1995 said 70 stories. The Trump Organization and the building's website say 72 stories, with 1.3 million square feet in one place and 1.2 million in another. Forbes, writing in 2024, describes it as 63 stories high. The report's count is the one used for the original building. This article does not reconcile them.

The Trump Building entrance at 40 Wall Street with its limestone base in the Financial District

The limestone base and entrance of 40 Wall Street. Photograph by Ken Lund, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Who owns 40 Wall Street today?

The land and the building are owned separately. Forbes reported in October 2024 that Trump does not own the land, that the German Hinneberg family does, and that Trump holds a leasehold with about 35 years remaining. It said ground rent was about $2.5 million a year and was set to rise sharply in 2033, to at least 6 percent of the land's value. The same article estimated the leasehold at $116 million against about $118 million of mortgage debt, and said net operating income had fallen from about $20.7 million in 2018 to $12.8 million in 2023, with occupancy at 73.9 percent in June 2024. Those are Forbes's estimates from loan documents, not figures the Trump Organization published.

Reuters reported on June 23, 2025 that the Trump Organization said it had paid off the $160 million loan on the building in cash, and The Real Deal reported that the loan came from Ladder Capital in 2015, with about $114 million estimated to be outstanding. The Trump Organization's own pages describe 40 Wall Street as part of its commercial portfolio.

Aerial view of lower Manhattan around 1931 to 1933 with the Navy airship USS Akron, the district where 40 Wall Street stands

Lower Manhattan with the Navy airship USS Akron, about 1931 to 1933. U.S. Navy photograph, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Can you eat or drink at 40 Wall Street?

The answer has changed more than once. The building's own amenities page says tenants have "direct lobby access" to Duane Reade, Pret-a-Manger and a "Nero Food Hall (coming soon!)." Forbes reported that Duane Reade, which occupied 6.8 percent of the building, left in 2023, so the amenities page appears to be out of date on that point.

The large ground-floor space has a history of its own. Commercial Observer reported in 2010 that Milk Street Cafe signed a 20-year lease for 27,000 square feet, but CBS New York and Gothamist reported it closed in December 2011, after about six months. Eater reported in May 2025 that Nerolab, an Italian restaurant chain from Rome, opened its first American location in the Trump Building, a 21,500-square-foot space on the ground floor. On June 6, 2025, Eater reported that it appeared to have closed suddenly, with a sign citing "technical problems," and that the Trump Organization's head of commercial leasing did not comment. Nerolab's website now describes a bistro and cafe in New York, but this article could not confirm whether the 40 Wall Street location is open. The Trump Organization's 2025 year-end letter lists a new Baya Bar location at 40 Wall Street, and this article did not find hours for it.

The building's website also describes the Vaults, former bank vaults turned into a private amenity space for tenants. That space is not open to the public. A broker's listing offers 18,500 square feet of ground-floor space as suitable for a restaurant or hospitality venue, according to the listing, which is undated.

Sources

Visiting 40 Wall Street

Address: 40 Wall Street, between Nassau and William Streets, Manhattan. The landmark report also lists it as 34-42 Wall Street and 25-39 Pine Street.
Access: This is an office building. The sources read list no public tours or observation deck. The Vaults amenity space is for tenants.
Dining: Reports on restaurants here conflict and change; see the dining section above. No current hours were confirmed on an official page.

Checked against 40 Wall Street amenities page and Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report. Confirm hours and ticket rules there.