Former New York Yankees baseball player Alex Rodriguez is a key player in an investment group attempting to buy the leasing rights to former President Donald Trump’s famous D.C. hotel.
Rodriguez is a general partner in Miami-based investment firm CGI Merchant Group, which is weeks away from buying Trump International Hotel, according to sources who spoke to the Associated Press.
CGI struck a deal with Trump to buy the leasing rights to his D.C. hotel located inside a historic post office and rebrand it with Hilton’s luxury brand Waldorf Astoria, the Wall Street Journal reported last year.
Rodriguez and New York real estate financier Adi Chugh set up the $650 million Hospitality Opportunity Fund to buy hotels losing money during the pandemic and rebrand them to turn a profit.
Former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is a key part of an investment group seeking to buy the rights to former President Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel, people familiar with the deal told @AP. https://t.co/yQ8yfljQHA
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 14, 2022
Trump is asking CGI $375 million for the rights to lease the 263-room property his company spent over $200 million renovating. (RELATED: REPORT: Trump Company Close To Selling DC Hotel)
Trump famously called for Rodriguez’s firing from the New York Yankees after the baseball player admitted using performance-enhancing drugs.
“I would terminate his contract, personally. I think George would have don’t that,” Trump said in an October 2021 ESPN interview. “I would terminate his contract on the basis that when he signed, he didn’t say that he took drugs. Since he signed his contract, they found out that he took drugs … He actually admitted that he took drugs. Now he’s not taking drugs anymore, and without drugs, he’s a less than average player.”
Rodriguez, who failed to receive the required number of votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, is suspected of having lost his first chance to enter the Hall of Fame because of his use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to MLB.com.
Since Rodriguez quit playing, he has spent retirement investing the millions he made in contracts, including being part of the $1.5 billion deal to buy a professional basketball team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to the AP.