Prior to the sale, community groups had unsuccessfully lobbied city agencies to prevent a high-rise building from being constructed on the site.

[4] The New York Times gave the building a mixed review:[5]On the positive side, Trump Palace's central tower, rising 54 stories from a base of low-rise shops and town houses, is a skillful composition of brick and glass.

Shallow set-backs and the organization of windows and balconies into neat horizontal and vertical bands compress the tower's mass into crystalline contours.

Corner windows, borrowed from the Century and the Majestic, adorn the edges of the tower like faceted gems ... Trump Palace makes little effort to fit into its surroundings.

It wants to stick out on the skyline like a prima donna.The newspaper wrote that the high-rise, rather than a homage to the architecture of the 1920s and 1930s, was more of a "hangover" from the 1980s: "That is its true period style.