Jake Jones
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LEARN MOREPosted: 9:23 p.m. EST Feb 28, 2017
A small group of protesters was outside the Trump Tower hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia, during its ribbon cutting ceremony.
The 63-story, $360 million building is the second property bearing the Trump name to open since Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. took control of the Trump Organization at the beginning of the year.
The Trumps partnered with Joo Kim's Holborn Group to construct the tower. As is the case with most of the Trump properties, the family doesn't own the building, but only leases its name.
Police were there to monitor the crowd. Security fences had been set up in front of the tower earlier in the day.
When members of the Trump family arrived at 11 a.m., an estimated 100 demonstrators were at the site.
The building was the center of a social media debacle when the Trump Organization tweeted — then deleted — the statement, "The 69-story tower will be the first property to open in the city in over six years." That statement was also posted to the Trump Organization's Instagram page. As of Tuesday night, that post had not been taken down.
Brent Toderian, Vancouver's former chief planner, tweeted the statement was "so far from being true, it's laughable."
CTV News reported three hotels had opened in Vancouver in that time period: Hotel BLU opened in 2014, Fairmont Pacific Rim opened in 2010 and the Shangri-La Hotel opened in 2009.
The tower was the epicenter for anti-Trump protests in Vancouver both when President Donald Trump was elected and the day following his inauguration.
