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“No final agreement is in place,” said Jay Wolf, one of the operators of JCF Capital. He declined to comment further. Spokespeople for Marriott and Hilton declined to comment, and representatives for the Trump Organization and Mandarin didn’t immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

If the deal closes, it would mark a turning point for the decade-long saga of the Trump hotel in Toronto’s financial district on Bay Street. The property, Trump’s first branded hotel in the country, had been marred by construction delays, a developer who didn’t pay its construction debt, and protests from people upset with the U.S. president. The chain that takes over will join other five-star brands in the city, including Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts and Four Seasons.

Trump protests

The hotel and residence, with the U.S. president’s name hanging in block letters at the top, has been the focus of protesters rallying against him, even though he has no direct ownership of the building. In particular, hundreds of city residents gathered at the building’s base when then presidential candidate Trump suggested banning Muslims from the U.S. and called Mexicans rapists, and again during the global Women’s March after his inauguration.

Although the protests stopped, the financing woes under the former owner didn’t. Last year, developer Talon International Development Corp., led by Russian-Canadian billionaire Alex Shnaider, tried to sell the property after defaulting on its 2007 loan. JCF Capital acquired the loan from lender Raiffeisen Bank International AG, and when Talon still couldn’t pay, JCF Capital launched a sale process for the building that garnered no bids aside from its own. Since then, JCF has been in talks with hotel chains and the Trump Organization to finalize an operating plan for the property.