Susana Bates for New York Daily News
Donald Trump will sink just $10 million of his own money into completing the golf course that will carry his name at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx.
EXCLUSIVE
Looks like the Donald trumped the city in bidding for a 20-year deal to run a $97 million taxpayer-funded public golf course long considered a Bronx boondoggle.
Under a proposed deal with the Parks Department, the oft-delayed 18-hole course will bear the billionaire developer?s name when it opens in spring 2014: Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point Park.
For its first four years of operation, he will have no financial obligation to the city ? and in year five, the compensation will only be $300,000, the Daily News found.
In contrast, a hot dog vendor agreed three years ago to pay the city more than $600,000 annually for a lease to peddle tube steaks outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A review of the proposed Trump agreement also shows ?The Apprentice? puppet-master received city approval to run the public course as a part-time private playground.
The ex-presidential hopeful would control 20% of the weekday tee times for private use without any Parks Department oversight.
Trump could also close the facility for private use for a full day if he receives an okay from city parks officials.
Trump would also maintain access to the club banquet hall for private events hosting up to 500 people on certain days without any permission. Trump has said he hopes to hold PGA events at the facility, which has views of the Manhattan skyline.
As for New York?s golfing public, they can expect to pay more than triple the fee of other city courses ? like Van Cortlandt Park in the same borough. Fees for Friday through Sunday rounds at the Trump course would top out at $125, compared with fees of $38-$46 at other city courses.
Trump ? who put his net worth at $7 billion last year ? is on the hook for just $10 million in design and construction at the Jack Nicklaus signature course.
The city will cough up $97 million.
Trump is obliged to build a clubhouse, and the proposed license agreement included his intention to operate a snack bar named ?Donald's Joint!? in a waterfront park adjacent to the course.
He must also invest another $850,000 for course ?grow-in? ? creating the fairways, greens and rough once construction is done.
Trump would also pay for maintenance equipment and staff training, Parks spokesman Zachary Feder said.
City park watchdogs were teed off by the proposal.
?It?s outrageous that the public is paying to build a championship golf course for Donald Trump,? said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates. ?We will never make back our investment. You can?t make this stuff up.?
The whole package goes before the city Franchise and Concession Review Committee Monday afternoon.
Parks Department officials defended their decision, noting that Trump?s bid was one of only three submitted after two previous failed attempts to find a developer or an operator.
?Trump?s was by far the strongest proposal,? Feder said. ?In both the other deals, there was far less committed capital with lower fees to the city.?
Trump Vice President Ron Lieberman said the golf course was no guaranteed financial hole in one.
?I wouldn?t couch it as a sweetheart deal,? he told The News. ?It?s a risky deal. We think it will be successful, but its success comes with a price.?
The project, built on a former landfill beneath the Whitestone Bridge, was launched in 1998 by Mayor Giuliani ? but quickly became trapped in a morass of lawsuits, scandal, delays and cost overruns.
The city took over the development of the golf course four years ago at an expected cost of $57 million. The price tag has since soared to a staggering $97 million and could go higher.
The costs included a deal where Nicklaus, for a cool $1.2 million fee paid by the city, peddled his name to the golf course ? and was promised trips to the Bronx by private jet or helicopter by a Florida-based consultant.
Parks officials defended the expensive greens fees by stressing the tournament-caliber conditions planned for the course.
dbeekman@nydailynews.com
Source: http://feeds.nydailynews.com/~r/nydnrss/home/~3/7JdtUhrFXWI/story01.htm
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