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NY Post
New York Post
8 Sep 2023


NextImg:Donald Trump unloads Bronx golf course to Bally’s casino chain following battle with city: sources

Donald Trump’s name will finally be scrubbed from a city-owned golf course in the Bronx – with the ex-president agreeing to unload the lease to the Bally’s casino chain following a lengthy battle with the city.

The Trump Organization has sold its contract to operate Trump Golf Links Ferry Point — a 20-year lease struck in 2015 that former Mayor Bill de Blasio had sought to cancel over the Capitol riots — to Bally’s in a deal worth tens of millions of dollars, The Post has learned.

The lease transfer – which for Bally’s is a multimillion-dollar bet the property will help it snag a highly-prized gaming license in the Big Apple — had hinged on approval from the city Parks Department and Comptroller Brad Lander, who finally signed off on Thursday, sources said.

On Friday morning, the city comptroller’s website showed that Trump’s contract with the Parks Department is now slated to expire on Sept. 21.

Bally’s will continue to operate the site as a golf course and change its name to Bally’s Links, sources said – doing away with the massive rock-and-grass formation that spells out “TRUMP LINKS,” which for years has been impossible for drivers to miss when headed over the East River on the Whitestone Bridge from Queens.

The Post reached out to Lander for comment. The Parks Department couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. 

In addition to taking over the lease to the 222-acre site, which includes the wind-swept public course and adjacent parks, Bally’s also will purchase the 17 acres that the golf course sits on and has agreed in turn to buy 17 acres near the site that it will donate to the Parks Department, the sources added.

The Trump Organization is set to make tens of millions from selling the contract to run Trump Links.
AP

Bally’s is placing its chips on the Bronx location to win what will likely be the only state gaming license for a new development in the city. It is widely expected that racinos Resorts World and Empire City will win two of the other three full-scale licenses in the area.

Bally’s hopes its proximity to a major highway – an estimated 4 million drivers use the Whitestone every year – will help it win the casino sweepstakes against bidders at multiple locations in Manhattan, as well as in Brooklyn and Queens, and at the old Nassau Coliseum grounds on Long Island.

A casino project away from the densely-populated areas proposed by Bally’s rivals would likely face less political opposition, sources said.

Trump had 12 years left on the contract, but Bally’s was desperate to get its hands on the plot before the state’s lengthy licensing process winds to an end. The deadline for final bids is expected to fall by end of this year or early next year, sources said.

Reps for Bally’s — run by financier Soo Kim, a Queens native and founder of the hedge fund Standard General – couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The Trump Organization also couldn’t immediately be reached.

Picture of Soo Kim
Soo Kim leads Bally’s and is paying a pretty high price in the hopes of getting a casino license for the Trump Links location.
TNS

Insiders declined to give an exact price for the deal, but Trump stands to reap a windfall after gaining control of the site in a sweetheart 20-year deal from then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg in 2013 – after city taxpayers spent more than $127 million to convert the former landfill into a Jack Nicklaus-designed course. 

It’s estimated Trump has paid the city about $5 million in the last eight years in addition to spending $10 million to build a clubhouse in 2019.

Trump wasn’t required to make any payments to the city the first four years. He then had to pay the higher of $300,000 or 7% percent of gross revenues annually that would rise over the course of the contract, according to a 2016 Gothamist article.

The golf course generates between $2.5 million and $5 million in profits each year, sources said.

If approved, the Bally’s gaming complex would rise on the spot where Trump built the pricey clubhouse as well as its parking lot, the insiders said. Bally’s plans also include building a tunnel under the highway that runs through the sprawling parkland to connect the golf course with the largely unused areas of the plot, sources said. 

Eric Trump with his Dad golfing
Eric Trump led the negotiations to sell the Trump Links contract with help from his father.
AP
Person golfing at Trump Links
An estimated four million cars travel past Trump Links to and from the Whitestone Bridge making it a good spot for a casino.
AP
Picture of slot machines
A Bally’s casino may soon replace Trump Links and be right on the Bronx side of the Whitestone Bridge.
AP

Despite all the proposed spending, there is no guarantee the city will renew Bally’s rights to the land when the deal expires in 2035. Bally’s had first asked for an 80-year contract for the site but the Parks Department declined, as The Post previously reported.

The 18-hole, 7,400-yard links course charges $171 during the week and $205 on the weekends, according to its site. – nearly five times higher than green fees at many of the city’s other municipal courses.

It hosted an LPGA event last October sponsored by the Saudi Arabian government.

The city has been trying to rid the golf course of its association with Trump since 2021, when former Mayor Bill de Blasio nixed the deal following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, arguing that Trump would not be able to attract golf tournaments.

Trump sued the city and a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled in April 2022 that the pact was wrongfully terminated