Trump Organization can keep running Bronx golf course, judge rules
Photo by Dan DeLuca on Flickr
A judge on Friday said the Trump Organization can continue to operate its golf course in the Bronx, ruling the city wrongfully ended the company’s contract. A few days after the January 6 insurrection, former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to terminate several agreements with Donald Trump’s company, including the contract for Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point. Last June, the Trump Organization sued New York City, arguing the city’s effort was politically motivated and had no legal merit.
As 6sqft previously reported, the city argued a decision made last year by the PGA of America to cancel a tournament scheduled to be held at one of Trump’s golf courses in New Jersey showed the inability of the venue to attract major competitions, a breach of the contract. The Trump Organization disputed the claim, and argued the contract did not actually require tournaments to be held at the site, but only that the organization operates and maintains a “first-class, tournament quality daily fee golf course.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Debra James agreed with the company, writing in a decision, “the court agrees with petitioner that there is no ambiguity in the obligation in the Agreement that petitioner is required to operat[e] a first class, tournament quality daily fee golf course,” but added, “contrary to respondents’ argument, there is no provision in the Agreement requiring the petitioner to generate revenue from ‘tournament events.’
James vacated the termination, allowing the Trump Organization to operate the golf course, which as The City reported, it has been doing since the start of the season in March.
De Blasio cited the president’s role in inciting a deadly attack on the Capitol as the reason behind ending three contracts with the Trump Organization. “The City of New York will not be associated with those unforgivable acts in any shape, way or form, and we are immediately taking steps to terminate all Trump Organization contracts,” de Blasio said in a press release last year.
The agreements included two ice rinks at Central Park, the Central Park Carousel, and the Trump Golf Links. While the contracts for the ice skating rinks were already set to expire that year, the agreement for the city-owned golf course was not set to expire until 2032. The Trump Organization had argued the city would owe them about $30 million as part of a “termination payment.”
Amanda Miller, a spokesperson for the Trump Organization, told the New York Times in a statement: “As we have said since the beginning, the city’s efforts to terminate our long-term license agreement to operate Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point Park were nothing more than a political vendetta,” Miller said in a statement. “This is not just a win for the Trump Organization; this is a win for justice, for the people of the City of New York, and for the hundreds of our hard-working employees at Ferry Point.”
On Friday, the former mayor defended the city’s decision to cancel the contract and said the city “will win this case in the end.”
“Donald Trump will be an ignominious figure in US history, regardless of the outcome of today’s decision on Ferry Point,” de Blasio said in a tweet on Friday. “NYC did the right thing by canceling his contract and the City will win this case in the end. The only ‘political vendetta’ here is the one he incited on Jan 6.”
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