(This is a
condensed version of the story from “The Art of The Deal”, written by Donald J.
Trump)
“I just got fed up one
day and decided to do something about it.”
Wollman Rink opened in 1949
with funds donated by Kate Wollman (1869-1955) who gave $600,000 for the
rink. Operated by the city of New York, the rink closed in June 1980 for
renovations that was expected to take two and a half years and $9.1 million.
As Donald Trump says, even that seemed like a long time to rebuild an
ice-skating rink. Six years and $13 million later, the job was
still not completed.
From his apartment
window, Donald Trump watched the ongoing “renovations” for six years. The
last straw was on the morning of May 22, 1986 when he saw the front-page
article in the New York Times saying city officials had decided to start all
over in their effort to rebuild Wollman Skating Rink. “If everything went
well, the rink would be ready to reopen in approximately two years.”
Ironically, in June 1980
(the same month Wollman Rink had closed), Donald Trump broke ground for Trump
Tower, a 68-story skyscraper, and completed it within two and a half years, on
time and on budget. Surely, he thought, it was possible to build an
ice-skating rink in a matter of months?
In 1984, when the rink
job was already a disaster, Trump had called Henry Stern, Commissioner of
Parks, and offered to take over construction from the city, for NO
FEE. The city turned him down. Now, in 1986, upon news
of the latest plan to start all over, Trump called Henry again and made the
same offer. Again, his offer was rejected. But this
time, The Donald wasn’t backing down. He wrote a letter to the mayor, Ed
Koch.
Trump says, “I was
appalled by the city’s incompetence. I genuinely felt I could get the job
done, and I believed the rink was something hundreds of thousands of New
Yorkers – including my own children – had a right to enjoy. Whatever
anyone may think, my motive was that simple.”
He wrote, “For many years
I have watched with amazement as New York City repeatedly failed on its
promises to complete and open Wollman Skating Rink. It essentially
involves the pouring of a concrete slab over coolant piping and should take no
more than four months’ time. To hear that after six years, it will
now take another two years, is unacceptable!”
Trump offered to
construct and pay for a brand-new skating rink and have it open to the public
by November. In addition, “I will lease the rink from the city at a fair
market rental, and run it properly after its completion.”
After 10 days of
negotiations, the city finally accepted an offer – Trump would put up the
estimated $3 million construction money and complete the work by December
15. Since he knew nothing about building skating rinks, Donald Trump
sought out the best rink-builder he could find – he went to the company that
built rinks for Canada’s professional hockey teams – Cimco, based in
Toronto. Determined to do it right, he researched, he learned from the
best of the best, until he knew exactly what he wanted.
He also researched all
the mistakes the city had made over the past six years – and there were
many. So many, the city had even paid $200,000 to hire an outside
engineering consultant to do a 9-month study on what went wrong. In
addition to leaking pipes under the cement, Trump found gaping holes in the
roof of the skaters’ house, and a whole row of sacks filled with dead plants
that had been purchased for landscaping, then left to die. Waste
and neglect everywhere, almost $13 million just gone, from the pockets of New
York taxpayers.
Instead of trying to
repair the existing mess, the decision was made to just rebuild a brand new
rink right on top of the old one. From September 7-10, construction
workers laid twenty-two miles of pipes. On September 11, a convoy of
cement trucks arrived, and they poured cement for ten hours. By the end
of September, all ice-making equipment was in place. Finally on
October 15, it was cold enough to test the system – there were no leaks, the pressure
held, and that night, ice formed on the rink – almost four months to the day
since Trump had taken over.
The project was also
completed under budget by $750,000. Trump took the leftover money to
renovate the skatehouse and restaurant.
When searching for a
company to manage the rink, again, Donald Trump sought out the best – Ice
Capades – and again it turned into a success story. During the
1970’s, when the rink was still run by the city, it averaged $100,000 income
per year.
After Trump’s renovation,
they charged prices below any private city rink, and earned $1.2 million in
revenues in the first year. Profits exceeded $500,000 after expenses, and
all of it went to charity and the Parks Department. Equally important,
more than half a million skaters once again enjoyed Wollman Rink.
Donald Trump made Wollman Rink in
Central Park GREAT AGAIN. Originally on Dennis Michael Lynch
