Trump's Palace on the Ocean

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State was notifiedof Rooseveltsproblems butfailed to actA6-7

Office romance?Signa contractMONEY&CAREERS

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Proposed restaurantis loaded with perks

for developer, catererA4-5

WARNINGSIGNS

A Deal ToA Deal To

Dine ForDine For

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TRUMP ANDJONES BEACH

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State gives Trump

Jones Beach State Park

SuffolkNassau

Sweet dealReal estate scion Donald Trump and his business partner Steven Carl are paying the lowest lease rate of any licensee doing business ina state park. The term, 40 years, is so long it required legislative action to approve.

Bethpage State Park

Saratoga Spa

Niagara Falls

Jones Beach & Robert Moses parks*

Jones Beach, Robert Moses & Captree parks**

Trump on the Ocean

Carlyle on the Green

Xanterra Parks & Resorts

Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts

J&B Restaurant Partners

Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts

Trump on the Ocean LLC

10.25%

6%

9% food; 15% retail

15%

10% restaurant; 15% concession stands

$200,000 plus 0-5%

$10.1 million

$9.5 million

$5.8 million

$4 million

$3.7 million ('03)

N/A

20

20

20

10

6

40

*Concession stands**Concession stands, restaurants

Facility Licensee Term, in years Sales (2006) % of sales paid to state annually

Base rent adjusted for inflation annually

SOURCES: TRUMP ON THE OCEAN; STATE OFFICE OF PARKS, RECREATION AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION

Trump onthe Ocean,set to breakground this springand be completedlate next year, willdwarf any previouseating and entertain-ment facility built atJones Beach State Park.

A new look

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3

3

3

2

1 CATERING HALL / RESTAURANT

Immense facility would provide a year-round venue forweddings and formal parties, while a restaurant would givepatrons a grand view of the Atlantic. Developers tout therestaurants set-back design as unobtrusive; critics say thefacilitys sheer scale would ruin the aesthetics of the beach.

2 EXPANDED PARKING

To make room for 252 on-site spots, an ad jacent 18-hole golfcourse, which is in need of repair, would be moved over andrenovated.

3 TRUMP SIGNS

The lease allows developers to build 71/2-foot-tall signs on thesite and other smaller signs along the parkway to guidemotorists. In the past, commercial signage has been restrictedat the park.

GOOGLE EARTH IMAGE

Tower

Parking

Parking

OceanPkw

y.

Pitch-and-

putt

golfcourse

JonesBe

ach

Parking

North

NEWSDAY PHOTO / MOISES SAMAN

Donald Trump and Steve CarlDonald Trump and Steven Carl

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View a photo gal-lery that captures thepast, present andfuture of TrumpsJones Beach site at

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BY ELIZABETH [email protected]

He planned to call it TrumpPalace on the Ocean.

Bernadette Castro told himshe didnt like that name.

He saved its best oceanviews forhis $300-a-plate cater-ing clients.

The Spitzer administrationhas sent his architects back tothe drawing board to let ordi-nary restaurant guests see theAtlantic, too.

But Manhattan real estatemogul DonaldTrumphas nego-tiated what could be the mostgenerous parks concessioncon-tract granted by the state ofNewYork sincethe days ofRob-ert Moses an unusual40-year lease, lower lease pay-ments,and borrowingpowernoother parks concessionaires aregranted accordingto a News-dayanalysis of state leases.

Trump on the Ocean, forwhich ground will soon be bro-ken at the site of Jones BeachState Parks old Boardwalk Res-taurant, will put the Trumpbrand on 7 1/2 foot monumentsat the heart of the historic parkMoses viewed as his greatestachievement.

Trump and his partner, LongIsland catering impresarioStevenCarl, expectto do$1.5bil-lionin businessoverthe 40-yearterm of the lease, according torecordsobtained under the Free-dom of Information Law afterthe contract won final state ap-provalin December.

Former Gov. George Patakilauded Trump on the Oceansarray of unique dining oppor-tunities for park patrons lastfall, which will include both aninformal terrace for al frescomeals and a more formal in-door dining room.

But as a business propositionthis would be first and foremosta catering hall, drawing 85 per-cent of its sales through wed-dings, bar and bat mitzvahs and

corporate events after it openslate next year. Its indoor andoutdoor restaurants will ac-count for 5 percent, with 10 per-cent from a nightclub Trumpand Carl plan to operate.

4 times bigger than originalThe state believes a restau-

rant cant survive financially onthat windswept beach site un-less it is combined with a year-round catering hall. Buildingplans show Trump on theOcean will accomplish this byexpanding to almost four timesthe size of Moses original 1936structure, lost to a fire in 1964.

You have to build a greatbuilding sometimes to do some-

thing great, Trump said in aninterview Friday. Were doinga building that will be superiorto anything in Jones Beach, oldor new. There will be nothinglike this in the United States.

Th ough T rump on theOceans architect HawkinsWebb Jaeger has worked close-ly with the state to design a sty-listic echo of Moses originalstructure, preservation advo-cates now say they fear it willbe simply too big, skewing thecarefully balanced symmetry

of a park that has just beenadded to the National Registerof Historic Places.

Its all just so anathema tothis idea of this getaway thatsabout restorative activities,health and quiet recreation,said Alexandra Wolf, directorof preservation services for theSociety for the Preservation ofLong Island Antiquities, whowrote a letter of concern to act-ing parks commissioner CarolAsh lastweek.

Ashs predecessor, Castro,who advocated for tapping thevitality of the business sector tostrengthen public parks, consid-ered Trump on the Ocean likea gift from God.

State expects to make $74MWithout riskinga pennyof tax-

payer money, New York is pre-sidingover a $25.5 millionrenew-al of a central feature of Mosesmasterpiece, replacing a state-built 1968 modernist structurethatfewseem to remember fond-ly. Whats more, New York ex-pects to get $74 million out ofthe deal over its 40-year dura-tion, which it estimates wouldbe about a quarter of Trump onthe Oceans net profits, and thecaterers also will set aside 3 per-cent of their revenues to pay forongoing refurbishments. Fromthe moment its built, the build-ingwillbelong tothe state.

Earlier this month, Trumpbet The Hair and won millionsfor charity in Detroit, when his

handpicked fighter felled theSamoan Bulldozer before

See BEACH on A38

a day at the beach TheDonaldand partner win what lookslikethemost generous terms granted byNY ina parks contract since the days of RobertMoses

NEWSDAY / ROD EYER

Then and nowTrump and Carls project will be the third dining establishment at Jones Beach. A history:

1936BURNED 1964

Building size19,363 square feet

Height from boardwalk15 7 (Tower 29)

Site size105,000 square feet

Parking spacesUnknown

1968DEMOLISHED 2004

Building size49,800 square feet

Height from boardwalk21 9


Parking spaces168

2008TRUMP ON THE OCEANBuilding size

70,000 square feet

Height from boardwalk28 along parking lot


Parking spaces252 on site, 450 off site

JONES BEACH RESTAURANTA

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80,103 screaming Wrestlema-nia fans. Here on Long Island,he may have done better, judg-ing from several unusual as-pects of the contract: Trump on the Oceans40-year leaseterm required spe-cial legislation. Only one otherparks contract, the Maid of theMist boat ride at Niagara Falls,hasa term that long. Sponsorsofthe original bill, passed beforeTrump became involved, arguedthat a longer lease term at theBoardwalk Restaurant would at-tract bigger capital investment. Trump on the Ocean has thelowestleasepayments,on a per-centage basis, of any big stateparks contract. For the firstthree years after opening, it will

pay New York an annual baserent of $200,000,lessthan 1 per-cent of the $70 million Trumpand Carl expect to bring in. Inyears 4 to 6, theyll pay the baserent plus 2 percent of sales,amounting to about 2.7 percentof the take; and for the rest ofthe first 25 years, the base rentandcut of revenues is projectedto be 4.7 percent of sales. Bycomparison, Xanterra Parksand Resorts is paying 6 percentto run the Gideon PutnamHotel in Saratoga Springs.Steven Carl pays 10.25 percentof his catering and restaurantrevenues at Bethpage StatePark and J&B Restaurant Part-ners pays 15 percent at its con-cession stands at Jones Beachand Robert Moses state parks.Park officials justify the lowerpayments by noting the highcost to build and run Trump onthe Ocean and the lack ofany guarantee on its revenues. Trump on the Ocean hasbeen granted another privilegeunique for the Parks Depart-ment: It can use its lease withthestate as collateral forunlimit-ed borrowing, to cover not justmost of the construction cost,butalso operating expenses, doc-uments show. Trump projectsexpenses will total $1.2 billionover 40 years. The state comp-troller wantedto limit their bor-rowing to the cost of construc-tion, but Trump and Carl wereadamant and prevailed.

Leasehold mortgages are gen-

erally less palatable to govern-ments because investors arentrisking their own money andcan too easily walk away fromunsuccessful projects, said

Hempstead Industrial Develop-ment Agency director FredParo-la. The state justifies this clausein thecontractby notingTrumpand Carl must put in $11 millionof their own capital before theycanborrow against thelease.

Anyone who believes Trumpis getting a sweet deal, state of-ficials say, ought to considerthat his group was the onlybid-der. Carl says its because ittakes a unique combination ofskills and patience to build andrun a state-owned catering hall.Other developers suggest thepaucity of rivals points to aweakness in the catering mar-ket. Look at the recent failureof the venerable HuntingtonTownhouse, they say.

Looking at the figuresI play to peoples fantasies,

Trump famously said in his1980s bestselling book, The Artofthe Deal. People maynot al-ways think big themselves, butthey can still get very excited bythose who do.Thats why a littlehyperbole never hurts.

A little Trump hyperboleseems to be in play at JonesBeach, as a peek inside thestatesfiles makes clear.

Though he has called this a$40million building, he and Carlplan to spend considerably less about $18.5 million in con-struction costs. Another $7 mil-

lion would go to furnishings anddesign and other costs. Recordsshowthatby thetime Trumpen-tered the picture, Carl had notonly wonthe bidbut hadfullyde-

veloped the business model,building design and cost esti-mates for a hall he planned tocallCarlyleon the Ocean.

The state advertised for bidsin January 2004. Castro,the sofa-bed heiress whose tenure asparks commissioner wasmarked by a drive to attract pri-vate investment, had pushed fora more creative approach forsome signature properties, hop-ing to draw entrepreneurs will-ing to improve on the dreary in-stitutional offerings state parkshad delivered since Moses waspushedout in the 1960s.

Moses, the public-works titanwho treated Jones Beach as thesummer capital of his politicalempire, built the first restaurantin1936for$300,000 andgavetheno-bid contract to a concession-aire who lavishly entertainedMoses guests as thanks for easyterms, according to Moses biog-rapher, Robert Caro.

When the original restaurantburned in 1964, Moses commis-sioned a modernist $1.5 millionreplacement from architectsSkidmore, Owings & Merrill,awarding it to the same conces-sionaire for a lease so low $18,000 a year it didnt evencover the cost of construction,Carowrote.

Other concessionaires fol-lowed. The state demolished thedecayingstructurein 2004.

The previous people had aterrible building there terri-ble! Trump said Friday. Itwas a brick nothing and itwasnt of quality, and in addi-

tion it wasntoperatedwell.No-body would have held theirwedding there.

But though Castros officesent out 298 solicitation lettersto drum up interest, it got justtwo proposals in March 2004,from Carl and the Riese Organi-zation. That national hospitalitycompany offered to build amuch more modest $2.5 millionfacility that it expected woulddo $3.5 million in business, withrevenues split evenly betweencatering and the restaurant. ButRiese dropped out of the bid-ding a month later after it waspassed over for the other JonesBeach contract, the fast-foodconcession, which produced $4million in revenues lastyear.

Fixed up Bethpage clubhouseCarl was thinking much big-

ger from the get-go. I expectthis to be the largest-grossingfacility on all of Long Island.he told state officials in 2004.

Theonetimeprincipal of Car-lyle Kosher Caterers of GreatNeckwhohadgone onto OhekaCastle and Eisenhower ParksCarltun on thePark, Carlscoreda career breakthrough with the2000 state contract to rebuildand refurbish Bethpage StateParks decaying clubhouse. Headdeda ballroomthat hasboost-ed revenues and won highmarks for the quality of the

food, while keeping golfershappy with their own informalrestaurant at another end of thebuilding. Carlyle on the Greengrossed$10 million last year, but

Carl needed bigger quarters.It would have to match or

beat Long Islands high-end le-viathan, the Crest HollowCountry Club in Woodbury,which holds 1,500 people ormore. Jones Beach, he told thestate, could handle that.

So while the Boardwalk Res-taurant had grossed an averageof $1.6 million annually beforebeing torn down, Carl project-ed revenues of almost 10 timesthat amount.

Carlyle on the Oceanwould be bigger, too: almostthree times as tall as the mainroofline of the original, and at98,000 square feet, more thanfive times as large.

Catering guests would arriveto valet parking and sweepingviews over the Atlantic from a

chandeliered ballroom up-stairs. Restaurant goers, by con-trast, would get a cozy roomwith a low ceiling downstairs,with a less dramatic vista.

Carl said he was just testingthe waters with this design.Coming just as the park wasbeing added to the NationalReg-isterof HistoricPlaces,it metlit-tle enthusiasm from the statesown historic preservation staff.By the time it had been re-worked for its May 2006 envi-ronmental assessment, the costhad risen to $18.5 million and ithad been whittled down in sizeto a basement and a single storyof diningspace, like theoriginal.

I understand what I have todo to make everybody happy,Carl said back in 2004. Imgoing to make everything workfor everybody.

But with justone floor of din-ing space, there would be onlyone full-on view of the Atlan-tic. That was reserved for thecatering guests. The two restau-rant spaces were set fartherback and on the east and westsides of the building, lookingmainly eastward toward theshrubbery along the parking lotor westward toward passersbyon the central mall.

Though the state reservedfinal control over the design ofthe building, it had no objec-tions to this layout pending lastspring, when it announced Carlas the next operator of theBoardwalk Restaurant.

Only then, Carl said, did hereach out to Donald Trump. Hehad been a fan for a long time,naming theApprenticestar hisfantasy lunch partner in a

BEACH from A5

BY ELIZABETH [email protected]

Now, Donald Trump is tak-ing on Robert Caro.

I thought it wasa mean-spir-ited book written out of purejealousy by somebody thatcouldnt carry his jock, Trumpsaid Friday.

Come again?Jock. By somebody that

couldnt carry Robert Mosesjock, Trump said again.

Trumpwas talking about Rob-ert Caros 1974 biography, ThePower Broker: Robert MosesandtheFall ofNew York.

Now in its 44th printing, Ca-ros book won the 1975 Pulitzer

Prize for biography for its dev-astatingly detailed portrait ofMoses public works empire.

Trump, whohas built a careeron thinking big, feels a specialkinship with Moses. Some oftheir biggest projects have beenlinked at railyardson Manhat-tans Upper West Side, at UnitedNations Plaza and now at Jones

Beach.He is,he says,a bigfan.Public revulsion at the arro-

gance described in Caros bookhas been tempered with respectfor Moses achievements in re-cent years. But Caro, a formerNewsday staff writer, makes noapologiesfor his book.

If hehas readit, hedidnt un-derstand it, the author re-

sponded Friday. He certainlyappears never to have read or understood the chapterson Jones Beach, that master-piece of public works, whosecreation I celebrated at lengthin The Power Broker.

. . . It will be interesting tosee what endures longest: thebook or his catering hall.

Trump trades trash talk with Moses biographer

Trumps big day at beach

PHOTO COURTESY OF LONG ISLAND REGIONAL ARCHIVES

Constructionof thefirstboardwalk restaurant in 1935. Thebuildingwas destroyedin a 1964 fire.

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2000 Newsday article. He hadadmired the way Trump rebuiltCentral Parks Wollman SkatingRink, a job bungled by NewYork City. He got his chance forface time last summer ata recep-tion honoring Trumps donationofparklandto thestate.

I couldnt do it alone, Carlsaid. I needed somebody thatwould understand the strivingfor quality that I stand for alevel of style and standards.

Trump sees possibilitiesDonald Trumpsdeveloper fa-

ther hada familymembershipatthe private Atlantic Beach Clubto the west, where cabana boysset out the chairs and bring thedrinks. But Trump said he visit-edJones Beachoften asa teenag-er, to socialize, and got to knowit very, very well. He saw thepossibilitiesin Carls project.

They agreed Trump, thebuilder, would build the facilityand he, the caterer, would run

it. Sources give contradictoryreports of their ownershipsplit; neither of them is saying.

On Aug. 30, Trump filed arti-cles of organization for a limit-ed liability corporation calledTrump Palace on the Ocean.

He seems to be the only oneassociated with this projectwho really liked that name. Carlsaid he delicately resisted. Hisarchitects pointed out thatMoses Jones Beach structureshavealwaysbeen known as cas-tles in the sand, not palaces.Some state officials blanchedand others laughed at thethought of that word, with itsconnotations of gambling andluxury, being attached to this

Progressive-Era civic tribute toordinary working people. Sourc-es say it finally fell to Castro totell Trump it wasa nonstarter.

Bernadette did not like thewordPalace because it indicat-ed things she didnt like for thesite, Trump acknowledged. . . . I was a little surprised,frankly. I have a Trump Palacein New York . . . and I have onein California. Its a great name,but the vast majority of peoplesurprisingly felt that the wordPalace wasnt as good. . . . Iwent with Bernadette.

Castro declined to commentfor this story.

Carl has found Trump easyto work with . He says,Normally, I want to changethings, but this time I dont, Carl said of their meetings to re-view the plans. Hes not micro-managing this business, to bequite frank with you.

But when it comes to the nutsand bolts of building, Michael

Russo, the Hawkins Webb Jae-ger architectwho has developedthe building plans, said Trumphasshownbothexpertiseandde-lightin thefinedetails.

He asked, What are youlooking to put on the floors in-side? Russo recalled. I saidwell probably put limestoneand marble. He says, I havethis great marble that I love,and he gave me a piece of it.

The stone was Breccia Onici-ata, a delicate banded marblethat Trump had used at 40Wall Street, a 1930 landmark of-fice tower. It was sepia, and itworked great, Russo said.

One aspect of Carls plans didchange more dramatically,

though: Carlyle on the Oceansoriginal 40-year revenue projec-tion of $828 million becameTrump on the Oceans $1.5 bil-lion. Carl saidthathadless todowith the marquee value of theTrump name than it didwith hisstaffs ability to develop a moreprofitable business plan as theyhoned theirbuilding layout.

New parks chiefs agendaTheJones Beach deal was one

of the last major moves of Cas-tros tenure as commissioner.Herreplacement,formerNatureConservancy state director Ash,has a somewhat different agen-da.Ash, whomostrecently head-ed the Palisades Interstate ParkCommission, has put combatingglobal warming and improvingparks infrastructure at thetop ofher priority list. Soon after tak-ingoffice in January, shelet Carland Trump know the buildingplanshad to change.

We wanted the public res-

taurant to be facing the oceanso the public which is whatwe are has the benefit oflooking at the ocean as theyresitting there with either theirhamburger or their grilledcheese or their Bloody Mary,she said in an interview Friday.

So a new set of plans wasdrawnup that raisedthe restau-rant to a level half a storyabove the catering rooms. Itwill still be set further back, sothat the roofline along theBoardwalk remains no higherthan it was in the 1960s restau-rant. But on a clear day, restau-rant patrons will now be ableto gaze a little further out tosea than catering hall guests.

Still,the Societyfor thePreser-vation of LongIslandAntiquitiestold Ash last week they fearedwhat the scale of Trump on theOcean will do to the visual bal-ance of Jones Beach, a recog-nized masterpiece of planning,design and engineering and asiteof global importance.

For one thing, there arethose Trump on the Oceansigns. A Friendlys sign was re-moved from the West Bath-house two years ago afterSPLIA called it an eyesorethat was grossly inconsistentwith Moses noncommercialaesthetic, which intentionallyforbade private concessions.

Now, SPLIA is bemoaningthe 7 1/2-foot-tall monumentsbearing the Trump brand thatwill greet motorists alongOcean Parkway at the heart ofMoses mall. Eight more wallTrump on the Ocean plaqueswill adorn the building, alongwith directional and informa-

tional signage on roadways.SPLIA says it is most unhap-

py about the dramatic expan-sion Trump plans for the park-ing lot in front of the restau-rant, which will dramaticallyimpact the vista Moses intend-ed for the park by replacing alarge sweep of green space withan areadominated by paving.

Ash said she values SPLIAsinput but it comes too late.The signs and site plan were setin contractual concrete after alengthy review process, includ-ing a May 2006 public hearingforwhatwas then Carlyle ontheOcean, which the preservationgroup didnt attend.

The time to have said this

wasduringthe public hearings,awhile back, Ash said Friday.The contract is the contract . . .My ability to changethings now,according to the kinds of thingsthey were concerned about, Idonthave theabilityto dothat.

Russo said he has pouredhimself into thejob of sensitive-ly honoring the spirit of Mosesoriginal design.

Its been a monumental taskto figure out all the consider-ations, he said. Its the walk-er, its the diner, its the patron,its the bride, its the park offi-cial everybody. This is a fa-cility for everybody.

There are other lingeringquestionsfor those whoare pas-sionate about the parks historyand future. Was such a longlease really in thestates best in-terest? If Trump and Carl bor-row more than they can repay,whose name will wind up onthat monument sign?

But Carl said any worries

about restaurant goers beingtreatedlike second-classcustom-ers is misplaced. After all, hesaid, the restaurant is his primemarketing tool for the cateringfacility.If theydont comethereto see what the place is, how aretheygoing to know?

Trump on the Oceans name-sake says it will command thelargest section of oceanfrontfor a facility of its kind any-where in the country.

Its going to bea very impor-tant thing for Long Island, andits going to be a very glamor-ous thing for Long Island,Trump said. This is really atribute to Robert Moses. Hewould be very proud of this.

NEWSDAY PHOTO / JIM PEPPLER

The site of Trump on the Ocean last week. Work on the latest restaurant and catering facility on the Jones Beach boardwalk is due to start this spring.

JONES BEACH RESTAURANTA3

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Trump's Palace on the Ocean

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