The price keeps growing for Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, the course the Parks Department has spent the past 14 years building at the foot of the Whitestone Bridge in the Bronx.
The city now expects to spend an astonishing $236 million to complete the Ferry Point project by next spring over a former landfill, according to new figures compiled for the Daily News by the Independent Budget Office.
That includes $181.4 million for the 190-acre golf course itself, plus another $54.6 million for 30 acres of adjacent new parkland and a waterfront esplanade, the IBO says. The total is more than 10 times the original cost when construction started in August 2000.
Even though the course will not open until spring 2015, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a symbolic ribbon cutting there in October with golf legend Jack Nicklaus, who designed the course, and with Donald Trump, the developer City Hall selected two years ago to operate it.
What Bloomberg did not mention then is that construction costs have continued to climb during the past two years — by another $32 million for the course and another $13 million for the adjacent parks, according to the IBO.
Trump could end up paying less in annual fees to the city than some hot dog vendors do for their stands.
Ferry Point, in other words, will be one of the most expensive golf courses ever built, not too far behind the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles ($260 million) or the new local favorite for Wall Street executives, the Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City ($250 million). It will even surpass the luxurious Bayonne Golf Club ($160 million) in New Jersey.
The others are exclusive private clubs and were built with private money. Ferry Point, on the other hand, is being financed by the taxpayers. It is still labeled a public course despite greens fees that are expected to cost more than $125.
9 comments:
I'm shocked. Terribly, terribly shocked.
You better not hit my car with a golf ball while I am waiting to pay my bridge toll!
Our parks are so fucked up and Trump was just given this money?
He must given Bloomberg some really good blowjobs!
Has any local news outlet done any investigative reporting on how this project went so wrong? I believe I recall reading somewhere the City failed on getting certain milestone requirements done and therefore had to pay the original developer millions in penalties for failure to do so.
Private golf clubs in the suburbs are struggling to retain members... and we're building a new one?
Great Trump can now rip off the City like he did with his investors.
Start calling for Attorney General Schneiderman to investigate this NOW.
Also call Scot Stringer who now oversees contracts.
re:rip off city
also like he ripped off his "students"
more corporate welfare for illusory jobs.
why is that orange yarn hairstyle inherited wealth shit still being taken seriously as a businessman still?this is the biggest money black hole since the yankees parking garage
these subhumans are only going to get bigger and more powerful,just like the rat population in the past 10 years.It's not a coincidence that the rats today have equalled in body mass like the overpriced and towering development in the past 10 years,and with the wealth of the top moneymakers in NYC
Die Wealthy Scum
Why did anyone think it was a good idea to dedicate this land to golf?
Is there a shortage of real needs for undeveloped land in the city? Parks or undeveloped green space are reasonable alternatives to a game played by few, at great expense to the city, and which is environmentally and monetarily wasteful.
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