Trump Golf Links in the Bronx is seen on Saturday, March 4, 2023.
Photo Max Blease
The giant letters spelling out former President Donald Trump’s last name next to the Hutchinson River Parkway will soon be gone now that The Trump Organization has sold the golf course formerly known as Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point to Bally’s Corporation, an entertainment company seeking one of three downstate casino licenses.
On Tuesday, Bally’s took over a 20-year lease the city granted to The Trump Organization in 2012 to operate the 18-hole course on public parkland atop a former landfill — the lease began in 2015 and is slated to end in 2035. While city officials have tried and failed to remove the controversial name from the Throggs Neck course, the change in management is tied to Bally’s interest in one of three promised unprecedented full casino licenses for NYC, Long Island and Westchester.
In his first newspaper interview about the purchase, Bally’s Chair Soohyung “Soo” Kim told the Bronx Times that despite the controversy the Trump name brought to the site, the course is run “fantastically” and the corporation plans to keep the entirety of the current staff.
“It’s in great shape and really not a lot has to change about what it is today,” he said. ” … In all honesty, it’s a great course and the former management here has done a good job of keeping it up and it’s our job to make sure that we maintain the very high standards and continue to build upon them.”
The company plans to work on building “even deeper community bridges than what currently exists today,” he added.
Kim would not specify how many tens of millions Bally’s paid The Trump Organization for the license to manage the course. He said that as part of the arrangement, Bally’s will pay the city “somewhat more” than The Trump Organization did to rent the course.
He refuted a claim that anonymous Bally’s representatives made to the…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply