New York City lost a court battle over its attempt to cancel the Trump Organization’s contract to operate a public golf course in the Bronx after the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The Trump Organization can continue to operate a city-owned golf course in the Bronx after a judge ruled on Friday that New York City had wrongly terminated the company’s contract following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol in Washington.
New York City moved to cancel the lucrative contract at the course, the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, just days after the attacks on the Capitol last year, when a mob loyal to former President Donald J. Trump stormed the building in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
At the time, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the decision had been made because Mr. Trump had incited violence in Washington, which he said qualified as criminal activity that gave New York City the right to sever ties. (Mr. Trump was impeached on the grounds that he had incited the riot, his second impeachment, but he was acquitted by the Senate after he had left office.)
But the city’s lawyers used a different justification, saying that the Trump Organization had defaulted on its contractual obligation to maintain “a first class tournament quality daily fee golf course.”
The city, in a termination notice, said the golf course had failed to attract a major golf tournament and was unlikely to do so after the Capitol riot made the Trump brand “synonymous with an insurrection against the federal government.”
The Trump Organization sued the city last June, arguing that its only obligation wast to maintain the course, not to hold high-profile events. The city’s move, it said, was politically motivated and had no legitimate legal basis.
In her decision, Justice Debra James of the State Supreme Court did not weigh in on the political aspects of the case, nor did she mention what had happened at the Capitol. But she sided with the Trump Organization, ruling that the city had not given a valid legal reason for ending the contract.
A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, Amanda Miller, applauded the decision and again accused Mr. de Blasio of acting on political motivations.
“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,” Ms. 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.”
The city’s Law Department, which represents the city in court, said it was “disappointed” with the decision and would review its options. A spokesman would not say whether the city planned to appeal. Mr. de Blasio did not respond to a message seeking comment.
New York City built the 192-acre golf course at Ferry Point, near the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, for $127 million. The project ran into troubles from the beginning, though. Toxic substances were found in the soil, and then a development deal fell through, and finding an operator proved difficult.
Eventually, the Trump Organization stepped forward. In a deal announced in 2010, under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration, the company said it wold operate the golf course, pay for upkeep and build a $10 million clubhouse.
The course opened in April 2015, two months before Mr. Trump started his presidential campaign, which forever altered his relationship with the city where he had lived and managed his business affairs with considerable celebrity.
Once considered a flashy member of Manhattan’s moneyed elite, Mr. Trump’s election in 2016 quickly made him a political and social outcast whose name was removed from private buildings and whose visits to Trump Tower, the skyscraper where he has a three-story residence, were met with protests.
He and Mr. de Blasio also made no secret of their enmity. Mr. Trump called Mr. de Blasio “the worst mayor in the history of New York City.” When Mr. de Blasio ran an ill-fated presidential campaign in 2020, he focused on what he said were Mr. Trump’s failures. As part of their public feud, Mr. Trump eventually changed his primary residence to Florida, a move that Mr. de Blasio cheered.
Yet even as the two leaders were feuding, the Trump Organization still had contracts to operate the golf course, two ice-skating rinks at Central Park and the Central Park Carousel. When Mr. de Blasio moved to end those contracts after the Capitol riot, he said they had brought the Trump Organization about $17 million a year.
The city’s move came as a host of other businesses also distanced themselves from Mr. Trump, including the P.G.A. of America, which withdrew its major P.G.A. Championship tournament from a New Jersey golf club owned by the former president. City lawyers ultimately cited that announcement in their correspondence with the Trump organization.
Under the city’s contract for the Bronx golf course, which opened for the season last month, the Trump Organization has the right to run the course until 2035.
While the city could end the contract “at will,” New York would then be required to make an expensive “termination payment” that the Trump Organization has said would amount to more than $30 million.
The court ruling in favor of the Trump Organization comes as Mr. Trump and his company are facing an unrelated criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is examining whether the former president and his employees committed financial fraud. The status of that inquiry is unclear, though the district attorney said this week that the inquiry was continuing despite the resignations of two senior prosecutors who had been leading it.
The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, is also conducting a civil investigation into the former president’s business activities. This week, her office filed a motion asking a judge to hold Mr. Trump in contempt for failing to turn over documents.
Jonah E. Bromwich and Emma Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.
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