Donald Trump

Gristedes grocery store billionaire John Catsimatidis apparently has the support of Donald Trump in his race for mayor.

The New Yorker’s Ben McGrath reports that Mr. Catsimatidis has signed up pledges of support from not only Mr. Trump but also from most of the “at least thirty-five to forty percent of the Congress, and most of the major governors” who, according to Mr. Catsimatidis, “know I’m doing what I have to do.”  read more »

There's an excellent profile of Trump SoHo in this week's New York magazine--which happens to come awfully close to suggesting that the building is seriously tied to mob money. But its most swaggering and cold-hearted quote doesn't come from Mr. Trump himself! "We don’t want airline hostesses here," says neighborhood activist Sean Sweeney, the director of SoHo Alliance, explaining his opposition to the building, "or people coming from Europe or Asia for a couple of weeks."

Then there's this mean zinger: "Who was the first buyer in that building—a Croatian-Swedish soccer player?" (It's Inter Milan star Zlatan Ibrahimović, a Swede born to Bosnian parents). "Trump represents everything we hate. Bad taste. Déclassé. He’s uptown, we’re downtown, and never the two shall meet," Mr. Sweeney says.  read more »

Bittersweet Symphony? Ashlee Simpson may not be welcomed back to Saturday Night Live after her 2004 appearance exposed her lip-synching talents. Also, Page Six hears that the young Mr. Simpson was not exactly a hit with the show's producers. [P6]  read more »

Democratic Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr. of the Bronx says there us a budget that needs to be passed, and he doesn't think it is important if Eliot Spitzer is around to pass it or not.

“We’re still going to move forward,” Diaz, told me just now. “Either this governor or Governor David Paterson is going to sign the budget. There has to be a budget,” he said, reminding me that it is due on April 1.

I asked why he and more of his colleagues haven’t taken the position that Spitzer needs to stay in office in order to accomplish the Democrat’s legislative goals.  read more »

So sayeth Donald Trump in the new Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges Into Success.

Referencing the oft-cited quotation from Robert Moses ("a great figure in the history of New York City"), Mr. Trump was recalling his efforts to build the Trump Tower at 721 Fifth Avenue.

Donald Trump shares how he won the battle to build the Trump SoHo condo-hotel at Varick and Spring streets in his new book, Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges Into Success (out about six weeks ago from Wiley).

Mr. Trump recounts how he marched against a rabble-rousing minority:  read more »

The blogs are buzzing with news that the construction of the lower floors of Trump SoHo resumed this morning for the first time since worker Yurly Vanschytskyy died and two others were seriously injured in a tragic accident last month.

The Department of Buildings gave the general contractor Bovis Lend Lease clearance to continue work on the first 23 floors, but held off on authorizing concrete or crane usage. Bovis has boosted safety measures at the site and hired a manager to oversee the rest of construction.

Just as one would expect from New York’s iconic (and notoriously immodest) New York developer, the Trump Organization issued a press release Thursday about banner condo sales at the remarkably resilient residential-hotel tower on Spring and Varick.  read more »

It's barely two months into 2008, and the Trump SoHo condo-hotel on Spring and Varick streets has already weathered a fair share of obstacles and still managed to sell over half the units. First, one of Donald Trump's development partners was implicated in some shady financial dealings. Then construction worker Yuriy Vanchytskyy died in a tragic accident at the building site only a month after opponents of the 44-story tower had railed against the pace of construction.  read more »

The last time this reporter interviewed Donald Trump, the guru responded to an inoffensive question by saying: “[Y]our questions are nasty and yet I answer them. I could throw you out; I guess if they got a little nastier I probably would.”

Mr. Trump, lips pursed, was not a man to quibble with.  read more »

"I was scared to death of him," Miss USA Tara Conner says of Trump on his upcoming "E! True Hollywood Story." Imagine what Rosie would say. (Page Six)

Charlie Rose joins "60 Minutes," which continues its refusal to target audiences under 50. (NYT)

Clay Aiken debuts in "Spamalot" today. (Goings On)

Chris Martin attacks a photographer when bringing wife Gwyneth Paltrow home from the hospital. (Page Six)

Lily Allen suffers a miscarriage in her first pregnancy. (US)

Lindsay Lohan has to spend a couple days working at a morgue – drunk driving means dead people, you know? (NYT)

In that weird Tom Cruise Scientology video, he takes credit for saving Ground Zero workers. (Page Six)

In this week's Observer, Yale University's Robert Shiller--the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics--warned that New York's real estate bubble "can’t keep going like this!"

Donald Trump will be on the FOX Business Network tonight at 6 with some similar warnings. "I’m in the real estate business and I’m lucky I’m in Manhattan and I’m just wondering when it is going to hit Manhattan," Mr. Trump says, according to an early transcript. "How can it be that Manhattan is stronger than ever and everything else is dead?”

But things are even worse elsewhere, the guru says.  read more »

The Fire Department is saying that three have been injured in the accident this afternoon at the Trump SoHo at 246 Spring Street, which the police now say was a collpase that occured while pouring concrete. The construction worker that fell and died was male, the police said.

We have a statement from Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, and one of the leading opponents of Trump SoHo:

First and foremost, our thoughts are with the victims of this tragedy and their families and loved ones. But this is a tragedy that never should have happened.  read more »

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The Observer sat down with both Donald Trump and Alex Sapir last year. The two are partners in the Trump SoHo, the new condo-hotel at 246 Spring Street where a construction worker this afternoon died in an apparent accident.  read more »

There’s been a substantial accident at the Trump SoHo, according to other blogs and a few e-mails passed our way. Gothamist is reporting a fatality, and we’re headed to the scene to check it out.

We’ll post more as it comes in, and Curbed and Gothamist have info from readers.

Okay, so this is kind of random, but worth a minute of your time.  Have you ever wondered about the first time that now-famous New York names like Donald Trump, Woody Allen, and Michael Bloomberg appeared in The New York Times?  We hadn't either.  But now that you're thinking about it, you're kind of curious, right?  Satisfy your curiosity here.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal sat down with Donald Trump this week. (The Observer, ahem, sat down with Mr. Trump two months ago.) He shared his thoughts on numerous Trump projects worldwide, including the still controversial Trump SoHo condo-hotel on Spring Street downtown.

But Trump Soho you've probably heard. Everybody is talking about it. $3,000 a foot. More actually, $3,300 a foot, more than $3,000 a foot. Four thousand and five hundred applications for 450 units. That's the building where we had the protests because of the height. It's 45 stories. And we had protests and I thanked the people for protesting because they put the building on the map. You know it's, like, crazy. I got it done.

Especially when Donald Trump gets personally involved, high-end New York City real estate can play out like a surreal fairytale.  read more »

The SoHo Alliance isn't done fighting the quick-to-rise Trump SoHo. The watchdog group has filed a request with the city's Board of Standard and Appeals to revoke Donald Trump's Department of Buildings permit to construct a condominium-hotel at 246 Spring Street, said Sean Sweeney, the director of the alliance.

Mr.  read more »

Editor's Note: This is the last in a series of ten pieces of advice. We read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[Page 328] Life is so fragile, folks, you don't know exactly what's going on. (My children) might do well today and tomorrow I'll get home and I'll say, how are you doing, and there's a problem. I was very strict with my children ... You really have to let them know that life isn't all about the private jets and about the big houses.

Editor's Note: We read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[Page 190] Here's the point: a few days later Rosie is interviewed on the red carpet. The reporter asked, "Rosie, Donald said you shouldn't look in a mirror, it will solve your problems with depression. Do you have a comment?" She replied, "I have no comment. I don't want to talk about him!" You know why? Because I hit that horrible woman right smack in the middle of the eyes... That is why I tell people, "Get even!"

Like death and taxes, we will always have Donald Trump. His books, if not his buildings, assure him of a certain immortality.

Earlier this month, he dropped Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life. And, now, his Trump University has a new book out called Asset Protection 101: Tax and Legal Strategies of the Rich by attorney J.J. Childers (with a foreward by the Donald).

If you're keeping count, this is the fifth book in the Trump University series.

 

Editor's Note: We read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[page 235] If you want to become successful and stay successful, you must learn how to focus. Comedian Tim Allen is very successful now. Several decades ago he was not as successful.

Editor's Note: We read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[page 251] Always have a prenuptial agreement.

Editor's Note: We read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[Page 134] One day, in my darkest hour, I went to a bankers' dinner in Manhattan... I hated to go to that dinner with bankers. I went because it was my job to go there. It was work, horrible hard work, but I worked hard, and I got lucky; that is why I am here today. You can make luck happen through hard work and intelligence.

Editor's Note: We read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[Page 198]...I say when you are wronged, go after those people, because it is a good feeling, and because other people will see you doing it. I love it. Because I get screwed all the time, so I go after people. You know what, peope don't want to mess with me as much as others. They know if they do they are really in for a big fight. Always get even.

Editor's Note: We read Donald Trump's new Think Big and Kiss Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[Page 174] The world is a horrible place. Lions kill for food, but people kill for sport. People try to kill you mentally, especially if you are on top. We all have friends who want everything we have. They want our money, our business, house, car, wife, and dog. Those are our friends. Our enemies are even worse! You have got to protect yourself in life.

Editor's Note: We read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[page 101] Nobody knows everything. Nobody truly knows what the future will bring... Sure, study all the facts and rationally analyze every situation before acting. When it is time to decide, go with your gut. 

Editor's Note: We read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[page 197] As a child your parents and teachers told you not to fight and to try to get along with people. They meant well, trying to protect you from the harsh realities of the world, but in the world of grown-ups, things are different... If you do not get even you are just a schmuck!

Editor's Note: For the next 10 days, we read Donald Trump's new Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life so you don't have to.

[page 75] Never do anything just for money. Do it for love...To be a winner in life, find a passion, get out of your comfort zone, and be a doer.

Donald Trump’s Think Big & Kick Ass in Business and Life is out, and we don’t know how we lived so long without it.

As the press materials state, this book is “applicable to every arena in life, Trump’s take-no-prisoners advice is delivered in the blunt manner that has both endeared and provoked millions.”

The book pushes readers to work hard, make their own luck, and always get a prenuptial agreement. (And, as Mr. Trump told The Observer last month, you mustn't let anything affect you; nothing affects him.)

Perhaps we should come to expect this kind of life-changing advice from Mr. Trump. After all, the most recent titles in his seemingly ceaseless canon include:

• Trump 101: The Way Success
• Trump: The Way to the Top
• Why We Want You To Be Rich
• Trump: The Best Golf Advice I Ever Received

We're sensing a theme here...

Donald Trump’s people are giving out free money right now outside the Barnes & Noble at 5th Avenue and 46th Street, to promote Mr. Trump’s new book, Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life.

Mr. Trump is not due to arrive until 12:30—he will deliver a short speech outside and then go upstairs to sign books—but according to Rubenstein public relations VP Rachel Nagler, who is on the scene, people have already queued up outside. “The line is becoming pretty long, so we are probably going to start giving out some money soon,” she said.

According to Ms. Nagler, the first hundred people to get to the front will each get $100. “Free money will be given out from now until about 12:30,” she said.

Asked if there were any, um, homeless people in the line, Ms. Nagler said she hadn't checked.

"It’s hard to say," she said. "I haven’t asked anyone about their living situation."

The bizarre triumphs of Manhattan’s high-end real estate market are simply unending. Just when you’d think our bubble was finally going to be bashed by the national mortgage crisis (or shaky Wall Street, or the tumbling dollar), another gargantuan deal comes along.

And the seller, of course, is Donald Trump. As he un-smilingly told The Observer last month: “Nothing affects me.” The last three original units at Trump World Tower, the monolithic First Avenue condo at 845 United Nations Plaza, have gone for the pleasant sum of $33.654 million.

The buyer of all three is listed in city records as CCHP Holdings, LLC, whose address is listed in Huntington, NY. The purchase deeds are signed by Donald T. Nguyen, but it’s not clear who the buyer is; according to a source with knowledge of the deal, the spread will belong to an Asian-American moneyman.

What does $33.6 million buy? The first two units take up the entire 89th floor (directly above Derek Jeter, incidentally). That floor alone has 20 rooms, eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and 10,145 square feet, according to the listing with Trump broker Debra Stotts. That floor was listed for $28,248,500.

But then there’s the 14-room A-line apartment on the 90th floor, listed for $10,346,300. In case you were interested, the combined penthouse duplex will have 34 rooms, 14,864 square feet, 12 bedrooms and 16.5 bathrooms--and monthly maintenance fees of $13,906.

But somehow that space wasn’t enough for CCHP. Two sources said that the buyer tried to lure real estate lawyer and investor Dominick D’Alleva out of the other 90th-floor apartment. Mr. D’Alleva, who paid $13.5 million last year for that condo, would not budge.

In any case, CCHP will be tearing apart the three units and putting them back together. (Even the GE Monogram kitchen appliances are being ditched, one source said.) The floors have 16-foot ceilings, so there’s a potential for 32-foot-high legroom after renovations.

Better yet, CCHP got the three-unit penthouse at nearly a $5 million discount from the most recent listing price. The spread had been on the market for six years: Back in 2001, when sales at the condo began, Trump World Tower was billed as the largest residential tower in the world. That's no longer true.

Dennis Mangone, a Corcoran Group senior vice president, briefly listed part of the building's penthouse. “At the end of the day, Mr. Trump always wins,” he said, referring to those years on the market. “The dollar is weak now... it’s a huge incentive for foreign currencies to purchase New York real estate. And he”--meaning Mr. Trump--“has always had a really strong international base of people.”

Another foreign mogul, the disgraced Turkish telecommunications giant Cem Uzan, came close years ago to owning this three-unit spread (plus Mr. D’Alleva’s fourth condo.) But he defaulted on his contract, losing his $8 million deposit and the dictatorial views.

“On a nice day,” Mr. Mangone said about this spread, “you can see West Point."

UPDATE: And the winner is...  read more »

In New York, the culture wars aren’t over abortion and gay marriage—we are far too sophisticated to disagree about those sorts of issues!—but over 46-story condo-hotels in SoHo.

Specifically, the one that was officially unveiled to reporters Wednesday at a heavily guarded and extremely lavish press conference (picture red carpets; chandeliers large enough for any room at Versailles; gold-plated utensils; and a peculiarly lissome black-clad catering staff at a construction site), while a crowd of earnest, sandal-wearing demonstrators across the street waved hand-lettered signs bearing such slogans as, “Value of Land: Millions. Defending our Neighborhoods: Priceless” and “Zoning Laws Trump Trump.”

The Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium, slated for completion in the spring of 2009, would be the tallest building between the financial district and the Empire State Building. Part condo, part luxury hotel, the glassy tower with panoramic city views will undoubtedly be opulent—some might even say garishly so (with cause: the top floor will house a members-only club called “SoHi”).

It’s no surprise that the building has detractors among the NPR crowd, people for whom a genuine concern for historic preservation coalesces with an equally genuine distaste for unabashed materialism (a.k.a., the cornerstone of our capitalist economy). What was particularly impressive about the 50 or so protesters who showed up yesterday was their diversity—that is, their chronological, not ethnic or racial, diversity. Twenty-somethings in nerd glasses—the This American Life crowd—waved their placards next to gray-haired devotees of Isaiah Sheffer.  read more »

Location: Trump SoHo is a family project, but you guys aren’t technically the developers, right?

Mr. Trump: Well, we are partners in the development with Tom Sapir and Alex Sapir. … We have a building that will probably be the last of its kind built in its area. I think that zoning is probably going to be changed down there so that people won’t be able to go up high.

Does it bother you when community activists say, ‘Listen, this is just simply too high’?  read more »

Oh, baby! Get those picket signs ready, protesters!

Donald Trump--along with Donald Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Julius Schwarz and Alex Sapir--will host a RSVP-only media reception and press conference to launch the Trump Soho Hotel Condominium on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007, according to press release. The festivities will take place at 246 Spring Street, the site of the much-talked about luxury development.  read more »

Chef Laurent Tourondel’s new restaurant at the Trump SoHo Condo-Hotel is one step closer to becoming a reality.  read more »

First he loses his TV show. Now this.

Crain's reports this morning (subscription required) that Trump Mortgage, launched with much fanfare in several states less than two years ago, has gone out of business. It wasn't the Donald's fault, however.  read more »

Andrew Mangino and I have a piece in this week's paper about the upcoming selection of a company to run the state's horse racing franchise.

One of Eliot Spitzer’s biggest contributors, Richard Fields, has put together a leading bid, which could be making things pretty complicated.

“Spitzer can’t possibly come into office speaking about doing this new way of politics in Albany and then pick the bidder that has Richard Fields—his main guy,” said Alan Mann, who runs the thoroughbred racing blog “Left at the Gate” and has been following the industry for nearly 35 years. “There are political entanglements.”

Donald Trump, a former associate of Fields who ended up bringing a lawsuit against him, thinks Spitzer should simply auction the whole thing off.

I've also got a piece about Eliot Spitzer's controlled reengagement with the press and public this week.

Michael Bloomberg has just won a (valuable?) endorsement from Donald Trump.

At a charitable golf outing at Briarcliff Manor this morning hosted by Yankee manager Joe Torre, Trump said, “And it’s my really terrific privilege to introduce a man that I think is one of the great mayors and will go down as one of the great mayors, if not the greatest, in New York City – Michael Bloomberg. Come on up Michael.”

A recording of that little speech was posted by the mayor's press office on a phone line designated for reporters.

Donald Trump and his clan are an infinite force. They personify our zeal for vast money, vaster hair, tall shiny buildings and walloping fame. That force, as Rosie O’Donnell’s career trajectory since her feud with Mr. Trump suggests, is simply not to be tussled with.

Take Eugenia Kaye, whose ex-husband happens to be the filmmaker Tony Kaye (who directed American History X).  read more »

So far, the rumors of a Donald Trump-backed condo on the northwest corner of Central Park are greatly exaggerated.

Curbed related the rumor earlier this week that the Donald planned what would be one of the most significant residential developments in the city’s history because of its location along an edge of the iconic park that’s always seemed beyond the luxury pale.  read more »

Should the L.A. Times be loaning out their offices to Donald Trump and his would-be Apprentices, in order to create a Sunday promotional supplement?

Obviously, last night's Apprentice was taped long before Grazergate. But still, with the commotion over the Times selling out to celebrities for promotional purposes, it was an unhappy coincidence.

Thankfully, publisher David Hiller didn't meet with Donald. Instead, he was greeted by executives from SmartMouth, the company that the two teams would be working for.

For anyone interested: Team Kinetic created the more eye-catching supplement, won the task, and got to see their work in the Sunday Times. They did not guest edit the op-ed pages.

--Michael Calderone

In The Transom: Donald Trump slanders Don King and Don King praises George Bush; Jessica Coen spends an afternoon at cocktails with everyone's favorite Huffpo and Maxim UK editor wackjob Greg Gutfeld; and we go inside the scary at Heidi Klum's Halloween party.

Yesterday, Prince Charles and his new wife Camilla hit New York and met with some die-hard Camilla-resentment, as well as the indomitable Tina Brown.  read more »

Get your hot Judy Miller action on: Sag Harbor is a-buzzing with Judy's pals like Felix Rohatyn, Mort Zuckerman, and Peggy Noonan. And her little dog's named Hamlet.

Meghan Daum gets appointed to the Los Angeles Times opinion page -- but hey, wasn't she hiding out in Nebraska? Say what now? Julian Schnabel is desperate to grandfather his West Village home into the old rezoning -- and boy are his neighbors pissed.