This post first appeared on Today in Alternate History
Budding young
real estate developer Donald J. Trump failed to convince New York City's
Board of Estimate to approve his innovative plan to rebuild the 1919
Beaux Arts brick-and-stone-detailed Warren-and-Wetmore-designed Commodore Hotel.
Their
key objection was primarily financial: Trump
had made an audacious request for a forty-year tax abatement. Due to the projected
creation of 1,500 construction jobs, the proposal was strongly backed by
the head of the Economic Development Administration, Alfred E.
Eisenpreis, who hailed it as "a very exciting hope for the City." However,
the stumbling block was the near-bankrupt city forgoing $4 million a
year in real estate taxes in exchange for a share in the profits plus
payments beginning at $250,000 a year and rising, in stages, to 4.2
million after 50 years. The City Council President Paul O'Dwyer had
ominously warned that the Board needed to "look very carefully" at what
the city would get in exchange for its tax forgiveness. Trump had sensed
an opportunity in the city's financial crisis, but his proposal was
simply politically unacceptable to the voters in their current mood.
The city's appeals for a bail-out from the state legislature in Albany, and
then personally to President Ford, had been flatly rejected. The
bankrupt owners of the Commodore Hotel had unpaid back taxes
going back to 1970. With occupancy rates of 49 percent, the hotel closed shortly
after the decision was made. Alternative schemes to convert the building
into apartments, or even demolish it, were then taken under serious
consideration. Whatever the solution, the Trump Organization was out of the project due to
the withdrawal of its principal partner, the Hyatt Hotel Group.
Trump
had not lost hope in his dream of upscaling his father, Fred's, business
success in Queens and Brooklyn to Manhattan. Not discouraged by this
failure, he relocated to Camden and started an even bigger project.
Still only 29 years old, he attempted to use his influence to cause a
revitalization of the city by replacing the lost industrial wealth with a
new world financial center. In this endeavor, he was greatly assisted by the entrepreneurial talents of his wife and business partner, Ivana. However, when the
diminutive Abraham Beame left the mayoral office, his successor Ed Koch
was far less receptive to his charms, and the bold plan was only
partially successful.
The popular and affable Koch glowed in the
celebration of the Statue of Liberty's 100th anniversary celebration ,
but his re-election year of 1989 was a very difficult one for New
Yorkers. Unable to win a historic fourth-term, he was driven from office
with the city beset by racial tension. He would be replaced by
the Manhattan Borough President, former marine David Dinkins, who became
the first African-American to become Mayor of New York. His progressive
views would strongly clash with Trump's over the notorious Central Park Five case.
Now
based in New Jersey, the Trump Organization enjoyed greater success
with the barrel-chested Governor Chris Christie. After Christie won the
Presidency in 2012, Trump would finally build an International Hotel in
Washington D.C., which he would open with Ivana. As he approached his
seventieth birthday, his daughter Ivanka prepared to take the reins of
the Trump Organization.
Author's Note:
In
reality, after the city government granted a tax abatement for the
renovation, Trump and Hyatt completely remodelled the hotel from June
1978 to September 1980, spending $100 million and removing almost all of
the Commodore's original decorations.
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