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Donald Trump’s family business appears to have lost out in the competition to run the Central Park skating attraction that helped promote the future president, after Mayor Eric Adams sought a new operator amid dealings to avoid federal prosecution.
Mayor Eric Adams’ parks department is moving ahead to let the Related Companies continue running the city-owned Wollman Rink — apparently ending the Trump Organization’s quest to reclaim control of the popular sports facility in Central Park.
The Department of Parks and Recreation recently submitted a limited liability corporation Related had created to bid on the rink concession to the city Department of Investigation (DOI) for a background check, according to a source familiar with the matter — one of the steps required before awarding city contracts.
Like other Parks concessions, any proposed agreement will still need to go before a review committee. Late Wednesday, a spokesperson for the office of Mayor Eric Adams, Sophia Askari, noted that a decision on the Wollman Rink deal is not yet final.
“The Adams administration follows a well-established, New York City charter-mandated process for negotiating and awarding concessions,” wrote Askari. “While we are continuing to work through this process for Wollman Rink, as we do with all of our concession contracts, the Adams administration has been clear that we will always prioritize the needs of New Yorkers and make the best use of taxpayers’ dollars. That is the case with the Wollman Rink award. We will share our selection officially once it has been finalized.”
The Related Companies currently hold a five-year concession license to operate the rink, which runs out next June. Last fall, the Adams administration decided to put the concession out for bid.
That move triggered controversy when THE CITY in March revealed that the request for bids came shortly after the parks department had rejected an offer by the nonprofit Central Park Conservancy to give the city $120 million and run the facility themselves. The Trump Organization, which rejuvenated the then-run down city-run rink in the 1980s and ran it for years, immediately announced it would put in a bid.
Trump often pointed to the revived rink as evidence of his claimed ability to fix what government could not and used Wollman as a backdrop to promote his brand on his way to becoming a reality TV phenomenon before running for president.
“Nearly 38 years ago my father saved Wollman Rink. We truly hope we can save it once again,” Eric Trump, president of the Trump Organization, told the New York Times.
The bidding was closed in January, and it appears only the Trump Organization and a Related entity, Wollman Park Partners LLC II, put in bids. Since then the Parks Department has declined to publicly reveal its decision on who it plans to bring in to run the iconic facility.
The department came under fire for its decision to spurn the Conservancy’s offer, which included funding millions of dollars in upgrades to the rink itself and the surrounding infrastructure that supports the facility. The private vendor had offered to pay the city a percentage of revenue. Currently, the Related-run rink generates $3 million for the city annually.
A group of 19 elected officials organized by Councilmember Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) wrote to Adams urging that he reconsider the Conservancy’s offer of a multimillion-dollar gift to upgrade the rink and the surrounding infrastructure. They received no response from City Hall.
The letter to the mayor did not mention President Donald Trump, whose family controls the Trump Organization, but one of the signatories, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, at the time told THE CITY, “I’ll do everything I can to keep his name, policies, and presence out of the city and off Wollman Rink.”
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio terminated the city’s agreement with the Trump Organization to run the rink shortly after the pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The revelation that the Trump Organization was seeking the Adams’ administration’s approval to take over the rink again came shortly after the Trump Department of Justice began moving to dismiss the criminal corruption charges against the mayor in exchange for his help on its deportation campaign. A judge later approved the dismissal, but said the arrangement “smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”
In recent weeks, the Parks Department sent over Wollman Park Partners LLC II and Citypickle Wollman LLC, a limited liability corporation set up by a firm that’s currently running pickle ball courts at the site in partnership with Related. Both firms would join forces to run the rink under whatever new concession terms the agency ultimately reveals.
In response to questions by THE CITY, a spokesperson for Related said the firm is awaiting a final decision by the parks department.
“Wollman Rink is an iconic New York City landmark and, alongside our new partner, CityPickle, we submitted a comprehensive bid to be able to continue the work we’ve done to welcome thousands of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world for years to come,” the spokesperson said.
The Trump Organization did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.
Going forward, the Adams administration faces time pressures if it hopes to resolve the Wollman Rink concession before Adams’ current term ends Dec. 31. Once the Parks Department announces its formal choice, the agreement must still be approved by the Franchise Concession & Review Committee, a city board controlled by the mayor.
The committee’s next public hearing is Oct. 16, but the agency must first obtain DOI’s background check on the bidder it intends to award the concession, then put up a public notice of its intention in the City Record. The franchise committee then must review and decide whether to approve the parks department’s choice, a process that would likely push a final decision to the end of the year.
