Skaters arriving at Central Park’s two ice rinks are in for a chilly awakening subsequent week — the rinks, that are each managed by the Trump Organization, are being shuttered by City Hall to punish the former president for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, The Post has realized.
The Trump Organization says its final day of operating the iconic Wollman Rink and the smaller Lasker Rink on the park’s northern finish shall be Sunday.
The rink contracts had been set to run out in April, however Mayor de Blasio has moved to ice Trump out a month early, efficient Feb. 26.
The Trump Organization is closing its doorways after shut of enterprise on Sunday, so it would have time to pack up its belongings — together with some 1,700 pairs of ice skates — and transfer out.
The metropolis is terminating all four of its Trump Organization concession contracts.
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“Trump has been impeached from working the ice rink,” a de Blasio spokesman had stated Jan. 31 in asserting the concession terminations for Wollman Rink, together with Lasker Rink, the Central Park Carousel and Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point within the Bronx.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, is ending the Trump Organization’s skating-rink contracts with the town a month early, a report says.
On a typical season, the 2 Central Park rinks function by March and into early April. The carousel by no means opened for the season and stays closed as a result of pandemic; the golf course closed for the season in December.
“Despite our appeals to the City to permit us to proceed operations by the period of the skating season — which might not solely save the roles of almost 250 people who work or in any other case present providers Wollman and Lasker Rinks, but in addition permit us to proceed to supply the quite a few public skating periods and skating and hockey applications that we host on a every day foundation — the City rejected our efforts,” the Trump Organization advised The Post in a press release.
Eric Trump reacts
Executive Vice President Eric Trump, the former commander in chief’s son, slammed de Blasio for being “petty” in ending the contracts, and stated he was saddened that youngsters can be saved off the ice.
“The metropolis is saying in impact, ‘We don’t care if it destroys the skating season; we wish you out now,'” Trump advised The Post. “This is likely one of the solely issues that youngsters can do” for outside winter recreation, he famous.
“De Blasio is now shutting down skating season whereas New York dies. It’s horribly unhappy,” he stated.
“De Blasio is now shutting down skating season whereas New York dies. It’s horribly unhappy.”
“The mayor is completely petty. This isn’t about us, that is concerning the folks of the town who come right here to skate and disabled children who joined hockey groups and others who joined skating faculty and take classes each week,” Trump added.
The Trump Organization is interesting the contract terminations, together with the town’s try and kick it out of the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, a contract value tens of millions and which has 18 extra years left to run.
Skaters take to the ice at Wollman Rink in New York’s Central Park, Nov. 3, 2016. (Associated Press)
“If they terminate, they are going to owe us $35 million,” Trump stated.
Donald Trump rebuilt the then-run-down Wollman Rink on the park’s southern finish in the summertime of 1986, and it has since been a haven for households trying to skate and play hockey.
The Mayor’s Office couldn’t instantly clarify why the rinks had been being closed with out alternative concessionaires in place when requested late Friday.
The Parks Department confirmed to The Post that it had delivered a termination discover to the Trump Organization on January 15 with an efficient date of Feb. 26 for each rinks.
The division continues to be on the lookout for concessionaires to fill the hole, a spokeswoman stated.
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Companies have a March 19 deadline to submit their proposals.
“We are working diligently by our aggressive RFP course of to safe new operators for these nice facilities in order to not impression the respective seasons,” Parks spokeswoman Crystal Howard stated.
The smaller Lasker Rink had already been set to shut for renovations, the division stated, as part of a $150 million rebuild additionally encompassing the Lasker Pool, however floor breaking was not slated to start there till the spring, according to the Central Park Conservancy website.
