Word: trumps
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...older brother, Fred Trump Jr., rebelled against carrying on the family business. He became an airline pilot, took to drink and died of alcoholism in 1981 at the age of 43. "He was a really wonderful guy who didn't particularly like this business," says Trump. "It was a sad thing. It is something I have never been able to figure out. It was one of the most difficult things I've had to deal with...
...first major coup came in 1976, when he persuaded the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad to sell him for $10 million the dilapidated Commodore Hotel adjoining Grand Central Station. It was typical of the kind of deal that Trump now calls "my favorite art form." An unknown and unwealthy hustler of 30, he had to persuade some bankers to lend him $80 million (he did) and some politicians to give him a $120 million tax abatement (he did). It did not hurt that Fred Trump was a regular contributor to the Brooklyn Democratic machine, or that Governor Hugh Carey and Mayor...
...took four years, but the glittering Grand Hyatt Hotel that opened in 1980 established Trump as a man who could get things done. It also brings in, he says happily, an annual profit of $30 million. Most of Trump's other projects are essentially more of the same -- more bargaining, more building, more bucks...
Sometimes Trump shows an absolute genius for combining profits with publicity and doing good deeds in the process. Consider the Wollman ice- skating rink in Central Park, which city authorities had closed down in 1980 for a $9 million refurbishing. Somehow they managed to spend $12 million on preliminary maneuvering without anything whatever to show for it. Looking down at the mess from his skyscraper windows, Trump was displeased. Offering to do the job himself on the original budget within three months, he completed it for $750,000 less -- and now operates the rink at an annual profit...
...Though Trump likes to talk of his triumphs, there have inevitably been controversies and defeats. One of the most striking was the five-year battle over 100 Central Park South, a dignified prewar apartment building that Trump decided in 1981 to demolish and replace. To do that, he had to get rid of tenants who clung to 50 rent-controlled apartments that cost them as little as $300 a month. Trump brought in a new management company renowned for its ferocity. Out went the lobby furniture, unrepaired went the broken elevator, unpainted and uncleaned the halls and stairways. Eviction notices...