Donald Trump’s name will finally be scrubbed from a city-owned golf course in the Bronx — with the ex-president agreeing to unload the lease to the Bally’s casino chain following a lengthy battle with the city.
The Trump Organization has sold its contract to operate Trump Golf Links Ferry Point — a 20-year lease struck in 2015 that former Mayor Bill de Blasio had sought to cancel over the Capitol riot — to Bally’s in a deal worth tens of millions of dollars, The Post has learned.
The lease transfer — which for Bally’s is a multimillion-dollar bet that the property will help it snag a highly prized gaming license in the Big Apple — had hinged on approval from the city Parks Department and Comptroller Brad Lander, who signed off on it Thursday, sources said.
On Friday morning, the city comptroller’s website showed that Trump’s contract with the Parks Department — which originally had been set to extend to 2035 — is nowslated to end on Sept. 21.
Bally’s will continue to operate the site as a golf course and change its name to Bally’s Links, sources said — doing away with the massive rock-and-grass formation that spells out “TRUMP LINKS,” which for years has been impossible for drivers to miss when headed over the East River on the Whitestone Bridge from Queens.
“I am delighted that Trump’s name will no longer deface city parkland,” Lander said in a statement to The Post.
“We are supportive of the transfer of the Ferry Point Golf Course to Bally’s, and we are confident they will deliver a high-quality golfing experience to New Yorkers,” a Parks Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Eric Trump told The Post, “The deal was too good to refuse,” declining to say the amount Bally’s paid for the Trump contract.
In addition to taking over the lease to the 180-acre site, which includes the wind-swept public course, Bally’s plans to purchase the 17 acres that the golf course sits on and has agreed in turn to buy 17 acres near the site that it will donate to the Parks Department — a deal that will ultimately will require state approval, the sources added.
The Trump Organization is set to make tens of millions from selling the contract to run Trump Links. APBally’s is placing its chips on the Bronx location to win what will likely be the only state gaming license for a new development in the city. It is widely expected that racinos Resorts World and Empire City will win two of the other three full-scale licenses in the area.
Bally’s hopes its proximity to a major highway — an estimated 40 million drivers use the Whitestone every year — will help it win the casino sweepstakes against bidders at multiple locations in Manhattan, as well as in Brooklyn and Queens, and at the old Nassau Coliseum grounds on Long Island.
A casino project away from the densely populated areas proposed by Bally’s rivals would likely face less political opposition, sources said.
Eric Trump said he was impressed with Ballys plans for the property.
“Ferry Point is the best site in New York — for the waterfront, the access to Long Island, the access to Westchester,” he said. “We look forward to seeing what lies ahead for the project.”
Trump had 12 years left on the contract, but Bally’s was desperate to get its hands on the plot before the state’s lengthy licensing process winds to an end. The deadline for final bids is expected to fall by the end of this year or early next year, sources said.
Reps for Bally’s — run by financier Soo Kim, a Queens native and founder of the hedge fund Standard General — couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Soo Kim leads Bally’s and is paying a pretty high price in the hopes of getting a casino license for the Trump Links location. TNSInsiders declined to give an exact price for the deal, but Trump stands to reap a windfall after gaining control of the site in a sweetheart 20-year deal from then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg in 2013 — after city taxpayers spent more than $127 million to convert the former landfill into a Jack Nicklaus-designed course.
It’s estimated Trump has paid the city about $5 million in the last eight years in addition to spending $10 million to build a clubhouse in 2019.
Trump wasn’t required to make any payments to the city the first four years. He then had to pay the higher of $300,000 or 7% percent of gross revenues annually that would rise over the course of the contract, according to a 2016 Gothamist article.
The golf course generates between $2.5 million and $5 million in profits each year, sources said.
If approved, the Bally’s gaming complex would rise on the spot where Trump built the pricey clubhouse as well as its parking lot, the insiders said. Bally’s plans also include building a tunnel under the highway that runs through the sprawling parkland to connect the golf course with the largely unused areas of the plot, sources said.
Eric Trump led the negotiations to sell the Trump Links contract with help from his father. AP
An estimated 40 million cars travel past Trump Links to and from the Whitestone Bridge, making it a good spot for a casino. AP
A Bally’s casino may soon replace Trump Links and be right on the Bronx side of the Whitestone Bridge. APDespite all the proposed spending, there is no guarantee the city will renew Bally’s rights to the land when the deal expires in 2035. Bally’s had first asked for an 80-year contract for the site but the Parks Department declined, as The Post previously reported.
The 18-hole, 7,400-yard links course charges $171 during the week and $205 on the weekends, according to its site — nearly five times higher than green fees at many of the city’s other municipal courses.
It hosted an LPGA event last October sponsored by the Saudi Arabian government.
The city has been trying to rid the golf course of its association with Trump since 2021, when de Blasio nixed the deal following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, arguing that Trump would not be able to attract golf tournaments.
Trump sued the city, and a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled in April 2022 that the pact was wrongfully terminated.






