Television City

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  • Donald Trump demanded $20 million in tax abatements from New York City Mayor Ed Koch in a plan to develop a new corporate headquarters for NBC and called Koch a "moron" when the mayor refused to allow the tax breaks. “In the last three weeks, Mr. Trump and the mayor have waged a bitter public relations battle over NBC. Mr. Trump is seeking a 20-year tax abatement on Television City as a way of luring NBC to his ambitious West Side project. Mr. Koch has offered tax abatements on those segments of the development that would house NBC, but he has balked at giving what he calls excessive tax incentives to Mr. Trump, whom he has accused of ‘squealing like a struck pig.’ Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has called the mayor a ‘moron’ and suggested he was losing NBC to New Jersey. The network is considering three sites for its studios and 4,000 jobs: moving to a facility to be developed by Hartz Mountain Corp. in the Meadowlands, relocating to Mr. Trump's Television City, or renovating its current Rockefeller Center headquarters.” (Crain’s New York Business, June 15, 1987)
  • Koch argued that tax breaks for Trump's Television City plan, which included substantial luxury housing, would effectively work as a wealth transfer from working-class and middle-class New Yorkers to the ultra-wealthy. “The poll also suggests that the mayor is misreading public opinion. Mr. Koch has said several times he fears the average New Yorker would feel angry if he or she thought that Mr. Trump or NBC got too sweet a deal. But only 4.5% of New Yorkers worry that granting big breaks would show excessive favoritism. Last week, despite the survey's findings, the mayor reiterated his position to Crain's. ‘This project (Television City) includes massive development of luxury co-ops costing between $400 and $500 a square foot to construct,’ he said. ‘(Mr. Trump) would like the working poor and the middle class to pay for luxury co-ops on a massive scale.’ [...] In a head-to-head election, the survey found the mayor would grab 56.8% of the vote to Mr. Trump's 27.4%. Another 6.4% would vote for neither while 9.3% are undecided.” (Crain’s New York Business, June 15, 1987)