1. what other properties does the Penn Central own that I can buy for nothing?
2. It was the one that had been in real trouble and had been losing money and defaulting on its property taxes for years.3.At first, he refused to believe I was serious. Later, he told a reporter that his initial reaction to my idea was that "buying the Commodore at a time when even the Chrysler Building is in receivership is like fighting for a seat on the Titanic.
4. “ I wasn't naive, I saw potential, but I also recognized a downside. I could envision a huge home run, but I also knew that falling could bury me. "
5. I decided very quickly that the Commodore , in the heart of New York at 42nd Street and Park Avenue, next to Grand Central Station had potentially the best location of any of the four hotels.
6. The Hotel and the surrounding neighborhood were unbelievably run-down（破败） Half the buidings were alread in foreclosure（抵押品赎回权已经被收回了）. The brick facade [fəˈsɑːd] 外表面 of the Commodore was absolutely filthy（肮脏）, the lobby was so dingy 又黑又脏的=dark and dirty.
There was one of those sleazy（肮脏的=disreputable） flea markets operating on the ground floor with a bunch of boarded-up storefronts on either side and derelicts[ˈdɛrɪlɪkts]，乞丐，无家可归者 lying in the doorways. To most people, it would have been a very depressing scene.
7. But as I approached the hotel, something completely different caught my eye. It was about nine in the morning, and there were thousands of well-dressed Connecticut [kəˈnɛtəkət] 康涅狄格 and Westchester [ˈwɛstˌtʃɛstər] ，韦斯切斯特 commuters flooding onto the streets from Grand Central Terminal and the subway stations below. The city was on the verge of bankruptcy, but what I saw was a superb location.
8. The funny thing is that the city's desperate circumstances became my biggest weapon. With Palmieri, I could argue that I was the only developer around who would even consider buying a loser hotel in a decaying neighborhood in a dying city.
9. The Penn Central had invested $2 million on a renovation of the Commodore that was a equivalent of applying a coat of wax to a car that's just been in a major accident. Even after the renovation, the Penn Central was projecting a huge loss for 1974, and that didn't even include the $6 million that the hotel already owed in back taxes. The Commodore was a terrible drain on a bankrupt company.
10 In simple terms, I would take an option to purchase the hotel at a price of $10 million , subject to my being able to get tax abatement, financing, and a hotel company partner.
11. oung, talented architect named Der Scutt.What Trump wanted was the absolutely brand-new designing. his idea was to build a new skin directly over the brick-bronze(砖红色的) , or glass, He wanted a sleek（光滑、光亮的）, contemporary look, something with sparkle and excitement that would make people stop and take notice.
12.
he started moving furniture around and even pushed several pieces out into the hallway. when he finished, he'd managed to make the apartment look much bigger, which Trump liked.
Trump hired Der and paid him to come up with sketches that they could use in their presentations to the city and to banks. He also told Der to make the sketches appear that they'd spent a huge sum on the drawings.
A good looking presentation goes a long way.
13. The Obata group desperately wanted to keep the job, and so, of course, did Der. The competition gave Trump an oppotunity to negociate a lower architectural fee.
In the end he went with Der and paid him a very modest fee. Trump also told Der that doing this job would pay off big in the end. He let Der envision that this was going to be a monumental project and make him into a star.
用户评论