Central Park Boathouse adrift after city rejects $6M offer
The beloved Central Park Boathouse seems to be like a sinking ship.
The town turned down a $6 million supply by billionaire investor Andrew Murstein to improve and save the doomed lakeside restaurant, The Submit has realized.
Beneath Murstein’s proposal, long-time operator Dean Ballot would proceed to handle the famed eatery, which Ballot plans to shut on Oct. 16 attributable to unsustainable labor and license prices.
Ballot informed The Submit that Murstein’s capital enhancements — together with a redesigned out of doors bar, extra out of doors public bathrooms and an overhaul of the Boathouse’s grungy parking zone — “would make it a jewel field and a fair better amenity for town.”
Murstein, head of publicly traded Medallion Monetary Corp., didn’t return calls.
Lawyer Barry Le Patner, who made the pitch to the Parks Division on behalf of Murstein and Ballot, mentioned, “Andrew got here alongside and mentioned he’d wish to be a white knight.”
“We had been giving them continuity of administration, with recent {dollars} and Dean to handle it,” Le Patner added.
However the lawyer mentioned the supply was rebuffed — not by Parks however by town’s Workplace of Administration and Finances, which wished much more dough, he claimed.
“It was like in ‘Oliver Twist’ — ‘Please sir, I need some extra,’ ” Le Patner mentioned.
Requested whether or not OMB had made the decision on Murstein, a Parks Dept. spokesperson mentioned: “OMB is a companion in our concessions course of and we worth their enter.”
Sources mentioned that different bidders for the Boathouse license embody well-heeled venue-catering powerhouse Legends Hospitality, which gives meals and beverage service at Yankee Stadium and One World Commerce Heart.
A Legends spokesperson declined to remark.
“We’ve been negotiating in good religion with our present concessionaire based mostly upon their issues relating to their contract,” the Parks rep mentioned. “We anticipate … to as easily as doable transition to a brand new operator.”
The Submit’s Emily Smith first reported in August {that a} “thriller billionaire” would make the supply. Nonetheless, Murstein’s title didn’t floor till now.
Ballot mentioned that regardless of robust enterprise, the Boathouse can not earn a living and faces large losses sooner or later, as a result of union contract with Native Six of the Lodge Trades Council. The contract requires annual 3% wage hikes, or as much as $150,000 a 12 months.
The union gained’t budge on contract phrases, he mentioned.
So Ballot and Murstein as an alternative sought operating-cost aid on the license settlement with town. It requires Ballot to pay 7.2% of income, which at present is about $20 million a 12 months. Beneath his and Murstein’s proposal, they’d pay the 7.2% solely after the primary $13 million income in a given 12 months.
Additionally they assured to pay town not less than $560,000 a 12 months no matter income, and a whopping 12% on income above $24 million a 12 months.
In the meantime, Ballot mentioned he’s holding about $1 million in escrow on deposits for occasions booked for the Boathouse after Oct. 16. That interprets into about $4 million in income, which town gained’t get a chunk of if the restaurant closes as deliberate.
