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WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIP


March 8, 2012


Gil Hanse

Ivanka Trump

Donald Trump


MIAMI, FLORIDA

CHRIS REIMER:  We will welcome special guests for a press conference today to start off the World Golf Championships Cadillac Championship.
Starting left, we have Ivanka Trump,  executive vice president, development and acquisition for the Trump Organization; stage right, as you met in here yesterday, we have Gil Hanse; and then of course, in the middle we have Mr.Donald Trump, chairman and president of the Trump Organization.
It was announced earlier last week in a press release that Mr.Trump had purchased Doral Resorts, and Mr.Trump, if you don't mind starting us off with some opening comments about the purchase of this property and your excitement to be here.
DONALD J. TRUMP:  Thank you, Chris.  Well, it's a great honor to be here.  We think that Doral has just tremendous opportunity, it's a tremendous location, 800 acres right smack in the middle of Miami, and we look to make this one of the great places anywhere in the world for golf.  It needs a lot of work.  It's a little bit tired and that's okay, and we are going to do something special.
The judge just approved the deal on Friday of last week, and we close on June 1, and we are going to put probably in excess of $200 million into the deal to bring it back to a level that even Doral has never seen.  Ivanka is going to be working on it very strongly.  My son, Eric Trump, who is right here, is going to be down here and working on it very strongly, and we are going to do some job.
About a month ago, I was looking; and everybody wanted it, I will tell you, there was no dirt that the wonderful architects, many of whom are friends of mine‑‑ but we, Eric and Ivanka and myself, decided that we wanted to use Gil.  We hired Gil Hanse and his firm, and they have already come up with plans that are absolutely amazing; respecting the course and respecting the great tradition of Doral, very much respecting it, and I think that was important to Gil.  I know it was important to Gil.
So we are really thrilled with what he's come up with, and I think you're going to see something that will be as good as there is anywhere in the world.  We'll probably, because of timing, we'll close on June 1 as I said.  Because of timing, we probably will start the actual construction; we'll close it down for about six months I think and start the actual construction at the end of the next tournament, because we won't have enough time between the permitting and the closing, we won't have enough time to do it prior to this one.
So we'll close it right after the 2013 tournament.  We won't skip a beat, and in the meantime we are going to be spending literally tens of millions of dollars on the rooms and the ballrooms and all of the public space, and the clubhouse in particular is going to get a tremendous renovation.
So I think everybody in the room, everybody that loves golf will be really happy.  And with that, I'd like to, No. 1, I want to congratulate, my friend here, I'm glad I chose him first.  In fact, without my choosing him he would not have gotten the Olympics.  (Laughter) They relied on me, believe me.  I'm only kidding‑‑ meeting a little true.  (Laughing).
Say a few words, Gil.
GIL HANSE:  Thank you, Donald.  We are tremendously thrilled about the opportunities here at Doral.
As Donald mentioned, it's originally a Dick Wilson golf course and I think he's one of the most underappreciated architects, certainly of his time and maybe in all of golf architecture.
So what we did is we wanted to look at the plans, really sort of understand, digest what he had tried to accomplish here and how that has changed, how things have deviated from the plan; what was pertinent relevant to today's game, today's players, and then take that and sort of incorporate it into our own design thoughts, etc.
So it would not be accurate to call it a restoration.  It's really not.  It's a renovation, because we think we are obviously making some significant changes to golf holes, but I think within the spirit of Dick Wilson, we'll try to recapture some of the stylistic elements.  We'll try to recapture some of his exciting green shapes, hole locations.
We'll try to create a golf course will angles are relevant again and where it's important to get to a proper side to score as opposed to just hitting it as far as you possibly can.  I think if you talk to a lot of the players, that seems to be the strategy or lack thereof on this golf course now is to try to overpower it.
If we can do some things that can hopefully enhance the interest and character in the course, that's really our first and foremost goal.

Q.  How do you compare this investment to your other investments in South Florida?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  Well, I've had some great investments in south Florida.  We have been partners with the Dezer family; and even despite a bad market, the buildings have been absolutely fantastic.  Trump Hollywood is doing unbelievably well.  That's with a group of actually friends and funds.
This is an interesting one, because as you know, a tremendous amount of money was paid.  And over the years‑‑ the problem is, over the years, people have bought Doral.  Everybody made money with Doral.  They buy it and then sell it, and they buy it and then sell it.  But people wouldn't put the money back in; other than they did spend $50 million to build a ball room, which, you know, I love getting it for nothing.  But in my opinion it wasn't necessary.
So, I don't know.  I'll let you know‑‑ when you say how do you compare, we have had great investments.  The Mar‑a‑Lago Club is a tremendous success in Palm Beach, and many of you have been at the golf club, I recognize many of you.  As you know, many of the magazines rate the course in Palm Beach the No. 1 course in Florida, and we are going to try to top that here.  I don't know if we can top it but we are going to damn well try, right (turning to Gil).  And we have had great success in Palm Beach with Trump International.
As far as an investment is concerned, I'll let you know in about five years.  You never really know.
IVANKA TRUMP:  I think what makes this so special, as well, and such a tremendous opportunity for us is it would be impossible to replicate 800 acres in Miami.
So that really is such a special asset.  That, combined with the already great Blue Monster which we'll make better and then a total renovation of the facilities.  There really will be nothing like it and there really is nothing like it in a city that is as robust as this one.  So normally you have these large golf resorts, and they take five planes and three hours and a car to get to; so this really is something very special.
DONALD J. TRUMP:  One of the things that Gil pointed out to me, and it became obvious very quickly is that the Blue Monster is on 320 acres.  There's so much land, and there are no houses.  There are courses and courses; and when you have houses up and down the fairways, you're never going to have greatness.  There are no houses, and yet you're in the middle of Miami and it's the only place that can do something like this.  So you have 320 acres.
So when Gil was looking at it in terms of moving greens, moving holes, moving tees, there's so much land, which also makes it a great tournament course.  But we had 320 acres, knowing that you need 170 or 180 to build a great course; we have much more than that.
So when you see his plan, I think you're going to really be I am prettied.  I think he's done an amazing job.  He's been working on it for a couple of months, him and his firm and I think you're going to be very impressed.

Q.  With when it's done, will it still be the TPC Blue Monster or will you put your own name on it?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  Well, we are going to think about that.  It's going to stay Doral, at least for the next year, and I'll always be keeping the name Doral in some form.
When we have spent the money, and when it's at the highest level of luxury and highest levels of golf, because this will be the highest levels of luxury; the course will be the highest levels of golf, then we are going to make the decision.  But it will be in some form Doral.

Q.  Are you doing any work to the other courses?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  Yes, we will be.  We will be doing quite a bit of work on the Gold and the Red and we'll be making some decisions.  In fact, we have 900 members, 940 members and I'm meeting with them tonight.  I want to get their opinion.  We'll be doing new locker rooms.  We'll be doing new dining areas.  We'll be doing terraces overlooking the first green.
We just came up with a great plan to do some terraces over the first green from the clubhouse itself.  So we'll be doing quite a bit.  But we'll also be doing at a minimum, fixing them.  And there's a minor chance, and this is a little bit early to talk about, but again, you have a lot of acreage, if you add those two courses together, and instead of having two good courses, creating one great course.  So we have not made that decision yet.
At a minimum we'll fix them and make them really nice and really good but it's possible that we'll make them into one great course at some point down the road.  I don't think it will be able to match what Gil is doing, however.

Q.  At the risk of breaking some hearts in this room, am I going to be getting Marriott points here next year?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  Sadly, no.  (Laughter).  Marriott has been terrific but Marriott is no longer involved.

Q.  Effective?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  Effective when we take over June 1.  We'll be taking over approximately June 1.

Q.  I hate to take you off topic but Peyton Manning said that he might be joining the dolphins; your reaction?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  I'm a fan; I'm a friend.  I did a commercial with Peyton and his brother for Oreo which got the commercial of the year and I think it was because of them, not because of me.  But I did a big commercial, and it was an amazing commercial.
And they are great guys and Peyton is a fantastic guy.  And I would love to see him come to Miami.  You know, first of all, Steve Ross is a very good friend of mine.  He's a member of my club in Palm Beach, and I think that Peyton would be great for Miami.  It would be a fantastic thing for the area.  And who's better?  He's great.  Very exciting.

Q.  Would you have any hopes of getting a U.S. Open here eventually, a PGA Championship?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  Well, we have a big championship now, and frankly, in July, you couldn't have it here.  We do have other‑‑ I have a course in Washington which is phenomenal on the Potomac, I have a course in Bedminster, New Jersey, which is, I believe‑‑ I think they have announced it.  If they have haven't, I'm going to say this off the record even though we are on live television.  I'm hearing rumours about getting the U.S. Women's Open.
We have an amazing facility, two courses; Tom Fazio; in Bedminster, New Jersey that everybody is raving about and we have gotten tremendous reviews, and likewise in Washington.
But this area could never have a U.S. Open, because when you get into July and August, it's a little hot.  I think the course could do it very easily, but the weather would be a little bit too hot.

Q.  Obviously an upgrade of this facility would probably include the driving range.  What do you do with that?  Do you move it?  Are you able to expand?  What are your plans there?
GIL HANSE:  The plans include a significant upgrade to the driving range, both from a length standpoint as well as from a width standpoint.
So the primary impact on the golf course will be to push it out into the 10th hole.  So as a result, the 10th tee, if you can visualize this, will shift closer to the water and a little bit further up and that will then offer options for players to pick several carry points over the water.  Right now there are very few carry points.
So we think that will make for a much more interesting, exciting tee shot.  As Donald was saying, there's so much room on this property, if you look behind the 10th green if you are out there walking around today, there's about 150 yards back there.  So we are going to push the green further back, take it away from the water and so we'll in essence keep the par5, but shift it down range and that gives us the flexibility to do all of the improvements we need to do at the range.
DONALD J. TRUMP:  That's a good question because the driving range is so important and this driving range is obviously inadequate in many respects.  We'll be doubling up the size of the driving range, and the length will be probably 50 percent longer.
So we are going to have a real driving range, a beautiful driving range.  And at the same time, and I think you would agree, the 10th hole becomes a much better hole, much more exciting hole and a much more beautiful hole.  That's a good question.

Q.  You sort of mentioned a minute ago, but how close do you feel you are to your major championship dream, having a men's major championship?  Where do you feel you are?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  All I do is provide the canvas.  You know, it's not my major business, but I love golf and I've had a great relationship with golf.  I have great respect for Tim Finchem and for Ty and for Mike Davis and for so many people in the industry.  And they are great people, they are great men, and you know, I'm very good at real estate, and I get great locations.  And this is one of them.
But in Bedminster, I have 800 acres, as good of land as anyone has seen; in Washington; in Los Angeles I have a course that's on the Pacific Ocean for two and a quarter miles that did tremendous business last year; and they are all successful.  And now I'm opening one in Scotland, which is getting the best reviews I've ever gotten on anything I've ever built, and it has not even opened yet.  It's an amazing piece of land.
So I am providing the greatest canvases to Ty and Tim and Mike Davis, and Joe Steranka, who is another good guy, and whatever they decide to do, that's fine.  If it happens, it happens.  I know it's going to happen for her some day, for me, probably not.  For me, probably the day after they announce 'Trump gone,' they announce that Ivanka has just got the U.S. Open and they will say, "She's a genius!  She's a genius!"

Q.  You said you love golf, but just talk about why you have spent so much money, invested so much into all the golf courses, particularly at a time when golf is down; what makes you want to be so involved in it?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  Well, I have friends that are very successful people and they love to garden.  And I like to garden, too, I guess in a much bigger way.  I also love tremendous acreage.  If you look at my acreage, you know, when you have 600 acres on the ocean overlooking Catalina Island in Los Angeles, there's a tremendous value there for me.
Plus, my golf courses all do very well.  They are all winners; they are all top of the line.  And I started off building them, and then I started buying them.  And I like buying them better.  And I don't buy ‑‑ I turn down ten for every one I buy, and I only buy if it's either the best or can be the best.  And this is an example.  I mean, Doral can be the absolute best.  And somebody else buys it for $500 million and we buy it for substantially‑‑ we bought it for $150million, but that allows us to put a lot of money into it and do it really right.
So we are going to do this really right.  So I enjoy it, and I view it as a business, but it's not my main business.  But more importantly, I will spend much more money on fixing Doral than somebody else, because somebody else is looking on return on investment; I'm not.  I'm looking to make an amazing place, and the return will come.  So I think it's a good thing for golf.

Q.  You talk about improvements and existing buildings, renovations of the golf course, your business is real estate, are there any plans or new buildings or private homes on the property?
DONALD J. TRUMP:  We have the right for a couple of million square feet, which is a lot; this is a very big property, but there's absolutely no plans.  All I want to do is take the existing buildings with Eric and Ivanka and make them absolutely beautiful.
You know, the bones of this place are phenomenal, the way it was originally designed by a great architect, Morris Lapidus, who is a very famous architect actually, and is now, much like Dick Wilson, is now getting great credit for being one of the great architects.  It was laid out brilliantly, but we are going to do new rooms and new bathrooms and new everything.  Restaurants are going to be magnificent.
The ballrooms are going to be absolutely magnificent.  When you look at the ballroom that you have your equipment in, it's an amazing room with the panelled walls and the mahogany walls.  It needs work.  It needs care.  It needs some love and that has not happened.
So we are going to make this place really fantastic.  And I think everyone's going to be very happy.  And it's going to take a little while and it's going to take a lot of money, but the end result is going to be great, and most importantly, I think Gil is going to be the star of this whole deal, because he's going to do something really, really special.
And I've given you an unlimited budget; that true?  Did I say you have to watch the pennies?
GIL HANSE:  You haven't but Ivanka said I do.  (Laughter).
CHRIS REIMER:  Thank you, Mr. Trump, congratulations on your purchase.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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