The Ferry Point Park Golf Course, a dream of community leaders and elected officials since the late-1970s, is now a reality.
Mayor Bloomberg, real-estate tycoon and course operator Donald Trump, and legendary golfer and course designer Jack Nicklaus joined together with local electeds Wednesday, Oct. 16 to celebrate completion of the course’s final hole.
Community Board 10 first requested a golf course for the east side of Ferry Point Park in 1977, Bloomberg noted. But it took the efforts of his and predecessor Rudy Giuliani’s administrations to make the golf course a reality.
Former city landfill
It also required environmental remediation for the site, which closed as a city landfill in 1963.
“We have great public courses around the five boroughs, but we’ve never had a pro tournament-quality public course — until now,” said Bloomberg. “Ferry Point Park is just the latest example of our work to reuse and re-imagine brownfields around the city. It is also the culmination of a process that has been six decades in the making.”
He added: “The new course will bring revenue to the City – and the open space will bring great opportunities for recreation and relaxation and a beautiful new greenspace to the Bronx.”
Tee off in 2015
The 18-hole course was designed by Nicklaus Design and Sanford Golf Design, with construction managed by the Parks Department. The golf course will be operated by the Trump Organization, which will build a clubhouse and put finishing touches on the course, set to open in the summer of 2014 for youth programing, and the spring of 2015 for the general public.
Local elected officials and civic leaders, including Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, former Councilwoman Madeline Provenzano, Community Board 10 district manager Kenneth Kearns and chairman John Marano, all praised the new course.
“The forthcoming golf course will be a major amenity to our borough, transforming a blighted site into a world class golf course,” said Diaz. “That Donald Trump is willing to lend his significant brand name to our borough shows that we are, indeed, building the ‘New Bronx.’”
CB 10 chairman Marano said that he hoped the golf course would serve as an economic engine for the surrounding area.
“I think the golf course is going to bring a lot more people to our area, and hopefully, when they finish golf it will bring a lot more people to restaurants along East Tremont Avenue and in Pelham Bay,” he said.
