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The [Friday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“After a series of primary wins on Tuesday, Donald Trump is the man to beat for the Republican Party nomination for president. And as you surely know, Trump voters are enamored of his carefully burnished reputation as a businessman supposedly worth ‘in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS,'” Joe Brancatelli writes for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.
“But like his all-caps boasting on Federal Election Commission financial forms, Trump’s record doesn’t translate to the travel industry. His travel forays over the past 40 years have been a strange brew of missed opportunities, dreadful timing, questionable financial maneuvers, swaggering braggadocio, tear-down-the-competition innuendo and outright failure.”
Here’s the part that particularly interested me:

Donald Trump’s introduction to the world essentially came through travel. He took a $1 option on a down-at-the-heels hotel next to New York’s Grand Central Terminal. Armed with a clutch of tax abatements, he and his partner, the publicity-shy Pritzker Family, converted the property into the 1,400-room, $100 million Grand Hyatt. The building was always controversial – the glass facade and ostentatious, multi-level marble lobby were brutal and brassy – and the partnership was always troubled.
Years of private conflict and failed arbitration erupted into a spate of lawsuits in 1993. Trump complained the Pritzkers, who built the global Hyatt chain, were bad partners. In their defense, the Pritzkers simply urged people to read Trump’s boastful book, The Art of the Deal. Three years later, the Pritzkers bought out Trump for $140 million. That also freed Hyatt from a New York City non-compete clause. Now a public corporation, Hyatt operates eight Manhattan hotels, including the Grand Hyatt, which recently received a tasteful renovation. Trump’s own chain, Trump Hotels, has two New York hotels.

Assignment Desk: Get the Pritzkers on the phone!
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From the links:
“A back-room feud between two giants of the American real estate world broke into the open yesterday when Donald J. Trump, the New York developer, filed a civil racketeering suit against Jay Pritzker, the Chicago financier, over the Pritzker family’s management of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City,” the New York Times reported in 1993.
“The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, charges that Hyatt used questionable accounting and unauthorized payments to enrich the Pritzkers at Mr. Trump’s expense. One goal of these improper practices, the lawsuit charges, was to force Mr. Trump out of the partnership and thus free Hyatt to operate other New York hotels. Mr. Trump is demanding $500 million in damages and the ouster of Hyatt from its management contract.
“Jay Pritzker yesterday defended his family’s role in the Grand Hyatt partnership. ‘We have a lot of satisfied partners,’ Mr. Pritzker said. ‘If you want to see what kind of partner Mr. Trump is, read his book,” he added, referring to The Art of the Deal, in which Mr. Trump boasted of getting the best of any transaction.”
Click through for the ugly details.
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In 1996, the Times reported:
“Donald J. Trump sold his half interest in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York to the Pritzker family’s Hyatt Corporation yesterday for $140 million, bringing to an end an often rancorous, 17-year partnership in a landmark property that marked the developer’s rise to prominence.”
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From Vanity Fair:
“Trump’s first major real-estate coup in New York was the acquisition of the Commodore Hotel, which would become the Grand Hyatt. This deal, secured with a controversial tax abatement from the city, made Trump’s reputation. His partner at the time was the well-respected Pritzker family of Chicago, who owned the Hyatt chain. Their contract was specific: Trump and Jay Pritzker agreed that if there were any sticking points they would have a ten-day period to arbitrate their differences. At one point, they had a minor disagreement. ‘Jay Pritzker was leaving for a trip to Nepal, where he was to be incommunicado,’ a lawyer for the Pritzker family told me. ‘Donald waited until Jay was in the airplane before he called him. Naturally, Jay couldn’t call him back. He was on a mountain in Nepal. Later, Donald kept saying, I tried to call you. I gave you the ten days. But you were in Nepal. It was outrageous. Pritzker was his partner, not his enemy! This is how he acted on his first important deal.’ Trump later even reported the incident in his book.”
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From Vice:
“He also started to get a reputation, in certain circles, for being a first-class asshole. Blair tells a story of when Trump, upon seeing Hyatt founder Jay Pritzker with a beautiful woman at a party, decided he would steal said woman and arranged a meeting – but when he found out she was just a friend of Pritzker’s and not his date, he lost interest.”
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See also: Out To Trump The Pritzkers.
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h/t: My dad, who sent me the MSP Business Journal article.
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The Beachwood Radio Network
Both The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour and The Beachwood Radio Hour are is in pre-production.
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The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #92: The Many Fetishizations Of Media Fanboys
No detail too mundane, every lame joke an instant classic.
Plus: The White Sox Are Also Holding Spring Training But Let’s Talk About Other Stuff; Memo To Maddon: Up Your Game; Ivy League Not So Smart: Brandi’s Brain; Boring Bears Banishing Bennett; I Don’t Want To See Athletes’ Smelly Naked Dicks; Blackhawks Babble; Bulls Babble; Go Trojans; and The Everton Minute.
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Triton Twin Powers
* Men’s Basketball Team Reaches No. 1 In Nation For First Time.
* Lady Trojans Reach First Regional Title Game Since 1994.
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Beachwood Photo Booth: Nick’s Meat Market
Where the beef is.
Ex-Con George Ryan To Personally Appeal For Statue
Former governor scheduled as keynote speaker at fundraising dinner.
The Week In Chicago Rock
Featuring: Kaleo, Ne Obliviscaris, Tinashe, Nana Pancha, Butcher Babies, Cradle of Filth, Tonight Alive, and Set It Off.
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BeachBook

PBS News Hour puts its thumb on the scale against single-payer health insurance, and then refuses to correct its obvious error.

Posted by The Beachwood Reporter on Thursday, March 3, 2016

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Posted by The Beachwood Reporter on Friday, March 4, 2016

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It’s still lost!

Posted by The Beachwood Reporter on Friday, March 4, 2016

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Just 23% came from the media.

Posted by The Beachwood Reporter on Friday, March 4, 2016

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TweetWood
A sampling.
Stop looking at Trumpsters through the lens of traditional voters; this coalition DGAF.


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Assignment Desk: WHY?


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Memories.

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Posted on March 4, 2016