By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — “The Donald” won’t get any special treatment in his plan to restore the shuttered landmark Tavern on the Green to its former glory, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on his radio show Friday.
Bombastic businessman Donald Trump announced a plan earlier this week to invest $20 million into revamping and reopening the famed Central Park eatery, calling on the city to lease him the property.
Trump said he’d already struck a deal with the union that represents the former Tavern employees, which would provide a five-year contract for between 400 and 500 workers, insisting that the project would be “a gift for the city.”
But the mayor made clear during his weekly radio show on Friday that the city would continue to use the space as a visitor center and gift shop, with a seating area for ethnic food carts.
"We said we’d give it a year and we’re going to give it a year, and then we’ll open this up to anybody who wants to bid," the mayor said.
Bloomberg scoffed at the idea that the city should shutdown its recently-opened venture to make way for Trump's grand plans.
"You don’t automatically give it to somebody just because they say to the paper 'I’m willing to do it,'" the mayor asserted.
"Donald’s a promoter, and I think he’s a very good one. I really do like him, but [this proposal] is very premature."
Bloomberg also challenged the notion that park goers would prefer a fancy sit-down restaurant to more casual food offerings, pointing to the success of Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack in Madison Square Park.
The two New York billionaires bumped heads last Fall, when Trump criticized the Bloomberg-supported “Ground Zero Mosque,” even offering to buy the Park Place building in order to end the controversy.
