Trump tackles golf course with eye on more deals

Laura Wides

Monday, Nov. 11, 2002 | 9:26 a.m.

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump said his plan to turn a beleaguered cliff-side golf club into a world-class course is just the beginning of potential deals he's considering in Southern California.

Trump said he intends to close on the Ocean Trails Golf Club by December and hopes to begin improvements by January. The golf course, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, lost three holes in 1999 when part of it slid into the sea. Engineers already have spent several years reinforcing the land.

Trump could reopen the course, located 20 miles south of Los Angeles, as early as June.

Trump told a group of Rancho Palos Verdes civic leaders at the golf club Saturday that he picked the site primarily because of its location.

"We've had a love affair with this site for many years," he said. "We can make this better than Pebble Beach ... When it's completed, I think there won't be anything to rival it."

The real estate mogul also owns several other golf courses across the country, including the new Trump National Golf Club in upstate New York, which sports a 100-foot waterfall on the course.

Trump said he would not rule out building one of his signature hotels near the $350-a-round Southern California course.

"It's very possible. If you look at my Palm Beach course and at other areas, one thing usually goes with the other," he said.

Developers also have approached him about a possible Trump Tower Los Angeles, with luxury residential suites to rival its namesake in Manhattan, Trump told reporters.

"I may do that," he said. "Once it's going. Once it's up. I would not be surprised."

This isn't the first time Trump has pursued deals in Southern California. He is a co-owner of the desert Trump 29 Casino in Twentynine Palms. He also proposed turning the Ambassador Hotel into a 125-foot skyscraper in 1989 and promptly landed in a prolonged legal battle with the Los Angeles school board, which wanted to turn the historical site into a high school.

Trump eventually sold his share of the building, and the school board sought another location.

Trump reached a deal in August to buy the golf course. The terms were not disclosed, but he said Saturday he intends to spend "tens of millions of dollars to make this a world-class course."

Credit Suisse First Boston took control of the $150 million development project in April when its owners ran out of money following the landslide that tossed the course's 18th hole into the sea.

The 260-acre property features a 15-hole golf course, 75 empty home lots and a clubhouse with three restaurants.

To appease neighboring homeowners worried about their views -- and to improve the course -- Trump offered to replace a third of the proposed homes with a driving range. He also will maintain public trails to the beach.

To make any changes on the course, Trump must obtain approval from the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council, though its decision could be appealed to the state's Coastal Commission.

Trump said he was confident the course would not suffer anymore landslides. The 1999 slide occurred after engineers accidentally cut into a sewage pipe and flooded the land. But the peninsula does have several large fault lines running beneath it, evidenced by the buckled pavement along its main road.