Page 18 - [George_Ross,_Andrew_James_McLean,_Donald_J._Trump(BookFi)

P REF ACE

buyer. No lawyer would let a client buy the property with such a de-
fect and certainly no bank would place a mortgage on it. The problem
related to land under water that was filled in sometime in the 1800s.
A law was passed stipulating that if the land under water was filled in
by the adjoining landowner before 1849, the landowner had good
title to it. If it was filled in after 1849, the State of New Jersey owned
it. I couldn’t prove when it was filled in and who filled it nor could
the State of New Jersey.
I told Sol we should get a price reduction and also convince the
railroad to take back a long-term purchase money mortgage at a low
interest rate since no lender would make any loan because of the title
defect. The railroad agreed to reduce the purchase price by $400,000
and to take a sizable mortgage, so we closed the deal. Several years
went by but the title impediment still stuck in my craw. I was certain
that the State of New Jersey must have encountered the same prob-
lem in the past since much of the land abutting the Hudson River was
filled-in land. I contacted the State and learned that they were aware
of the problem and rather than sit with a dubious claim they had
passed a statute giving the State the right to give up its claim in ex-
change for the value of their interest in the disputed land. Following
the procedure outlined in the statute, we paid a minimal amount and
received a quitclaim deed to the land in dispute from the State of
New Jersey. As a result, the property appreciated in value so much
that a bank made a first mortgage loan in an amount exceeding the
total purchase price paid by Goldman and DiLorenzo.
From 1956 to 1966 Goldman and DiLorenzo were New Yorkreal
estate. When I arrived at Goldman and DiLorenzo in 1956, they
owned18properties; when I left in 1966, they owned 720. I negoti-
ated and handled almost all of these purchasesby myselfwith very lit-
tle supervision from them. We were buying Manhattan ground leases
by thedozen, warehouses in New York harbor, and multimillion-
dollar office buildings. We were dealing in big numbers, and much of

xvii