Page 39 - Midas Touch

in opening in New York. However, unless the city gave us a break on
property taxes, the costs would be too high, and it would be impossible.

I made an effective point, and the city agreed to a deal that benefited
everyone and made us partners. I would receive a property-tax abatement
for 40 years, and I would buy the Commodore for $10 million, with $6

million going to the city for back taxes. I would then sell the hotel to the
city for one dollar, and they would lease it back to me for 99 years.

If that sounds complicated, that’s because it was complicated. But it
worked out for everyone. Eventually, we got financing from two
institutions, and the Grand Hyatt was a huge success. It opened in 1980
and marked the beginning of the revitalization of midtown and Grand
Central. It remains a beautiful hotel to this day.

I think you’ll agree that I ran into some bad luck while getting this project
done, but I managed to work through the problems and things fell into
line. As Robert mentions, sometimes we don’t know how tough something
is going to be. No matter what, if you want the Midas Touch, you’ll stick
with it and see it through. Sometimes I wish things were easy, but they
usually aren’t.

When I first became partners with NBC for the Miss Universe and Miss
USA pageants, these pageants were not doing well. They were nowhere
near prime-time material. They had very few sponsors, and viewership
seemed to be lagging. Some people wondered why I’d be interested in
them as a business (aside from the beautiful women). But I saw great
potential and knew the pageants could become big draws if they were done
well. The Miss USA Pageant 2011 took the top ratings for the evening.

These are huge national and international events now and are considered
the gold standard for beauty pageants. Some people say, “Well, you just
got lucky,” but it was more than that. We worked hard at making a good
product by updating the format, hiring great producers and aiming for a
high-quality product across the board. Our approach and focus served
everyone well. Success is seldom a fluke. And the best part about success

is that great feeling you get from taking something that was barely
breathing and turning it into something alive.

There’s a special challenge to turning things around, whether it’s a
neighborhood or a program or a building. Part of the Midas Touch is