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T HE T RUMP T OUCH

ald left the meeting, he pulled me aside and said, “I’ve softened Len
up, but I really need the new lease ASAP; buying Kandell’s property
doesn’t make sense. Make the lease happen.” When I went back to
the table, Len Kandell said, “George, before we discuss the terms of
a new lease I want you to know I’m going to agree to a lease. If I
don’t, Donald will buy my site for a lot of money, but I’ll have a lot of
taxes to pay and I really can’t think of a better place to have money
invested than 57th Street and 5th Avenue. I leave it up to you to
draft a lease that meets Donald’s needs but is a fair deal for me.” I
was shocked by Kandell’s simple down-to-earth approach. He was
willing to place his trust in me even though he knew I was Trump’s
lawyer! He said to me, “I know you lawyers are all alike, it will take
you months to do a simple lease. At my age I don’t have months to
spare.” I said, “If your lawyer will cooperate I’ll have your lease done
in two weeks.” He said, “I’ll bet you can’t do it and I’ll give you 2 to
1 odds.” I accepted the challenge and he put up $2 against my $1.
Within two weeks, I prepared and finalized a long-term ground
lease with Kandell that gave Trump the air rights he needed and
gave Kandell a rental income commensurate with the value of the air
rights. One of Kandell’s two bucks is still on my wall today. The
other I gave to Trump for his cooperation in facilitating the lease
negotiations. The creation of the lease was the first step in a long-
term friendship between Donald Trump and Leonard Kandell that
proved invaluable in future dealings. The lesson for small investors
(to reiterate a point made in Chapter 1) is that you should never un-
derestimate the value of good relationships if you are going to be a
long-term real estate investor. Both Kandell and Trump were tough
negotiators, but they understood this.
Now that he had the air rights he needed to build a building tall
enough to justify the high cost of the location, Trump made some
very creative and profitable design changes that real estate investors
can learn from. He made a concession to New York City, by agree-
ing to create a pedestrian walkway between 5th Avenue and Madison
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