Possible deal for 'Trump on the Ocean'

Donald Trump and the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo are in settlement talks that could result in a deal to allow the developer to build the controversial Trump on the Ocean restaurant and catering hall at Jones Beach State Park.

Attorneys for the state and Trump have asked courts in Albany and Mineola to adjourn lawsuits that Trump had filed against two state agencies after the state denied him a permit to build a restaurant with a basement in a flood-hazard zone.

A settlement would be a change in direction for the state, which had stymied Trump in court up to now.

"The parties are currently circulating settlement documents for review and signature, and as we expect the parties to reach an amicable settlement without need for this court's intervention, all parties respectfully request an adjournment of approximately 60 days," Seth Presser, a Trump attorney, wrote this week to Justice Anthony F. Marano of State Supreme Court in Mineola.

The letter addressed a lawsuit Trump filed against the state parks department to block the agency from collecting rent from the developer or terminating his concessions contract during the ongoing dispute. The case was scheduled to be argued next Thursday, according to the letter.

A separate lawsuit against the New York Department of State over the zoning variance also has been postponed in New York's highest court. "Both parties asked to remove it from the calendar" indefinitely, said Gary Spencer, spokesman for the Court of Appeals.

Trump signed a $74-million contract with the Parks Department in December 2006 to take over concessions at Jones Beach State Park. But nearly six years later, the project remains stalled -- largely because Trump wants to build a structure with a basement in a flood-hazard zone and state agencies refuse to approve such a facility.

Trump eventually launched three lawsuits against the state. Last year, he lost his final appeal in a claim for $500 million in damages he said were caused by the delays.

Cuomo, as state attorney general from 2007 to 2010, had represented New York at the onset of the lawsuits. Last September, after Trump headlined a Jones Beach rally to blast New York as "one of the most unfriendly states in this country to do business," Cuomo's parks department issued a strong statement indicating it would not back off its opposition to the basement, citing safety reasons.

Reached at his Garden City office, Presser declined to comment. "Settlement discussions are expressly confidential," he said.

Cuomo officials didn't comment immediately.