Billionaire Asks Donald Trump's Sons to Bring Panda House to Central Park

A New York billionaire working to bring pandas to Central Park has reportedly reached out to Donald Trump's sons to request help for the multimillion dollar project.

John Catsimatidis, the owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain, told the New York Post that he contacted Donald Jr. and Eric Trump to suggest they help with the long-running effort to bring a "panda pavilion" to Central Park. The Post first reported Catsimatidis' panda plea on Sunday night. Neither Catsimatidis nor the Trump Organization immediately responded to requests for comment from Patch on Monday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has previously said he supported the push to bring pandas to Manhattan as long as the project was privately funded.

"What I'd say to Eric is, 'You'd be doing for the panda project what your father did with the Wollman Rink. Can you build a panda facility that follows in the footsteps of your father?'" Catsimatidis told the Post.

"Maybe the Trump Organization will build it for half the price, the way Donald did the Wollman Rink for half the price," he said to the Post, referring to the park's ice skating rink that Trump repaired in 1986.

Trump touted the decades-old municipal project throughout his presidential campaign in 2016.

"We got it done and to this day it's the most successful ice skating rink, I still run it," he said at a rally in April.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat who represents New York's 12 district, has long fought to bring pandas to Central Park. Maloney was a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign and on Sunday spoke at a rally in Manhattan protesting Trump's executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

A spokeswoman for Maloney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch regarding the potential involvement of the Trump family in her long-standing quest to bring pandas to New York City.

Image via George Lu, Flickr, used under Creative Commons