What was the city thinking?
Mayor Bloomberg rejected a proposal that promised an extra $30 million cash for the city’s depleted coffers in order to hand the lease for Tavern on the Green to restaurateur Dean Poll, who never even succeeded in opening the restaurant, The Post has learned.
Jennifer LeRoy (Pictured) — whose family had operated the iconic Central Park eatery since 1974 — agreed to pay the city $86 million in fees over the 20-year lease, according to financial documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. Poll, who runs the nearby Boathouse Cafe, offered only $57.3 million.
A third respondent to the city’s request for proposals, or RFP, in February 2009, Capitale owner Seth Greenberg, projected paying the city $47 million for the park con cession. His plan didn’t make it to the next round, according to a lawyer for the Parks Depart ment, which oversaw the RFP.
But the city seemed bent on bouncing LeRoy, insiders said, in part because of con cerns about the heiress’ business savvy, her company’s failing fi nances and a long grudge against her late father.
Poll, awarded the lease in August, never was able to reopen the 66-year-old, 23,000-square-foot landmark after failing to reach a deal with its 400 union workers. Bloomberg announced last month that Tavern on the Green — once the second-highest-grossing restaurant in the country — will temporarily become a visitors center and hot-dog stand.
City Hall told The Post it’s shaping a new RFP for the fall.
“We’re hopeful we’ll be able to solicit an even wider and stronger array of proposals this time,” said Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent.
Informed of the lower bids by her two competitors, LeRoy, in her first interview since she was booted, said the city “blindsided” her.
“It just doesn’t add up or make sense,” said LeRoy, 31. “If I had done something wrong, I would understand losing Tavern. But I thought we had a good relationship with the city. We loved it like it was our own and put millions into it that we could have had to do another project.
“We expected a fair chance to stay — and now it seems like it wasn’t even there.”
LeRoy said she may answer the coming RFP. “Would we like to operate Tavern again? Absolutely.”
Longtime restaurant owner Warner LeRoy had a rocky relationship with City Hall over the years — he skirted the Landmarks Preservation Commission to build the huge Crystal Room.
When he died in 2001, his daughter, then 22, took over.
Buried in debt and stuck in a financial downturn, Jennifer’s company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last September.
Poll’s “proposal was dramatically more detailed and achievable, when considering all the factors,” a Parks Department spokeswoman said. “The fee was not the only factor considered.”
But in its RFP, the city said the fee would carry the most weight in the vetting process — 25 percent.
Poll said he would deliver $25 million in renovations — a bold promise that made city overseers “starry-eyed,” said a critic.
“Dean Poll made a lot of promises,” said Greenberg’s architect, Anthony Morali. “It seemed impossible that he could deliver that. Meanwhile, Seth Greenberg is now working on a project in Boston and we have a milk stand in Central Park.”
Some of the expenses Jennifer LeRoy projected for Tavern on the Green in 2012. She expected to be in the black by 2014.
* Electricity: $426,000
* Gardening: $200,000
* Laundry: $114,923
* China: $74,625
* Silverware: $22,388
* Operating expenses: $3.6M
* Total sales: $15M
* Total payroll: $6.6M
* Rent to city: $1.04M
* Bottom line: A loss of $1.4M