When Central Park’s newly renovated Wollman Rink opened in November, it seemed a triumph for then mayor Bill de Blasio. In the wake of the January 6 storming of the Capitol, de Blasio had brayed that New York City “doesn’t do business with insurrectionists,” and tried—and failed—to strip the Trump Organization of its longtime city contract to manage the property.
And so once that contract expired, de Blasio was delighted to welcome Wollman’s first new operator in two decades: Wollman Park Partners (W.P.P.), an entity that consists of real-estate developer the Related Companies, whose chairman and founder is billionaire Stephen Ross; Equinox, the fitness chain whose investors include principals of Related; and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which is co-owned by private-equity billionaires Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who respectively made their fortunes at Apollo and Blackstone.
