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AMID THE WEEDS and rats, the rotting piers and corroding West Side Highway, amid the political maneuvering and star-studded community protests, lie 76 acres along the Hudson River that are crucial to Donald Trump's legacy and the fate of his faltering empire.
More than his glittering Atlantic City casinos, his airline shuttle, Fifth Avenue tower or even the landmark Plaza Hotel, the former Penn Central rail yard on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that Trump and others have been trying to develop for more than 15 years is his most expansive and expensive vision.
It also may prove to be the biggest test of his deal-making skills and his ability to put financial and practical considerations above his ego.
"Trump City is absolutely central to Donald's view of how history will judge him - whether or not as one of the 20th Century's greatest urban planners and developers," said James Capalino, a consultant on the $5-billion project.
Trump envisioned the project to contain the world's tallest building, a three-level shopping mall, 7,600 apartments, more than 7,300 underground parking spaces, as much office space as three Chrysler Buildings, a 750-room hotel and nearly 20 acres of parks, including a 13-block promenade.
But that was before he faced monumental financial problems that have bankers breathing down his neck, community groups that are trying to sell their own ideas for the biggest remaining undeveloped site in Manhattan, a revised zoning-approval process with a new cast of characters and an atmosphere in which legal challenges can destroy projects or delay them for years.
To weave his way through these obstacles, real estate experts who know Trump say that more than ever, he is ready to compromise his vision and, at the very least, they expect him to dramatically scale down the 14.5-million-square-foot project's centerpiece, a 150-story office-hotel-and-apartment tower.
In fact, his filings to the city Planning Commission discuss three possible alternative versions. Two versions propose 12-million-square-foot projects, and the smallest - 8 million square feet - would shrink the building to about 40 stories, reduce the projected office space by two-thirds, eliminate the hotel, reduce the mall to one level and cut more than 3,000 parking spaces.
If Trump were to embrace elements of his scaled-down versions,...