By Thomas Tracy
In mob parlance, the city’s Parks Department is trying to get “out from under” an association with a neighborhood golf course vendor with alleged ties to organized crime. In letters dated Monday, Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe told representatives from East Coast Golf, Inc. that they are terminating their license with them. The termination comes after the City’s Comptroller’s office reported that Domenick Logozzo, the president of East Coast Golf, allegedly has connections to the Colombo crime family. The 20-year contract between East Coast Golf and the city will be terminated in late February, the notice stated. “After consultation with the Department of Investigation, the Parks Department has determined that it is in the best interests of the City to terminate the current concession agreement at Marine Park golf course and re-bid it,” Parks Department spokesperson Warner Johnston said in a statement. Calls to Logozzo at the Marine Park Golf Course were not returned as this paper went to press. In 2005, the Parks Department signed a contract with East Coast Golf to repair the Marine Park Golf Course, and run course concessions and a pro shop. Located at 2880 Flatbush Avenue off the Belt Parkway, the Marine Park Golf Course, originally designed by the renowned architect Robert Trent Jones in the early 1960s, was in disrepair before East Coast Golf signed the $9.6 million contract with the city – an agreement that wasn’t set to be re-negotiated until December 2026. Everything changed, however, in early January when Comptroller William Thompson contacted Parks Commissioner Benepe with allegations that Logozzo had done business with Craig Marino, an alleged member of the Colombo crime family. It’s been charged that Logozzo allegedly loaned Marino’s father $48,000, so the alleged mobster’s dad could invest in the popular, celebrity-endorsed Zone Diet. Federal prosecutors looking to bring down the Colombo crime family alleged that the investment into the Zone Diet plan was simply a cover to hide illegally gained profits from Marino’s criminal enterprises. Federal prosecutors allege that Marino made more than $20 million from criminal activities, including so-called “pump-and-dump” schemes. Court records also show that Marino — who has the phrase “F – – – the Police” tattooed across his chest — drives a Lincoln Navigator registered to Dominick Logozzo, according to the New York Post. “Although Mr. Logozzo is not implicated in any of the criminal activities alleged in the Marino indictment, the information we have obtained gives rise to numerous integrity concerns about the concessionaire,” Thompson said in his letter to Benepe, where he encouraged the commissioner to find a way to dissolve the agreement. Now that the contract with Logozzo has been terminated, Comptroller Thompson said that he was “gratified that the City administration has determined that this agreement was not prudent.” “But make no mistake: there was no contract because it was never registered,” he said. “This situation never would have happened if the Parks Department had followed the law and sent us the agreement for registration prior to its implementation.”
