Garage Tycoon Vows to Regain New York Post : Publishing: Millionaire Abraham Hirschfeld, who briefly owned the tabloid in March, says he has a ‘foolproof’ plan to rescue the historic paper.

Parking garage millionaire Abraham Hirschfeld, whose brief ownership of the New York Post last spring inspired a staff rebellion, pledged Saturday to regain control of the closed newspaper and resume publication as soon as possible.

“My first plans will probably be to meet with the unions and the lawyers,” Hirschfeld said in an interview in West Hollywood. “And I know the unions love me.”

The 73-year-old New York real estate tycoon, in Los Angeles on business, disclosed his renewed interest in the bankrupt newspaper one day after media magnate Rupert Murdoch dropped his bid to buy the Post because of failed cost-cutting talks with its unions.

Murdoch’s News America Publishing Corp., which took operational control of the troubled daily from Hirschfeld in March, suspended publication and canceled an agreement to run the newspaper. A company spokesman said the Post, founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton and now a brash and irreverent tabloid, was losing $300,000 a week.

Hirschfeld said he was unconcerned about the bleak financial picture, saying his plan to turn the paper around “is foolproof.” He also expressed little concern about other possible suitors, including millionaire financier Steven Hoffenberg, who reportedly has a bailout plan that would share ownership of the Post with its employees. Hirschfeld said his agreement with Murdoch in March gives him “right of first refusal.”

Hirschfeld will return to New York on Monday and move quickly to win approval from a bankruptcy judge for a plan that would transform the paper into a “melting pot” publication with broad appeal among New York’s ethnic minorities, he said.

The revamped Post would focus less on daily headline news, Hirschfeld said, concentrating instead on human-interest stories. Hirschfeld said he had already struck deals with two New York weeklies--one aimed at blacks, the other at Latinos--to incorporate them as supplements to the Post.

Hirschfeld’s two-week tenure as the Post’s owner in March was chaotic, with the would-be publisher firing about 70 employees, including the editor-in-chief. The staff responded by publishing a paper that vilified Hirschfeld as a “nut” and “slime.” Hirschfeld said Saturday that he had mended ways with the staff.