« Eminent domain activist to visit supporters in Weare | Main | The sport of stadium-building »
August 16, 2005
Nonprofit Corporation to Yield Control of Site in Yonkers
The NY Times
By Anahad O'Connor and Jennifer Medina
Forest City Ratner will be purchasing the land for their Ridge Hill Village development proposal in Yonkers instead of leasing the land through the Ridge Hill Development Corporation, a public-private state corporation formed to oversee the project.
Despite attempts to root out political corruption (see NLG note below) and to redirect profits directly to the City of Yonkers, the RHDC lost critical political support as Local Development Corporations are under scrutiny statewide. Recently quasi-governmental agencies have been cited by their detractors as instruments for public land grabs and sweetheart deals for well-connected developers.
NoLandGrab: Early on in the planning and approval process for the Forest City Ratner project the RHDC was surrounded by controversy since it had sole discretion over the allocation of profits from the project and also had the twenty-something son-in-law of the former Yonkers Mayor on the payroll at a six-figure salary. A year later, the lucky-ducky son-in-law showed up on Forest City Ratner's payroll as the "property manager" for the project.
For those of you who are keeping score, a disclosure of Forest City Ratner and the NY Times's business ties DOES NOT APPEAR in this article about the most recent development towards the approval of FCRC's controversial Yonker's project.
Posted by lumi at August 16, 2005 7:54 AM