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September 1, 2006
Appraisal Puts West Side Railyards’ Value at 3 Times the City’s Offer
The NY Times
By Charles V. Bagli
There's been no scrutiny of Bruce Ratner's amazing $100-million lowball-bid for the Vanderbilt Railyards (Charles Bagli, where's the love?), so for your reading pleasure we offer you this Times article about the brouhaha over a recent $1.5-billion appraisal of the Hudson Railyards, and NYC's attempt to quickly seal the deal for $500 million.
The Bloomberg administration’s plan to buy the development rights to the 26-acre railyards on the Far West Side of Manhattan has hit another snag: money.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the railyards on both sides of 11th Avenue between 30th and 33rd Streets, received an appraisal this week that pegged the value at $1.5 billion, according to authority board members and city officials.
That is three times the $500 million offered by the Bloomberg administration in a surprise bid in July.
The appraisal further complicates a deal that the administration had hoped to wrap up quickly.
The city’s offer has already come under fire from Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who is running for governor, as “grossly under market value.”
...
Buying the development rights, he said, would ensure that any development would be consistent with a comprehensive zoning plan adopted last year by the city.
NoLandGrab: After the West Side Stadium was killed by the Public Authorities Control Board, the City came up with a plan to buy the development rights over the railyards to "ensure that any development would be consistent with a comprehensive zoning plan."
The opposite tack is being taken in Brooklyn: one of the purposes of the NY State takeover of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project is to override all city zoning, leading to a 22-acre project that would become the densest residential community in the nation (NOT "consistent" with local zoning).
NewYorkGames.org links some recent coverage of the bad blood between NYC Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer, and offers this explanation for the rush to close large real estate deals comprised of state-owned land, such as MTA railyards:
City Hall has been spoiled by an inert governor. The new team will likely show leadership, and not rubber stamp whatever developer or city plan comes through the door.
Posted by lumi at September 1, 2006 8:18 AM