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July 6, 2007
So, Is Atlantic Yards a Rip-Off or Not?
The Real Estate Observer
Matthew Shuerman exclaims, "It’s been an odd week in the history of Atlantic Yards project."
Noting that Mayor Bloomberg is now on record against additional subsidies "going to 'a developer who doesn’t need them,'” and State Assemblyman Jim Brennan concluded that Atlantic Yards is "financially risky," the one mainstream reporter who has been closely following the project wonders, "So, is Atlantic Yards a boondoggle or a house of cards?"
Atlantic Yards Report, AY a boondoggle or house of cards? Some (preliminary) responses
Norman Oder takes the Schuerman challenge and examines some of the factors that ought to be considered when deciding, "Is Atlantic Yards a Rip-Off or Not?".
I haven't spent enough time with the documents unearthed via Assemblyman Jim Brennan's lawsuit to come to any overall conclusions about them. But I do think the questions of whether the project is a boondoggle or a house of cards may be disaggregated.
And all this suggests that a responsible entity like the Independent Budget Office or an academic research institute should crunch the numbers themselves.
Regarding whether or not Atlantic Yards is a boondoggle, the public still doesn't know how much of the project's $4 billion in financing is being put up by the developer, how much public subsidy will be sucked up by the project, and if that money could be spent more efficiently in other ways.
Though Oder doesn't think that Brennan actually concludes that the project is a "house of cards," he finds that "it's more a house of cards for the rentals, which means affordable housing would arrive more slowly than promised and interim surface parking lots would persist."
DDDB.net, Pick Your Poison
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn adds up the points made by Schuerman and Oder, but says that there's no reason to choose when, "It's both boondoggle for Forest City Ratner... and house of cards for the public."
Posted by lumi at July 6, 2007 8:38 AM