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November 14, 2007
IBO: tax-exempt bond funding is "uncertain" (for AY & others)
Atlantic Yards Report
The availability of tax-exempt bond financing for Atlantic Yards is one of the issues Norman Oder has been monitoring:
Among the many factors affecting the future of Atlantic Yards is the availability of tax-exempt bonds, a citywide "crisis," as Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Shaun Donovan told Congress last May.
The federal government limits the amount of bonds a city or state can authorize, because the tax-exemption represents foregone federal revenue. But various cities want more such "volume cap," and Congress may authorize that--but it hasn't.
The issue came up in a report issued last Friday by the Independent Budget Office (IBO), titled The Mayor’s New Housing Marketplace Plan: Progress to Date And Prospects for Completion. While the IBO offered a mostly positive assessment after four years of the Bloomberg administration's ten-year plan to build or preserve 165,000 housing units, it also noted challenges facing the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), the source of bonds:
HDC’s ability to fund all of the expected units remains uncertain at this date, potentially affecting new construction of both low- and middle-income units.
What does that mean for Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards megaproject?
If the housing component of Atlantic Yards were in production today, the crisis might be greater. However, delays in construction might have a silver lining, if Congress acts to increase volume cap.
Posted by lumi at November 14, 2007 5:34 AM