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March 15, 2008
Atlantic Yards Opponents Look With Hope to Gov. Paterson
The Village Voice
By Julie Bolcer
This article uses this past Thursday's Develop Don't Destroy Community Meeting as a jumping-off point to discuss where the proposed Atlantic Yards project stands, and how project opponents are looking to Governor Paterson to step in and see if development better than Atlantic Yards can't be formulated for Prospect Heights.
A slipping economy, credit crunch, battered real estate market, and increasing construction costs all threaten the underpinnings of the Atlantic Yards proposal, of which the celebrated arena portion appears unlikely to reach its scheduled 2010 completion date. Some specific drawbacks include the soaring costs of the arena, estimated to exceed $650 million by this point, and the absence of financing for the affordable housing component of the project, which opponents charge has taken a back seat. In order to build the 2,250 rental units that would be considered affordable under the plan, Forest City Ratner would require a subsidization of $1.4 billion in federally tax-free housing bonds from the New York City Housing Development Corporation.
However, there is currently a housing bond cap of $1.6 billion per year for the entire state, and plenty of other applicants are in line for the scarce funding.
Here is where Atlantic Yards opponents envision a potential role for Paterson, the incoming governor, depending on the circumstances. Should the cap in bond financing jeopardize the affordable housing component, for instance, they ask whether and how he might intervene. They also wonder if the escalating arena costs might encourage another vote by the Public Authorities Control Board, which gave final approval for the financing in December 2006. Then, the all-powerful controlling members of the PACB were Governor George Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Now, Paterson enters that mix as one of the proverbial three men in the room.
Posted by steve at March 15, 2008 2:52 AM