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June 5, 2008
Does an unreleased land appraisal hide a sweetheart deal for Forest City Ratner?
Atlantic Yards Report
OK, we did Norman Oder a disservice in the previous post by comparing him to a slacker like Sherlock Holmes. Though foiled in his FOIL request to New York City's Economic Development Corporation for details of its appraisal of the land on which the arena would be built, Oder has pieced together a compelling case that Forest City Ratner may be getting yet another government-enabled sweetheart deal.
...the appraisal may well have low-balled the true value of the land, according to information shared with me by a real estate professional, and let Forest City Ratner get away with paying less than the property is worth under the ESDC's zoning override.
NYC EDC’s unwillingness to release the appraisal also rests on dubious logic, such as the claim that the developer is negotiating with other property owners in the Atlantic Yards footprint. Some of the agency’s other justifications for denying my FOIL and not releasing the appraisal are questionable, as I’ll describe below.
This analysis contains a certain amount of speculation, of course, but it relies on reasonable suspicion. We won't know if Forest City Ratner got a sweetheart deal until NYC EDC releases the appraisal publicly.
NoLandGrab: Proponents of Atlantic Yards have repeatedly claimed that owners who sold their properties to Ratner made out handsomely. That may be true, in relation to the prices those owners paid, but it's almost certainly not true when the state's zoning override is factored in, allowing Ratner to build something much bigger.
Posted by eric at June 5, 2008 9:27 AM