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January 22, 2009
ATLANTIC YARDS LOOKS TO $LASH TRANSIT UPGRADE
New York Post
By Rich Calder
Add to the list of broken promises for Atlantic Yards benefits: Improvements for the Vanderbilt rail yard.
Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards project is in such financial upheaval that the developer is now trying to cut back on much-needed transit improvements, which he promised in exchange for approval for the controversial $4 billion project, The Post has learned.
Sources said Bruce Ratner is in talks with the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority about cutting costs on a revamp and move of the Long Island Rail Road's Vanderbilt Rail Yard, which he agreed to purchase three years ago for $100 million.
The news has Atlantic Yards opponents seething because Ratner wasn't the highest bidder for the 8.3-acre rail yard site, but the MTA agreed to sell it to the developer anyway, allowing him to move forward with his now crumbling 22-acre plan to build an NBA arena and 16 office and residential towers in Prospect Heights.
...
In light of the news that Ratner is trying to cut costs, Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for the anti-Atlantic Yards group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, called on the MTA to put the project back out for bids.
"Either [Ratner's company] wildly inflated the cost of constructing a new rail yard to win their bid despite their lowball offer, or they're not building the state-of-the-art yard they had agreed to build," he said.
Posted by steve at January 22, 2009 8:25 AM