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February 9, 2009
ATL. YARDS BIG WANTS PORK PIE
NY Post
By Rich Calder
Expect the developer whose motto is "no subsidy left behind" to work his ass off to get a chunk of the federal stimulus package.
City and state officials say they expect developer Bruce Ratner to lobby hard for a piece of the federal pork to help bail out his reeling $4 billion plan to bring an NBA arena and 16 residential and office towers to Prospect Heights, which is in jeopardy because of the economic downtown.
Cheerleader-in-Chief and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz insists that the project is "shovel-ready" and is exactly the type of economic stimulus that Brooklyn needs, while project opponent Dan Goldstein asserts that no more money should be used to bail out a private developer and the "Atlantic Yards money pit."
Could there be an arena loophole in the stimulus package?
State officials say the project would qualify for New York's share of stimulus funds, but no distribution decisions have been made.
Although stadium projects don't qualify to receive money through the stimulus bill, arenas are not mentioned in the document.
Though the Post repeats the "15K construction jobs" myth (it's really 1,500 jobs over 10 years), it is one of the few papers that has informed readers that the developer has "serious cash-flow problems":
The Post reported last month that Ratner is having such serious cash-flow problems that he's in talks with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about cutting costs on a $445 million transit improvement plan he promised in 2005 in order to get the green light from the state for Atlantic Yards.
Posted by lumi at February 9, 2009 5:38 AM