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February 13, 2009
Could Atlantic Yards Get Stimulus Cash? It's Possible
But Paterson would have to expend some capital of his own
NY Observer
by Eliot Brown
Will he or won't he? Bruce Ratner is desperate for another in what has already been a long line of government bailouts — so desperate that he's funneled $40,000 to Al D'Amato to lobby Congress on his behalf.
The government is pouring money into state coffers for infrastructure, and Bruce Ratner apparently has his hand out, hoping to get a slice of the $789 billion pie in an effort to save his troubled Atlantic Yards project.
Opponents of the project are livid about the mere fact that Mr. Ratner wants more public money; supporters of the project are cheering the effort. But is the massive Brooklyn project, planned home of a Nets basketball arena and over 6,000 apartments, eligible?
Thus far, with an accord on the stimulus legislation less than two days old, the public response from Albany is an unequivocal “we don’t know yet.”
The governor’s office said as much Thursday afternoon, and soon thereafter, Governor Paterson (whose administration ultimately chooses how to divvy up much of the stimulus money) was more to the point.
Here’s an exchange from a conference call yesterday afternoon with Senator Chuck Schumer and Mr. Paterson, relayed by PolitickerNY’s Jimmy Vielkind, who was on the call:
Reporter: There's been a lot of chatter on the blogs about whether Atlantic Yards is a candidate for this infrastructure spending. Is it? Will it receive...
Mr. Schumer: I don't know enough details to answer that. Governor?
Mr. Paterson: I have no idea. I thought that Schumer knew.
Mr. Schumer: I thought you knew.
NoLandGrab: Who's on first? These guys don't exactly fill us with confidence.
Should the project turn out to be eligible to get money, it would require a major political step by Mr. Paterson to allocate the relatively scarce stimulus money. The project has always been a political hornet’s nest, and to date, neither Mr. Paterson nor his predecessor Eliot Spitzer have had to take any overt, highly public steps in support of it. Given that there are far more projects than there is stimulus funding, it's safe to say that money to Atlantic Yards would come at the expense of some other project in the area. If eligible, the question then becomes whether or not Bruce Ratner, Al D'Amato, supportive politicians and groups could push Atlantic Yards toward the top of the stack at the same time that other politicans are fighting for projects of their own favor.
NLG: The joke here is that the most likely avenue for a bailout would be transit-related stimulus funds — to rebuild a rail yard which only needs to be rebuilt to make room for Ratner's real estate project.
Atlantic Yards Report, It's official: D'Amato lobbyied feds for AY stimulus funds; state list to emerge in a few weeks
Posted by eric at February 13, 2009 10:32 AM