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May 31, 2009
Net the Nets: New York must get behind a new basketball arena for Brooklyn
The Daily News
At least in the past, this editorial might have included some promised benefits from underwriting out-of-scale private development. Now it's just down to subsidies for pity's sake.
Slowed but undefeated, developer Bruce Ratner is striving to advance Atlantic Yards, a project that would bring a sports arena, the NBA Nets and thousands of apartments to Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
New York should hope he succeeds. And the MTA, which agreed to sell Ratner most of the property for the project for $100 million, must be flexible as well in getting the deal done.
The economic meltdown forced Ratner to scale back his $4.2 billion dream. So the spectacular, eccentric design by famed architect Frank Gehry will likely give way to a more traditional arena shorn of Gehry's trademark folds and curves. And Ratner has asked the MTA to extend payments on the $100 million sale price.
That shouldn't be a stretch for the MTA, which hit a similar bump last year while trying to develop the Hudson Yards on Manhattan's West Side. The agency worked with the builder to stretch payments and delay closing as the credit markets crashed.
Ratner will likely need similar cooperation to get Atlantic Yards on track, while giving the MTA revenue it would otherwise lose. Let's make a deal.
NoLandGrab: Here's the deal being proposed: Give public subsidies to a billionaire developer and receive an arena that returns ... nothing.
Posted by steve at May 31, 2009 7:18 AM