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June 23, 2009
ATLANTIC YARDS BUDGET BALLOONS BY NEARLY A BILLION
NY Post
by Rich Calder
The Post's Rich Calder has a must-read wrap-up of today's "brutally weird" Atlantic Yards developments.
All the bells and whistles have been stripped from it -- most notably "starchitect" Frank Gehry and his expressionist building and arena designs -- but the cost of developer Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project has ballooned by nearly a billion dollars, state officials said today.
The now-$4.9 billion plan re-introduced by the Empire State Development Corp. claims Ratner will deliver a project similar to the $4 billion plan approved in Dec. 2006 that called for an NBA arena and 16 residential and office towers.
But the new plan is filled with many holes. It anticipates a 2019 project completion date for the long-delayed project but leaves the door open to future delays.
...Following today's meeting, critics of the plan, many of who supported the original Atlantic Yards concept, questioned whether the 2,250 units of affordable housing Ratner promised to help win community support are now a pipe dream. Some even accused the state and Ratner of trying to dupe the public with a "bait and switch."
"The sweeping promises of affordable housing made by the developer at the onset of this project have now evaporated to a mere whisper," said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), who supported the original project plan.
"At this point, it is not clear that the developer plans to build anything other than an arena and a few affordable apartment units, and that is simply unacceptable."
The ESDC says the modifications are strictly financial and don't require a new application process because key facets of the project remain unchanged, including the arena still calling for 18,000 seats and the project expected to create thousands of jobs.
But opponents say the plan is so dramatically different that the ESDC must start the state environmental review process from square one -- a process that could delay the project by months if not years years.
...Ratner already successfully panhandled the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The cash-strapped agency Wednesday is planning to help bail the project out by giving Ratner 22 years to pay off $100 million he owes the MTA and by letting him shave off more than $100 million of the $345 million in transit improvements he promised in exchange various state approvals.
Posted by eric at June 23, 2009 6:33 PM