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June 25, 2009
Atlantic Yards Project Enters a Crucial Period
The New York Times
by Charles Bagli
Despite this week's preordained ESDC and MTA votes, Atlantic Yards is still far from a sure thing.
Armed with a set of concessions wrung from state officials this week for his Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, the developer Bruce C. Ratner faces what may be his most daunting challenge. He is trying to raise more than $500 million over the next four months to build the $4.9 billion project’s centerpiece: the most expensive basketball arena in the country.
Mr. Ratner, chief executive of Forest City Ratner, the company that is to build the development, still must get final state approval and withstand any new lawsuits, while selling about $586 million in arena bonds by Dec. 31 in order to qualify for tax-exempt status.
On Wednesday, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted 10 to 2 to revise a deal to sell Mr. Ratner a railyard that sits within the 22-acre development. Instead of insisting on a $100 million lump-sum payment, the authority gave Mr. Ratner 21 years to pay the money in increments. It also allowed the developer to build a more modest replacement railyard than he had once promised.
Critics, and even some supporters, have complained that the Atlantic Yards project’s public benefits are disappearing before construction even starts. Much of the housing at Atlantic Yards, including 2,250 units for moderate- and middle-income tenants, has been delayed, along with the creation of eight acres of open space.
..."Nearly all the alleged public benefits are gone,” said Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the project’s leading opponent. “It’s highly likely that we’ll sue the M.T.A. as a result of their actions.”
NoLandGrab: Like John Paul Jones, DDDB has not yet begun to fight.
More coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Decoding a Times euphemism: "more modest" = "saving FCR $100 million"
That "more modest" replacement would save developer Forest City Ratner about $100 million.
That information has not appeared in the Times, not in print, and not on the web.
It certainly raises questions about whether the Times--which did disclose the parent Times Company's business relationship with FCR--can ever be exacting in its coverage of AY, as it should be.
Posted by eric at June 25, 2009 12:23 AM