« Headlines: Acting Governor Bruce Ratner directs MTA to bail out Acting Governor Bruce Ratner | Main | ESDC will announce a ten-year buildout for Atlantic Yards, but MTA deadlines make that timetable very dubious »
June 23, 2009
It came from the Blogosphere...
Huffington Post, MTA Hands Millions to Billionaire Developer
Surely one of the most bizarre events in the tortured story of the city's relationship with developers occurred today, in what may be the first of several upsetting events this week.
At a time when the city and MTA are scrambling for money through fare hikes and budget cuts, the Finance Committee of the MTA, which more or less controls the fate of billionaire developer Bruce Ratner (of Forest City Ratner), recommended Monday to drop the price of the air rights to their Brooklyn Vanderbilt Yards and let him off the hook for tens of millions of dollars. What's weird is that his billion-dollar proposed Atlantic Yards development can't go forward without a deal, so you'd tend to think the price would go UP, not down.
Second Avenue Saga, For $200,000 a year, a subway station name
I’ll get to the nitty-gritty of the MTA’s sweetheart deal for the Atlantic Yards rights later today. If you want to read about this embarrassment of riches for Bruce Ratner and the MTA’s dereliction of duty ahead of time, check out Mike Grynbaum’s coverage on City Room.
Right now, I want to instead turn my attention to an intriguing bit of news that came out of the MTA Board’s Finance Committee meeting on Monday. For the first time, the MTA will be taking in money in exchange for the naming rights to a subway station.
Posted by lumi at June 23, 2009 6:38 AM