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June 20, 2009
N.Y. officials ask MTA to postpone decision on Atlantic Yards
The Record
By John Brennan
Here is coverage, missing in New York's newspapers, of the upcoming meetings of state authorities and how they may affect the proposed Atlantic Yards development. The MTA, owner of the Vanderbilt rail yards, and the ESDC, a tool of developer Bruce Ratner, are scheduled to meet in the coming week.
On the eve of several critical votes next week on the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, seven New York city and state elected officials have asked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to postpone any decision indefinitely.
The move comes at a time when executives for the Nets basketball franchise — which seeks to move to a new arena at the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn — have urged for expedited state approvals so that groundbreaking on the arena can begin later this year.
The group — which includes a state senator, three state Assembly members and three City Council members — asked MTA officials to disclose any modifications to an air rights deal above an MTA rail yard within the project footprint.
Nets principal owner Bruce Ratner and his business partners in the housing and arena project reportedly have sought to pay only $20 million up front out of the promised $100 million for those air rights.
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The MTA’s finance committee is expected to send the revised agreement to the board of directors Monday, with a board vote scheduled for Wednesday.
The MTA also is under fire from state Sen. Bill Perkins, D-Manhattan, who held a four-hour hearing in Brooklyn recently to discuss the project. In his own letter to Williams on Tuesday, Perkins said the public needs to be reassured that “the MTA is not granting sweetheart deals to developers at the expense of taxpayers.”
Meanwhile, the state agency that oversees the Atlantic Yards project — the Empire State Development Corp. — is expected to vote Tuesday on a modified project plan.
Perkins said he was concerned that the project has changed substantially during the past four years.
He pointed to the departure of world-renowned architect Frank Gehry from Atlantic Yards; a new Independent Budget Office report that projects a net loss for the city on the project, and possible lengthy delays in construction of most of the promised affordable housing.
Posted by steve at June 20, 2009 9:53 AM