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September 27, 2009
Atlantic Yards Report Sunday Morning Overdrive
Atlantic Yards Report
The timing of the deal with Mikhail Prokhorov seems clearly orchestrated, in the works but not announced until after the Atlantic Yards plan received its second approval, on September 17, from the Empire State Development Corporation.
Would the politicians backing the proposed Atlantic Yards project have been so enthusiastic if they knew that a Russian oligarch would be the beneficiary of taxpayer subsidies?
Prokhorov has an option on 20% of the project as a whole, so Forest City Ratner would still be the majority owner.
Other billionaires get tax-exempt financing--hey, that helps them stay billionaires--so that's not the argument. There are some clouds over Prokhorov's reputation--a prostitution investigation in France, alleged Mafia ties--but nothing solid.
Still, there's something to it. Forest City Ratner, for all the criticism it has engendered, has a track record in New York City and Brooklyn. Elected officials were happy to work with it.
Do they profits stay in New York? Not necessarily--they go to Cleveland. But the idea of scarce housing bonds going to help a Russian oligarch surely would give some local officials reason for pause.
And maybe that's why Borough President Marty Markowitz has been so quiet--though I fully expect an effusive statement explaining that he's happy that, in such tough times, the announced benefits of Atlantic Yards are on their way. Even if many of them are not.
Would AY get Liberty Bonds? Crain's source asserts it's eligible
An article appearing in Crain's New York mentions that the proposed Atlantic Yards project could be eligible for Liberty Bonds. Norman Oder questions that claim.
Liberty Bonds, which were aimed at the revitalization of Lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11, have never been mentioned as a source for Atlantic Yards arena financing. It would be controversial, to say the least, to see "federal assistance made available to New York to support the Lower Manhattan rebuilding effort" helping a Russian oligarch.
Liberty Bonds are naimed at commercial property (i.e., offices):
The financing may be for the acquisition, construction, reconstruction and/or renovation of non-residential real property within the New York Liberty Zone and, under limited circumstances, elsewhere within The City of New York.And it looks like the program is over, supplanted by stimulus funding.
Jim Stuckey was president of the Atlantic Yards Development Group for Forest City Ratner until he resigned under a cloud in 2007. Part of his career since then has included academia. He is now Leader of NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate.
Stuckey teaches a class called TRANSFORMING THE URBAN ECONOMY. From the syllabus:
This course will examine the economic development concepts, programs and projects in cities, with particular emphasis on the New York City metropolitan area. It will provide students with a basic understanding of the process of economic development, tools for assessing development opportunities and for promoting economic development, information on both successful and unsuccessful strategies and projects, and opportunities to discuss current issues in economic development.The intention of this course is to present students with information on how economic development projects and tools are created, evaluated, and implemented from both theoretical and experiential points of view. The course will also look at essential elements of development projects, review negotiation strategies, and analyze standard investment packages.
The course will include readings and discussions on a number of current cases in economic development in the New York City area.
...
Here's one Atlantic Yards mention:
Class 8 – Infrastructure Investment and development: transit-oriented development (October 27)
- What is transit-oriented development?
- Policy and planning tools for implementing TOD.
- Potential impacts of TOD.
- Examples: Atlantic Yards, Brooklyn; Moynihan Station; West Side Yards. Required Reading:
- *Robert Cervero, et al., Transit Oriented Development in the United States: Experiences, Challenges, and Prospects. 2004, Chapters 1, 9, 11 and 20.
- Regional Plan Association Reports on Moynihan Station, The West Side Yards and Newark, New Jersey.
There's no reading for Atlantic Yards. Will Stuckey assign my critique of the project's parking plan?
Norman Oder displays more patience than some by giving a hard look at a light-hearted piece about the proposed Atlantic Yards project appearing in today's New York Times.
Sunday's New York Times Week in Review section has a cutesy piece headlined Brooklyn, Meet Your Oligarch, by Moscow correspondent and former Brooklynite Clifford J. Levy, who really has done much better work.
The irony is that, had Levy understood the Atlantic Yards project better, he would've mentioned a curious commonality Prokhorov's country and the Atlantic Yards project: AY has been shepherded and approved by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), which has an unelected and hardly well-informed board. No local official has a vote.
And the biggest critic of public authorities like the ESDC, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, calls them "Soviet-style bureaucracies." And I've suggested some of the ESDC's explanations represent "Soviet-style math."
Posted by steve at September 27, 2009 11:28 AM