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November 4, 2009

Forest City Enterprises could get $55M boost from feds [for Atlantic Yards*]

NY Daily News
By Erin Durkin

The original article about the $55 million federal bailout for Forest City Ratner was posted with "for Atlantic Yards" included in the headline.

The developer of the troubled Atlantic Yards project is getting a $55 million shot in the arm from the federal government.

The money, part of $5 billion in tax credits announced by the Treasury Department on Friday, isn't specifically earmarked for the controversial Prospect Heights project.

But federal officials said it's a vote of confidence that the beleaguered developer, Forest City Enterprises, has the ability to get its projects off the ground.
...
Forest City spokesman Joe DePlasco said Atlantic Yards was "not included in the application" and "is not eligible for this money."

But [spokesman for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund Bill] Luecht said the developer could use the money for any project located in a census tract classified as low income - and the four tracts covered by Atlantic Yards are on CDFI's list of spots that qualify. He said he could not disclose what projects Forest City had named when they applied for the money.

article

Coverage of the Daily News story...

New York Multifamily News, Five Shots (or $55 Million) and He’s Still Alive! Atlantic Yards Gets Another Subsidy For Make-Believe Affordable Housing.

According to the NY Daily News, “Forest City spokesman Joe DePlasco said Atlantic Yards was “not included in the application [for tax credits]” and “is not eligible for this money.” Mr. DePlasco was not quoted as saying the following:

Everyone knows that money is fungible. Every dollar we get from the government frees up a dollar we would use elsewhere. Even if the government put the money in a bag with weapons-grade plutonium and an exploding dye pack, and Daffy Duck opened the bag for us, Uncle Sam still wouldn’t know we used the money for Atlantic Yards.

Manhattan Real Estate, AY developer gets $55M in federal tax credits
Real Estate Ones, Forest City Enterprises could get $55M boost from feds

Posted by lumi at November 4, 2009 7:28 PM