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December 4, 2009
Atlantic Yards Report: fact finding in a 772-page document hole
Norman Oder has been on a five-plus-year-long search for scarce facts about Bruce Ratner's highly-subsidized Atlantic Yards megaproject, which explains why he's been mining the 772-page document, released as a prelude to the arena bond offering.
Yes, it really may be possible that, despite the fiscal straits our City is in, Mayor Bloomberg is planning on kicking in another $31 MILLION to bail out Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards megaproject. According to Norman Oder, it's a developing story:
Has New York City contributed an additional $31 million subsidy for Atlantic Yards land? While I haven't been able to get an answer from city or state officials, language in bond documents is ambiguous but suggests that conclusion.
The cost of the arena, plus "related infrastructure" "required in order to open the Arena," will add up to $1.1 BILLION. The money for replacing the Carlton Avenue Bridge "is supposed to be coming."
If the arena is built as a green building, it'll cost every visitor a buck
As the headline says, though Bruce Ratner touts his plans for achieving the environmental imprimatur of LEED certification for his Atlantic Yards plan, he intends to slap a $1 surcharge on every ticket sold at the arena (for basketball or not) to pay for it.
The plans for arena transactions and PILOTs; see if they make sense to you
They're not Rube Goldberg contraptions — they're the schematic plans that illustrate how the arena bonds are structured and get paid pack.
Just to be clear: Ellerbe Becket is the arena architect; SHoP is merely the façade architect
Though SHoP has been brought on board to satisfy local tastemakers, the documents indicate that the hot NYC-based architectural firm is only working on making the facade more palatable.
A lot of people have casually referred to the arena as a collaborative effort. But the Barclays Center Arena Preliminary Official Statement (prepared by Goldman Sachs) makes it clear that Ellerbe Becket is the arena architect, while SHoP is merely working on the façade.
In other words, the basic orientation and design of the arena was not changed; the main change concerned the skin.
[Current rendering (not included in Atlantic Yards Report's post), by John Bauman.]
We admit, we get confused when Bruce Ratner's crack team talks out of both sides of their mouths. First the arena is downsized to the point it can't accommodate a professional hockey team, but now a marketing study commissioned by the developer says, "If built as planned, the arena would need to be retrofitted to accommodate the ice-making abilities the NHL requires for its franchises."
Check out the rest of the post for highlights and soft spots from the study.
Posted by lumi at December 4, 2009 5:25 AM