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January 3, 2010
Who Sacrifices Money To Uphold Their Principles In Real Estate?
Multifamily Investor
This blog entry uses the Canadian Press story that first appeared yesterday to revisit the Atlantic Yards fight and notes that the often-noted affordable housing component of the proposed project is mostly chimerical.
All too often, parties in a real estate transaction will quibble over an amount that pales in comparison to the purchase price. “It’s not the money. It’s the principle.” More specifically, it’s the principle that the other side not get the money. This same thinking applies in divorces and will disputes. Cold economic concerns give way to emotion.
In the following case, however, principle seems to be the motivator, plain and simple.
Forty-year-old Daniel Goldstein, his wife and daughter are among a handful of holdouts still living on several once-thriving urban blocks being cleared to make way for a new arena for the NBA’s Nets (Hat Tip: Canadian Press).
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As readers of this blog know, Atlantic Yards project was supposed to provide 2,250 units of affordable public housing — the crux of the basis for eminent domain. Records released under the Freedom of Information Act, however, reveal that Forest City need only seek funding through subsidies for affordable housing. If the developer cannot secure this money, he is under no obligation to build the proposed number of units. There is no guarantee that the project will include any affordable housing.
This site and many other observers were stunned when the Court of Appeals recently ruled against Columbia University on an eminent domain matter that was factually indistinguishable from Atlantic Yards.
Posted by steve at January 3, 2010 8:53 AM