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February 3, 2010
When it comes to the Urban Room, the Development Agreement is confusing, confounding, and nonsensical
Atlantic Yards Report
If you were trying to make sense of the Development Agreement allegedly negotiated at arm's length by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and Forest City Ratner entities, you might get confused, especially when it comes to the Urban Room, the dramatic entrance that's supposed to be attached to Building 1.
Building 1 is an office building with no timetable, but that's the least of it.
The language is confounding, sloppily drafted, since the contract provisions fail to make sense at more than one juncture. They pose damages where none exist and attribute such damages to the wrong party.
...Can it be trusted?
Likely very few people have read the Development Agreement, much less tried to make sense of it. But it does not appear to have been drafted carefully.
If these mistakes jump out, how many others are there?
Click thru for Norman Oder's best stab at navigating the nearly incomprehensible documents.
NoLandGrab: We have to wonder if the confusion is a) due to the ESDC rushing headlong to get the documents done on Ratner's timetable, or b) intentional so as to render the agreements unenforceable, thus eliminating the threat of financial penalty to the developer for failure to meet the already-cushy targets.
Posted by eric at February 3, 2010 10:40 AM