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August 24, 2010
Gov. Paterson Loyalist To Take Charge Of Controversial Atlantic Yards Project
The Daily Politics [NY Daily News blog]
by Celeste Katz
A Gov. Paterson loyalist is set to take the reins of Brooklyn's controversial Atlantic Yards project, reports our Erin Durkin:
Sources tell Atlantic Yards Report's Norman Oder that 33-year-old Arana Hankin, Paterson's Assistant Secretary for Cultural and Economic Development, will soon be named Atlantic Yards project manager at the Empire State Development Corporation.
Though ESDC has overseen the $5 billion project for years - doling out $100 million in subsidies to developer Bruce Ratner and fighting a high-profile court battle to seize private homes and businesses for the Nets arena and housing and office towers - the agency hasn't actually had a full time project manager running the show until now.
Hankin's only public connection to the Prospect Heights mega-project so far has been as a board member of the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation, which rubber-stamped the $511 million in tax-free bonds Ratner needed to get the long-delayed arena underway. She previously served as a senior policy adviser to Paterson and on his campaign for lieutenant governor, and got some attention for pressing ESDC to fund the Museum for African Art project run by Controller Bill Thompson's wife Elsie McCabe.
Paterson, who railed against the use of eminent domain for private development when he was a state senator representing Harlem residents fighting Columbia's eminent domain-reliant expansion, has been an Atlantic Yards booster since taking office, touting its job creation benefits in a speech at the groundbreaking in March.
Posted by eric at August 24, 2010 11:19 AM