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April 24, 2011
MTA Looks to Unload Midtown Headquarters
GlobeSt.com
This story about the MTA's plan to sell or lease its midtown headquarters contains a reminder of how the MTA screwed itself and the public by selling the Vanderbilt rail yards to developer Bruce Ratner for an amount well below their assessed value and and later restructuring the deal so that it accepted $20 million up front when the original deal called for $100 million.
Gene Rusianoff, staff attorney for transit advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign, tells GlobeSt.com that he’s concerned that the MTA find the money it needs to fund its rebuilding program. “They need the dough,” Russianoff says. “They have a five-year rebuilding program and only funding for the first two years.” Russianoff’s main concern, he says, is that the organization not cheat itself on any property it sells. “We don’t think the MTA got a very good deal for the West Side Yards or the Atlantic Yards.”
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The MTA agreed to sell development rights for the West Side Yards and Atlantic Yards properties to Related Cos. and Forest City Ratner Cos., respectively. Related deposited $21.75 million in May of last year to execute a binding contract with the MTA and has since added to that amount. Under a payment plan approved by the MTA Board in June 2009, FCRC paid $20 million, with an additional $80 million to be delivered over the next two decades, according to published reports.
Posted by steve at April 24, 2011 5:13 AM