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September 1, 2011
Who got the Liberty Bonds?
The Torch
by Nicole Gelinas
The journalist and free-marketeer reminds us that Bruce Ratner got a chunk of taxpayer money to rebuild that portion of Fort Greene damaged in the 9/11 attacks.
The city’s independent budget office (IBO) has released a report on New York’s post-9/11 disaster and recovery spending. So who got the Liberty Bond money?
As part of its $20.5 billion aid package, remember, Washington gave the city $1.2 billion to support $8 billion worth of “Liberty Bonds” — bonds that private companies could issue for real-estate development projects. No level of government (federal, state, or local) guaranteed the bonds’ repayment, but the bonds are exempt from federal, state, and local taxes, meaning that investors demand a lower interest rate on them.
Of the $6.4 billion in Liberty Bonds issued since 2003, only $3.8 billion – 59 percent — went to build projects at the World Trade Center site. WTC developer Larry Silverstein got about $3.1 billion, and the Port Authority took (or will take) $701.6 million for itself.
Who got the rest? Goldman Sachs got $1.7 billion for its downtown tower. The Dursts got $650 million for the Bank of America building (in Midtown). A Forest City (that’s Bruce Ratner of Atlantic Yards) office-tower project for BONY Mellon in Brooklyn got $90.8 million.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2011 9:28 PM