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February 3, 2012
Pricey Yankee Stadium parking garages hardly used and owner heading for default on $237 million in bonds
Lots part of new stadium deal but have turned into waste of space — 21 acres — producing nothing for taxpayers
NY Daily News
by Juan Gonzalez
Pshaw! Parking garages surely are a good deal for the taxpayers. Uh...
THE FIRM that built and manages the new Yankee Stadium parking garages can’t repay $237 million in tax-exempt bonds the Bloomberg administration arranged for it four years ago, new financial records show.
Bronx Parking Development Company LLC is running perilously low on cash reserves and faces a looming default by the end of the year, according to a report filed Friday by a trustee for the firm’s bondholders.
Time is running out, in other words, to avoid one of the biggest failures in decades of bonds issued by a New York City agency.
The simple fact is that Bloomberg and his aides made a costly mistake when they succumbed back in 2005 to the Yankees’ demand for a 9,000-space garage system. It was all part of the deal for the team to build a new stadium in the Bronx.
...Bronx Parking Development has turned into a giant tax deadbeat. The firm, which is not connected to the Yankees, has failed to pay any rent or property taxes, even though the garages sit on 21 acres of leased public land.
It currently owes the city a whopping $25 million.
Posted by eric at February 3, 2012 1:01 PM