Expensive eminent domain-worthy project

911 BACKUP PLAN TAKE$ A MAJOR HIT
By DAVID SEIFMAN, NY Post

After years of delay, plans to build a backup center to handle 911 calls in case of a terrorist attack or other calamity are being revised again after the cost came in at an astonishing $957 million - 40 percent above the last estimate, The Post has learned.

The development is the latest in a series of problems to plague the critical project, which was conceived of more than a decade ago and which took on added urgency after 9/11.

City officials say the previous $690 million estimate was an inexact "placeholder" inserted in budget documents until final designs were finished.

It's not clear when the redesign - which scales back the project - will be completed or what the final price tag will be.

Another complicating factor is that the city has yet to gain title to the land in the Pelham Bay section of The Bronx, where officials hope to build the sophisticated facility, which would share the workload with the current 911 center at Metrotech in Brooklyn.

Sources said that the Joseph Simone Development Cos., which owns the parcel off the Hutchinson River Parkway, has rejected a $28 million offer from the city as inadequate and that a court fight appears likely.