Monday, June 22, 2009

Forest City Ratner gets sweeter MTA deal

From the NY Observer:

Developer Forest City Ratner, which intends to build a basketball arena for the Nets and thousands of apartments at the site, has renegotiated a deal with the agency to the point where it pays about $180 million less, at least at first.

Forest City would build a new rail yard for about $150 million with one-fourth less capacity than planned, and pay $20 million upfront. Over the next 22 years, according to the agreement, the developer would give payments worth $80 million in today’s dollars to the M.T.A.


Quoting WNYC:

The MTA didn't have any good choices: it could reject the offer, but then it would have to find another buyer for those air rights in the middle of a recession. And in the process, it would upset Mayor Bloomberg and the coalition of construction workers and others who support the project.

From No Land Grab:

Something tells us that with just a smidgen of effort, the MTA could find a developer (or developers) willing to put down a heck of a lot more than $20 million for the Vanderbilt Yard.

And upsetting the Mayor and construction workers and other project supporters? What about all the transit-riding public, who get stuck with big fare hikes, service cuts and a deteriorating system in return for Bruce Ratner's bailout?


Yeah. How about this?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stop subsidys and bailout of Bruce Ratner - let him put up his own $$.