COVID vaccine stadium sites strike out

 NY Post

 Plans to convert Yankee Stadium and Citi Field into large-scale coronavirus vaccination sites have officially been postponed indefinitely — while 15 existing city inoculation hubs will remain closed as New York continues to struggle with a supply shortage, officials said Monday.

The setbacks are the latest blows to New York’s problem-plagued vaccine rollout, most recently hampered by a lagging supply of shots from the federal government and manufacturer Moderna — forcing the city to reschedule tens of thousands of appointments when it became clear there weren’t enough jabs on hand.

“We want to get those to be full-blown, 24-hour operations but we don’t have the vaccine,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said of Yankee Stadium and Citi Field during a Monday press briefing.

Hizzoner did not establish a new opening date for the venues, instead saying it was tied to when the city receives ample vaccine supplies to support the operations.

Yankee Stadium parking lot boondoggle keeps growing

From the NY Post:

The city is owed more than $100 million in unpaid rent, taxes and interest on parking lots at Yankee Stadium constructed nearly a decade ago — with no payment in sight, documents show.

Bronx Parking Development Corp., which runs the facilities, has lost at least $28 million a year in each of the past three years because not enough Yankee fans are willing to pay as much as $45 to park there for a single game.

The firm owed the city’s Economic Development Corp. $45.2 million in unpaid rent and interest as of March 31, and $56 million in unpaid taxes and interest, records show.

“It was definitely a boondoggle from a former administration, but what now?” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, who has been monitoring the deal because it displaced acres of Bronx parkland. “At some point, the city needs to take responsibility for this horrible deal because the bill keeps going up.”

The Yankees insisted they needed thousands of additional parking spots for fans when the new stadium was built, so about 9,100 spaces were created or preserved in 2010.

Yankee Stadium parking garage debacle worsens

Photo from Daily News

From Crains:

The last-place New York Yankees aren’t the only struggling enterprise in the Bronx. Documents show the net loss on the municipal-bond financed parking garages outside Yankee Stadium widened last year to $31.2 million.

Bronx Parking Development Co. issued $237.6 million of municipal bonds in 2007 through New York City’s Industrial Development Agency to build three garages and renovate two others.

The garages and five parking lots, which have about 8,700 public spaces, have suffered as more fans take public transportation to the Major League Baseball games and drivers balk at paying $25 to $35 to park. In June 2015 fewer than 10% of fans attending Yankees games parked in the garages, according to bond filings.

Yankee Stadium deal resulted in contaminated parks

From CBS 2:

It has been nine years since the city swapped parkland for parking lots so the Yankees could build a new stadium, and a CBS2 investigation that started a year ago has uncovered a big problem with that deal.

As CBS2’s Jessica Schneider reported, the new parks are contaminated.

Kids play in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, at the Yankee Pocket Parks — just a few blocks away on River Avenue. Most of their parents have no idea the property is contaminated.

“The first thing that goes through my mind — I’m never going into this park again,” said area father Cesar Trinidad.
Trinidad’s 6-year-old daughter, Kayce, has been coming to the park for most of her life. She was shocked.

“They should close it,” Trinidad said.

The city gave the Yankees more than 20 acres of prime parkland on which to build the team’s $1.3 billion new home. As part of the deal, the city built eight new parks and redeveloped several city-owned parking lots to make up for the lost parkland.

The city built a playground for children and a skate park on the new parkland sites. But the problem is that under both lots are abandoned, leaking gas tanks that caused the contamination.

NYC may not get a soccer stadium after all

From Capital New York:

One Bronx official who has in the past been looped in on stadium developments told me, when I asked for an update, “It doesn’t seem to have the same fervor as it did a few months ago, the whole stadium deal.”

Back in April, New York City Football Club announced plans to play the next three seasons in Yankee Stadium, where, the Yankees have already made clear, the soccer tenants will be lucky if they can maintain second-tier status. It’s no one’s idea of a long-term solution, with soccer-only stadiums now a baseline requirement for a credible franchise.

The only Major League Soccer team currently playing in the New York market, the Red Bulls, play in their own stadium in Harrison, N.J.

“They won’t play in Yankee Stadium for the rest of the team’s future,” said Seifreid, correctly. “They’ve got to find someplace.“

Asked for comment, Risa Heller, a spokeswoman for NYCFC, said, "We are working closely with the de Blasio administration to find a world-class site for a soccer-specific stadium."

Taxpayers to bail out failed garages in order to build rent-free soccer stadium

From the Daily News:

The nearly bankrupt Yankee Stadium garage company could receive new taxpayer subsidies of more than $200 million if a financial bailout plan approved last month by the Bloomberg administration goes through, the Daily News has learned.

The Yankees and a billionaire Middle East sheik who is partnering with the team are proposing to pay an estimated $25 million for one of the garages currently owned by Bronx Parking Development Co. LLC — the independent firm that operates the stadium’s garage system. The Yankees partnership is proposing to demolish that garage on W. 153rd St. and build a new $350 million Major League Soccer stadium for its team, New York City FC.

But under the bailout plan approved Dec. 18 by Bronx Parking’s board of directors and the holders of its debt, the reorganized company would pay no rent until 2056 for more than 20 acres of city-owned land where its other stadium garages are located.

That’s right, no rent for the next 42 years!

There's more on the IBO blog. And this will all come down to what Melissa wants to do.

Bloomberg lets slip that FMCP soccer stadium is off the table

From DNA Info:

It has yet to be officially announced where New York City F.C. will call home when the new Major League Soccer franchise begins play in 2015.

But the mayor casually revealed that Yankee Stadium will be the home for the new soccer team during his weekly radio address Sunday touting New York's status as a "global sports mecca" ahead of this week's MLB All-Star Game.

"Just look at our three newest sports arenas: the new Yankee Stadium; the Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets; and the Mets' home base, Citi Field. Each pumps millions of dollars into our economy with every game they host. And each venue is gearing up to play an even bigger role in our city’s economy,” said Bloomberg, according to a transcript that was amended roughly one hour after it was posted on his website.

"Yankee Stadium will become the home of the New York City Football Club, the first soccer club in the five boroughs since the 1970s," Bloomberg said. "Barclays will add the New York Islanders to its roster in 2015. And, of course, Citi Field is hosting Tuesday’s All-Star Game.”

A Google cache version of the transcript page reveals Bloomberg's original remarks, which did not indicate whether the team would play at Yankee Stadium on a temporary or permanent basis.

Julie Wood, a spokesperson for the mayor, characterized Bloomberg's original remarks as an overstatement.

City will probably never see money from parking garage

From Crains:

The embattled Bronx Parking Development Co., which has defaulted on its bonds and owes millions of dollars to the city, is trying to raise money by selling development rights to two street-level parking lots it owns near Yankee Stadium-area, but the outcome is unclear.

In April, the BPDC issued a request for proposals to develop two lots on city-owned land under a sublease from the parking company, which holds the lease. The request for proposals, which was posted on the website of the city's Economic Development Corp., specified that the development be built to sustainable standards and include a rent schedule for the entire term for the sublease, which would run through 2106.

Responses were due back in June. Edward Moran, who was brought in as BPDC's chief restructuring officer in March after the company, which owns a total of five garages and nine street-level lots, defaulted on its bonds, could not be reached for comment on Friday.

The BPDC has been losing money since last year, driven by lower-than-expected demand for parking at its 9,294 parking spaces, which remain half-empty on some game days. The company missed its last payment to bondholders, due April 1, after dipping into its reserve fund to make the previous payment.

The city is not on the hook for the bonds, but as of last October, the BPDC owed $25.5 million to the city in rent and payments in lieu of taxes. The Mayor's Office of Management and Budget did not respond to questions of how much is currently owed the city.

But unless the BPDC can dramatically turn around its fortunes the city is unlikely to see the monies it is owed anytime soon, said Doug Turetsky, chief of staff at the Independent Budget Office.

MLS Stadium in FMCP is apparently DOA

From the Times Ledger:

The odds that a soccer team funded by an Abu Dhabi sheik and the New York Yankees will scrap plans for a stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park are more likely than official announcements have indicated, TimesLedger Newspapers has learned.

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber announced Tuesday Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the owner of a British team called Manchester City Football Club, and the Bronx Bombers, which have signed on as minority partners, will head the league’s newest franchise.

The team, called New York City Football Club, plans to begin its first season in 2015 at a temporary venue the team said has not been decided, but which documents seen by TimesLedger identify as Yankee Stadium.

MLS has spent more than a year and nearly $2 million on lobbyists to lay the groundwork for a 13-acre stadium proposed on top of a non-working fountain in the park, which was touted by the Bloomberg administration but met with vehement opposition by Queens parks groups.

In order to fend off continuing criticism directed at the team’s majority owner from Abu Dhabi’s royal family, the New York City Football Club has already planned to abandon the idea, documents suggest.

The club plans to draw focus away from the turmoil in Queens by backing off the park complex and instead pushing news about players and highlighting the upcoming 2015 season, according to documents, which is a year earlier than MLS had originally anticipated play would begin.

The decision seems to have come as a surprise to both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MLS.

As recently as May 13, Bloomberg defended the Flushing Meadows stadium plan, telling reporters at a news conference replacement parkland would be found for the proposed 25,000-seat stadium.

And in late April, MLS Commissioner Don Garber was still insisting the Queens stadium was the only option.

“If we get this done, it will be in Flushing Meadows Park,” Garber told the Associated Press at the time. “There is no Plan B.”

But the MLS commissioner was informed sometime after making the comment that the new team, which is now taking the lead on the stadium search, would consider other locations.

“MLS is no longer leading the effort with the stadium project,” Garber said this week, adding the league has also dropped its pursuit of a land-use application to site the stadium in the park, he said.

New York City Football Club knew its decision would anger the city administration, since the mayor and a team of high-ranking city officials poured significant resources into the park stadium plan, considered by many to be a Bloomberg legacy project, TimesLedger has learned.

According to the documents, the club plans to thank and reach out to community groups in Queens and may offer to refurbish soccer fields in the Flushing Meadows near the proposed stadium site even thought he stadium may never be built.

From the Queens Chronicle:

As officials from MLS, the Bronx Bombers, Abu Dhabi-owned Man City and Mayor Bloomberg congratulated each other during a Tuesday press conference rolling out the franchise, there was one notable absence: the Unisphere, which had become ubiquitous in the league’s push to build a home in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Sources say the league and club owners plan to slowly suffocate talk of a Flushing Meadows stadium through a series of distractions meant to push the mythical arena to the sports pages. There it will likely die a quiet death, where MLS hopes the Bloomberg administration will be spared the embarrassment of yet another ambitious failure. The process has already begun.

According to sources who requested anonymity to maintain ties to the project, FMCP’s precipitous drop from essential to optional is fueled by a mixture of feasibility issues, unexpectedly strong opposition and face-saving on the part of all involved. The Pool of Industry site, it turns out, is fraught with regulatory and practical headaches, and the public needs its attention drawn away from a billionaire owner from Abu Dhabi.

The stadium, however, reportedly carried the extra weight of being labeled a “legacy project” by the Bloomberg administration. Ditching the location in FMCP would invoke the mayor’s ire, but was a necessary repercussion.

Sources said Bloomberg has expended significant political capital in trying to make MLS’s expansion franchise a reality. The potential scuttling of the FMCP stadium would add to the mayor’s list of failed proposals, alongside the failed West Side Stadium, part of the infamously flawed push to host the Olympics in 2012.

The political capital is paired with nearly $2 million in literal capital MLS spent lobbying for the stadium.

Yankees parking garage operator defaults on payment

From the Daily News:

Even as the Red Sox thrashed the Yankees on Opening Day, the company that operates the Yankee Stadium garage system struck out big time.

Bronx Parking Development LLC failed to make a $6.9 million payment due April 1 on more than $237 million in tax-exempt bonds arranged by the Bloomberg administration back in 2007.

The group, which is not connected to the Yankees, thus fell into one of the biggest defaults of a New York City-sponsored bond in decades.

That failure ramps up the pressure on City Hall to avoid an embarrassing full-blown bankruptcy by reaching some kind of deal for the company’s bondholders to take a hit on their holdings.

After all, Mayor Bloomberg originally signed off on a new 9,000-space garage system, something the Yankees demanded before agreeing to build a new stadium. The mayor even appointed two city officials to Bronx Parking’s board of directors.

“These garages were part of his legacy, hook, line and sinker,” an official with Bronx Parking said. “It’s better he deal with the problem now, than leave it to the next mayor.”

City economic development aides have privately acknowledged they were ordered by City Hall back then to “make the numbers work” in order to justify tax-exempt bonds.

But the garages were a financial disaster from day one, even though Bronx Parking received more than $100 million in city and state subsidies on top of the bonds.

Since they opened in 2009, they have operated at less than 50% capacity. That’s perfectly understandable given the $35 price tag to park — $48 for valet service.

It’s been obvious for a long time that Bronx Parking would eventually run out of money.

Concrete tester pleads guilty

From the Daily News:

A company that certified the safety of concrete at thousands of New York City construction projects admitted it regularly faked tests and made up inspection reports, authorities announced Friday.

American Standard Testing and Consulting Laboratories, and company president Alan Fortich, 45, pleaded to corruption charges for filing bogus tests over the last 10 years on an impressive list of high profile buildings. Five other executives admitted filing false documents.

They faked tests at Yankee Stadium, the Second Avenue subway, the Javits Center, a control tower at JFK Airport, the Port Authority bus terminal, the Lincoln Tunnel, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a Columbia University science center.

The city, the MTA, the Port Authority and dozens of private sector builders were all victims, and dozens of buildings had to be retested to make sure the concrete used was not going to fall apart.

All the buildings were declared safe, Vance said. It wasn’t clear Friday who paid for the retests.

The guilty pleas make clear just how pervasive corruption was in the concrete testing business — American Standard was hired in 2008 to replace Testwell Inc., another firm indicted for faking concrete tests.

In admitting to enterprise corruption, a felony, American Standard will likely be barred from bidding on public contracts at the agencies affected.

Yankee Stadium garage scheme strikes out

From the Daily News:

Plans to build affordable housing and stores on failed Yankee Stadium parking lots in the Bronx have struck out - for now.

Talks between the city and a real estate developer have stalled and officials are no longer pursuing the partnership, the Daily News has learned.

Officials hoped a project with Jackson Development and Joy Construction would bail out Bronx Parking Development, the nearly bankrupt company that owns and operates the Yankee Stadium parking system.

Last year, the company's board approved the general parameters of the development scheme and authorized the New York City Economic Development Corporation to negotiate a deal, officials said.

But the EDC recently ended negotiations with the two companies for reasons it won't comment on, said Kyle Sklerov, agency spokesman.

New development options will be considered moving forward, Sklerov said. The parking system is a ticking time bomb because Bronx Parking has defaulted on about $240 million in tax-exempt bonds held by private investors that were issued by the city.

The company has until next spring to supply the bondholders with $15 million in principal and interest payments. But its reserves total less than half that figure because its garages and lots now average just 43% occupancy on Yankees game days.

The development deal meant to rescue the bondholders called for 550 units of low-income housing and 45,000-square-feet of retail on two lots south of Yankee Stadium near the Gateway Center shopping mall.

Now that project is headed for the dugout and the city needs a new partner or partners to step up to the plate.

Photo from WNYC

Fool us twice, shame on us...

From the Daily News:

Bronx activists had some advice on Tuesday for Queens: Keep your precious park land and ignore the stadium sweet talk.

Major League Soccer said it’s close to hammering out a deal with the city to build a $300 million stadium on up to 13 acres in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

But the plan is reminiscent of a Yankee Stadium land deal that “shortchanged” the Bronx, local activist Mary Blassingame said.

“This is Yankee Stadium all over again,” she said. “They need to fight against it. Parks are for the people ... not for business.”

City officials begged to differ.

“As anyone who’s been to Heritage Field across from Yankee Stadium would say, it’s a stunning example of public space that has been widely celebrated by local residents and parks advocates alike,” said Mayor’s Office spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua.

Blassingame, a former Bronx Community Board 4 member, was a vocal opponent of the 2005 deal that allowed the Yankees to build a new stadium on 22 acres in Mullaly Park.

The Bronx Bombers promised the new venue would create local jobs and business and the city vowed to replace the green space with new parks elsewhere.

But the area near the stadium is still struggling and it took the city six years to complete the new parks, which are top-of-the-line but scattered, Blassingame said. “We got shortchanged all the way and now it’s going to happen again,” Blassingame predicted.

“The land they’re currently talking about on Flushing River is toxic,” said an elected official who asked not to be named. “So how would that be cleaned up?”

MLS officials said the Queens stadium will be privately financed, unlike Yankee Stadium, which received hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies.

The Bronx Bombers made similar claims during early negotiations, said Neil DeMause, co-author of “Field of Schemes,” a book on modern stadium deals.

“History makes it reasonable for New Yorkers to look at this proposal with skepticism,” he said.

Times covers up Parks Dept's Heritage Field debacle

From A Walk in the Park:

The blogosphere lit up on Friday after the New York Times published an embarrassing front page above the fold story on the replacement parks as part of the building of the New Yankee Stadium. Apparently the 'Newspaper of Record' couldn't find a single person who had anything negative to say about anything. The problem is they did.

First, Field Of Schemes's Neil deMause weighed in and then Atlantic Yards Report's Norman Oder. That in turn prompted a response from one of the contributors and editor of this news site, Geoffrey Croft, to respond.

The city's vile rhetoric was not exclusive to the Times. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe continues the administration's, "Who Are You Going To Believe, Me Or Your Lying Eyes?" campaign in comments to WNYC where he insults the South Bronx community, who for the rest of their lives, will be impacted by the actions of Mr. Benepe's boss and state legislators. The Bloomberg administration apparently thinks its not enough to cause irreparable harm but also to continue to insult the poorest community in the country.

The Yankees Win. The Yankees Win. - Geoffrey Croft

From a letter sent to Atlantic Yards Report by the author of A Walk in the Park:

The Yankee Stadium controversy has not gone down the memory hole, as the Times would have its readers believe. No, the Times has instead chosen to ignore this issue as they have done since Day One. Unfortunately for Times readers the editors never felt this was a story so is was ignored. During the Stadium and parkland approval process a Times editor famously said of the community not being aware of the impending project and initially not mobilizing opposition more quickly and strongly, "they should have known."

For Bronx residents - and for the taxpayers at large - it's not enough they will have to forever endure the impacts of this irresponsible project, apparently they will now have to continue to suffer the indignity of irresponsible coverage in the "Newspaper of Record."

According to the New York Times, everything is swell in Yankee replacement park land. I'm happy the Times reporter thought the fields looked nice, and her reporting discovered people playing on them on the first day they were open felt the same. With the enormous taxpayer funds used to build them and the delay is this really a story, much less a front-page story? Obviously not.

They chose not to report on a story that impacts some of the poorest people in the country. This is shameful, irresponsible, but unfortunately not surprising.

For the truth, read the Broken Promises report.

Yankee Stadium parking garage a huge failure

From the Daily News:

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.

But Yankees fans have shunned the garages, where gameday self-parking rates soared last year to $35 — up from $23 previously and more than double the original $14 charge. Valet parking now goes for $48.

So many fans are staying away, in part due to the lure of cheaper local competition, that Bronx Parking Development now projects only 3,500 paying customers per game for the upcoming season.

Concrete tester accused of faking results

From CBS880:

A concrete-testing laboratory faked results for a LaGuardia Airport control tower, the new Yankee Stadium, the Lincoln Tunnel, a hospital and more than a dozen other projects around New York City, according to an indictment.

American Standard Testing and Consulting Laboratories Inc., President Alan Fortich and five staffers were expected to be arraigned Thursday on racketeering and other charges, becoming the latest of a string of concrete labs the Manhattan district attorney’s office has prosecuted on similar charges.

New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based ATSC’s phone number is disconnected, and Fortich didn’t immediately respond to an email message Thursday morning. Defense lawyers’ names weren’t immediately available.

Stadium deals screwed taxpayers big time

From the Daily News:

Everyone knows private money-making operations have exploded in our parks under Bloomberg. Fancy new restaurants, food kiosks, green grocers, bike rental and private sporting concessions - you name it.

So how could total income from all this business activity be falling?

Well, it turns out that Shea and the old Yankee Stadium - both of which sat on park land, and were owned by the city - were the Parks Department's biggest revenue generators.

Under the old Yankee Stadium deal, the city was assured a percentage of gate receipts, a percentage of food sales, even a percentage of the team's cable revenue.

Because of that, the old stadium produced as much as $15 million a year for Parks - even after deducting costs for stadium upkeep.

Likewise, the Shea Stadium deal generated as much as $9 million annually for the city.

As recently as 2008, the two ballparks represented nearly half of the $51 million in concessions revenue generated by the entire Parks system.

On top of that, the city was taking in an additional $6 million annually from parking fees at Shea and the old Yankee Stadium.

Once the new ballparks opened, all that revenue disappeared - even the parking money.

Today, the Mets keep all their parking revenue. Meanwhile, the Yankee Stadium garages, run by an independent firm, are nearly bankrupt and may never produce the $3 million annually they agreed to provide the city.

This loss of $30 million each and every year is a hidden cost to taxpayers from the new ballparks.

In other words, the Mets and Yankees save millions and the rest of us make it up with huge fee hikes.

Have you seen this dog?

From WPIX:

A costume-wearing dog that panhandles for its owner outside New York Mets and Yankees games has animal-loving baseball fans furious and the ASPCA investigating.

The dog, named Coffee, appears in front of the two stadiums for hours -- dressed up in team gear, wearing sunglasses and holding a pipe in her mouth. She also wears a bandana around her neck, conveniently covering a remote shock collar used by the owner to keep her from lying down, say concerned baseball fans that have seen her. In a photograph taken while her mouth was open, she also appears to have no teeth.

She sometimes wears a cardboard sign around her neck that reads "I don't like cheap people," and sits next to a plastic jug with a reminder for people to leave a tip if they take a photo.

While Coffee’s owner may be avoiding MLB games for the time being, the ASPCA urges anyone who sees the dog to call their Humane Law Enforcement department at 212-876-7700 ext. 4450 or email enforcement@aspca.org.

Baseball stadiums lack C of Os

From the Wall Street Journal:

The cash-strapped New York Mets have failed to occupy more than 20,000 square feet of retail space as the team begins its third season in its $800 million Citi Field stadium, the primary reason the Queens stadium has failed to receive a final sign-off from the city.

A city official confirmed late Tuesday that the Mets have yet to receive a final certificate of occupancy for the stadium because a significant portion of the facility is empty. "We don't give the final certificate to vacant areas," the official said. "It has to be occupied."

The Mets' cross-town rivals, the New York Yankees, also have failed to receive a final certificate of occupancy for the team's new $1.5 billion stadium in the Bronx, but for entirely different reasons.

In the Yankees' case, officials at City Hall confirmed the team neither sought nor received final approval from the Public Design Commission, a little-known city agency that was established in 1898 and is charged with ensuring that the design of all art, exterior architecture, street furniture and landscaping meet public standards.

But some city officials acknowledge the Bloomberg Administration hasn't been pressing the Yankees to comply with the commission.

An official with the Mets said the team is actively trying to fill the vacant space, which it estimated at closer to 15,000 square feet of the 1.2 million-square-foot facility. A spokeswoman for the Yankees denied that the team flouted city rules and promised to seek final approval "shortly."

Both teams have been getting temporary certificates of occupancy from the Department of Buildings, which means officials believe both facilities are safe to occupy.

EDC messes up something else

From Crains':

The first pitch of the baseball season and the return of thousands of fans cannot come fast enough for most businesses around Yankee Stadium. But one company might prefer that April be postponed this year.

Bronx Parking Development Co., which runs the garages for the new stadium, faces an April 1 due date for a $6.8 million interest payment on bonds issued to fund construction of three facilities. The company had to dip into reserves to make a similar payment in October, and—barring a last-minute renegotiation—all signs point to a default this time.

A default could set up a seizure by bondholders and would leave the garages' future in question. The property, which covers some 21 acres, was part of parkland taken over to make way for the current incarnation of Yankee Stadium.

The potential irony has some in the community seething.