N.Y. Agency Calls For Lessening Of Ratner's Atlantic Yards Costs
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Atlantic Yards Developers Hope To Break
Ground On Nets' Arena Within Six Months |
Developers of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, which includes the Nets' Barclays Center, yesterday "cleared the first of this week's logistical hurdles -- keeping alive their hopes of breaking ground on the arena within six months," according to John Brennan of the Bergen RECORD. The N.Y. Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) finance committee recommended that the MTA BOD "approve a revision of a 2005 agreement with the developers," who are led by Forest City Ratner Chair & CEO and Nets Owner Bruce Ratner. The original plan was for the developers to make a $100M "upfront payment for air rights above an MTA rail yard that comprises one-third of the project footprint," but Ratner now "must pay only" $20M upfront, another $8M by '15 and the remainder by '31. A new rail yard built by the developers also will now include "only seven tracks with a capacity for 56 cars, instead of the previously-announced nine tracks that could handle 76 cars." Brennan notes the changes "mean the improvements will cost the developers $147[M] -- about half the amount originally promised" (Bergen RECORD, 6/23). In N.Y., Erin Durkin notes the MTA BOD will vote on the deal tomorrow. Critics "slammed the deal as a bailout for a troubled project," saying that if Ratner was "unable to live up to the original arrangement, the MTA should have gone back to the drawing board." But N.Y. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who "controls four votes on the MTA board, reaffirmed his support for the project yesterday." Bloomberg: "Would you really suggest that we start this process, that's gone on for almost a decade, all over again?" Meanwhile, Durkin reports in a "first-of-its-kind naming-rights deal, Forest City Ratner also will pay $200,000 a year to add the name 'Barclays Center' to the Atlantic Ave.-Pacific St. subway station" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 6/23).
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