Transit officials are scaling back plans for the rail yard being rebuilt beneath Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn from nine tracks to seven — and they’re also expecting less cash from Ratner.
MTA Interim Executive Director Helena Williams confirmed yesterday that the cash-strapped agency had reached a tentative agreement to allow Ratner to cut back costs on a $445 million transit improvement plan to Long Island Rail Road’s Vanderbilt Rail Yard that he promised to deliver three years ago in exchange for approvals for the controversial $4 billion Atlantic Yards project.
Ratner was supposed to pay the agency $100 million, plus provide $345 million in transit upgrades. But Williams during a state Senate hearing on Atlantic Yards said the agency allowed Ratner to renegotiate because the national credit crunch was making it difficult to finance the 22-acre plan to build an NBA arena and 16 office and residential towers in Prospect Heights.
She also said the thousands of jobs and affordable housing units Brooklyn would lose if Atlantic Yards isn’t built led to the decision.
Williams said the rail yard redesign would include cost-saving measures, such as nine tracks in the original plan being reduced to seven. But she said it would still provide “a safe, functional and efficient yard.”
Meanwhile, sources said Ratner could end up paying the MTA only $50 million, half the $100 million originally promised. Williams during the hearing said the MTA is considering allowing Ratner to make “a smaller up front payment followed by additional payments.”
Most the 300 seats at a Pratt Institute auditorium in Fort Greene were filled with loud union workers who support the project because of the jobs it would create. But those opposing Atlantic Yards were seething over the news of the renegotiations – especially since Ratner wasn’t the highest bidder for the 8.3-acre rail yard site.
“The project that was approved in 2006 does not exist. Nor do the jobs, the housing or the arena that were promised,” said Daniel Goldstein of Atlantic Yards opposition group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, who was loudly booed by the workers.
He called Ratner’s original agreement with the MTA “a sweetheart deal,” adding that the “MTA, which just got a government bailout, is now going to give a bailout to [Ratner].”
Ratner’s original $100 million bid to the MTA was $50 million lower than a rival proposal by Extell Development. An agency appraisal found the rail yard worth $214.5 million.
Ratner won out after convincing the MTA his plan was actually worth $445 million, by claiming it included $345 million in transit enhancements. Those were to include construction of a $182 million replacement rail yard, an environmental cleanup, and other improvements around the bustling Atlantic Avenue transit hub.
During the hearing, both Marisa Lago, CEO of the Empire State Development Corp., and Seth Pinsky, president of the city’s Economic Development Corp. also testified that their agencies were negotiating with the developer about the possibility of the public sector boosting the project further.
Atlantic Yards is already getting a combined $305 million in cash subsidies from the city and state.
Earlier this month, Ratner confirmed he’s shaving costs of a planned $950 million, glass-and-steel arena for his New Jersey Nets designed by star architect Frank Gehry to $800 million.
The developer declined an invitation to attend yesterday’s hearing. Bruce Bender, an executive vice president for Ratner’s firm, issued a statement saying “now is not the time to be re-debating the project. It is time to get to work.”
Ratner has said he hopes to break ground on the arena by September or October and have the Nets playing there by the 2011-2012 season. The timetable for the rest of the project is still being ironed out.