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It’s remarkable to me that, so far, there’s been virtually no journalistic and public reaction to the news in the new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Empire State Development and the new Atlantic Yards developers that:
—New York State seems willing to give open-ended subsidies—or, at least, well more than $700 million—to advance the project
—NY State seems willing to move toward project approval even while, at least for now (and for how long?), development on the crucial second platform block isn’t viable
—NY State has set new deadlines to complete parts of the project, but two years of extensions come cheap, and more are discretionary, and we all know what that means
The only other article, so far, about the new MOU was in The Real Deal, an industry publication that sometimes produces incisive work.
In this case, two of the three “key takeaways” were old news: the expansion of the project in bulk, unit count, and height; and the plan to focus on solid ground construction.
The other takeaway was a boilerplate recounting of the new milestones and extension terms, plus, in a rather tepid summary of the state’s gentle posture, that “further extensions may be available at ESD’s discretion, the MOU says, echoing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s choice” to renegotiate affordable housing penalties.
