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Develop-
don't destroy
BROOKLYN Press
Release Main Page
For Immediate
Release: June 21,
2007
Albany 421-a Reform Bill Hands
One-of-a-Kind, Special Favors to Forest City Ratner
Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards Project Would Be The Only Project to
Receive Tax Breaks for Luxury Condos Under Bill
Where Does the Favoritism and Backroom Dealing End?
BROOKLYN, NY— Bruce Ratner is about to join his own exclusive developer's club, once again at taxpayer expense.
Forest City Ratner has often claimed that it's not getting anything that any other developer can't get. That was never the case, but now the development firm has positioned itself to get something that no other developer is getting.
Albany is creating a special loophole exclusively for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project as part of its bill "reforming" the 421-a tax breaks for development originally enacted in 1971. With this special legislation Forest City Ratner's market-rate luxury condominiums will be the only such units in the entire reform zone receiving the 421-a tax break, saving the developer untold millions.
"This is the cherry on top of all of the special treatment and sweetheart deals Forest City Ratner has been gifted for its Atlantic Yards project. This exclusive clause in the 421-a reform bill, benefiting Bruce Ratner alone, is an astounding example of absolute governmental favoritism, at odds with the very principles for which the reform bill is supposed to stand," said Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman, Daniel Goldstein. "There is no valid justification for this favoritism, and clearly there has been an utter lack of transparency in the decision to award one developer a special corporate-welfare package. Is there any end to the favoritism and backroom dealing that consistently benefits Bruce Ratner? Will Governor Spitzer choose to allow passage of such backroom special dealing? "
The special clause within the reform bill does not specifically name the
Atlantic Yards project but rather describes "a multi-phase project that
includes at least 2,500 dwelling units and (i) being implemented pursuant
to a General Project Plan adopted by the New York State Urban Development
Corporation and approved by Public Authorities Control Board." There is
only one such project in the state fitting that description, and that's
Atlantic Yards. Forest City Ratner is also seeking an extraordinary $1.4
billion in government backed, tax-exempt housing bonds.
"There should be an immediate Independent Budget Office (IBO) evaluation of all of the financial and tax benefits flowing to Forest City Ratner for affordable housing to determine the cost per unit, how many units are being deferred from other areas of the city, and how many units this level of funding could provide if it were dispersed without favoritism," said former City Planning Commissioner and DDDB Advisory Board member Ron Shiffman.
On his Atlantic Yards Report, watchdog journalist Norman Oder wrote,
"The final version of the bill apparently came down to two men in
a room, Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez (and surrogates) and
Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) executive Steve Spinola (ditto). And
in those backroom negotiations emerged
a nice plum for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. (The lack
of an obligation to build affordable housing in [Atlantic Yards] condo buildings
adds to the developer's bottom line in multiple ways.)"
To make matters worse, this special legislation granting exclusive and extraordinary tax breaks to Forest City Ratner would force lower-income residents of the proposed Atlantic Yards subsidized "affordable" housing to shell out at least 35% of their incomes for rent. This runs completely counter to accepted standards for "affordable housing," which typically involves a resident paying 30% of income towards rent the very principle behind the "Atlantic Yards" housing deal negotiated privately between Forest City Ratner and ACORN.
"With all due respect to ACORN, it's confounding that they are supporting
this special benefit to Ratner, making a mockery of the very reform bill
they fought so hard to push forward," Goldstein said. "It makes
no sense for ACORN to support tax breaks for luxury condos when that is
precisely what the reform bill was supposed to eliminate. Also,
ACORN
and Forest City Ratner had promised that each Atlantic Yards building
would be mixed affordable and market-rate, but that is another broken promise
by Ratner that ACORN appears willing to overlook."
On the Atlantic
Yards Report Brad Lander, the director of the Pratt Center for
Community Development and an appointee on the mayoral task force that recommended
reforms last year, said, "There shouldn't be special side deals for particular
developers. Buildings that include 20 percent affordable housing should
get a tax break and all market-rate buildings should pay their taxes. "
On December 20, 2006, the City Council's 421-a reform bill increased the
Geographic Exclusion Area (GEA), in which developers would be required to
build 20% affordable housing in exchange for the subsidy, extending it to
Brownstone Brooklyn and including the proposed "Atlantic Yards" project
site, among other locations. This bill, along with the forthcoming Albany
bill, requires that each building include a percentage of affordable units
in order to qualify for the lucrative tax breaks called "corporate
welfare" by State Senator Liz Krueger in May. Only Bruce Ratner
would receive the tax breaks for his mixed income buildings and his
market rate buildings.
"It takes a special developer, with special lobbyists, to get special legislation. This exclusive ‘Ratner clause" benefits only Forest City Ratner's bottom line, while keeping intact the exact breaks the bill was meant to eliminate," DDDB's Goldstein concluded.
DEVELOP
DON'T DESTROY BROOKLYN leads a broad-based community coalition
fighting for development that will unite our communities instead of
dividing and destroying them
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