Industrial Development Agency

Felicity Leaving the Village? Keri Russell Unloads Duplex    read more »

The newest member of an obscure panel that gives out hundreds of millions of dollars in city tax breaks each year, the Industrial Development Agency, is promising to cast a skeptical eye on the process.

"New York is so vibrant and strong that companies are under significant pressure to be in New York City," Kevin Doyle, executive vice president for Local 32BJ, told The Real Estate. "What's the rationale for spending public money to do things that [companies] are going to be doing anyway?"

It is rare that a labor representative sits on the I.D.A. board of directors. Mr. Doyle, 58, was recommended to the post by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who has a close relationship with 32BJ, an 85,000-member division of the Service Employees International Union, which represents building workers.

Mr. Doyle also said he would question the labor practices of companies applying for tax incentives, mentioning that JP Morgan Chase, which is reportedly pushing for more subsidies to move to Ground Zero, pays its security guards "as little as $8 an hour."

Mr. Doyle, who was appointed in February, is realistic about the impact he will have, given that nine of the 15 members are appointed by the Mayor, and the others, recommended by the borough presidents and city comptroller, must be confirmed by him. (There are currently some vacancies.)

"It's a mayorally driven process," he said.

- Matthew Schuerman

The city is planning to finance a set of garages and lots that would add almost 3,000 more parking spaces near Yankee Stadium even though the new ballpark is going to seat 6,000 fewer patrons than the current one.

A hearing Thursday before the Industrial Development Agency, an arm of city government, drew a limited but earnest response from watchdog groups and community organizations, asserting that the more parking spaces you build, the more people will drive. They argued that instead of using public funds to encourage driving, the money should be put toward a proposed Metro-North station that reportedly needs another $35 million to come into being.

The I.D.A. will vote on whether to authorize $190 million in tax-exempt bonds for the project in May or June, according to a spokeswoman. The agency's analysis shows that the city will spend $20 million to reconstruct parkland on top of the garages and will lose another $2 million in forgone taxes on the bonds, which will be tax-free.

Eventually, the city will make more than double its money back through new taxes, lease payments and shared revenues, though it will do so over a 43-year period, the I.D.A. said; it would not release the assumptions for the revenue numbers.  read more »

The worst part about Tuesday's vote on a new tax incentive agreement with MetLife, according to a watchdog group that follows corporate subsidies, may have been the fact that the vote was taken without any public notice other than a story in that morning's New York Times.

Normally, the mayorally controlled Industrial Development Agency publishes an agenda about two weeks in advance of its meetings and holds a public hearing a few days before each. But the new MetLife deal didn't come up in the public hearing last week, and wasn't on the advance agenda for Tuesday's IDA board meeting.

"It demonstrates they were not willing to put it in front of the public, which is sort of to the detriment of the deal," said Good Jobs New York research associate Dan Steinberg. "The city would have had more leverage if the public was allowed to comment on it," he added, since the public's objections would show the pressure that the city was facing to exact greater concessions from MetLife.

For the full Good Jobs statement, see here. The details of the new agreement, passed by the IDA's board, can be found in the city Economic Development Corporation's press release here.

- Matthew Schuerman

Crain's reported on Friday that the city had approved some $150 million in aid to New York Law School, to help them expand their Lower Manhattan campus.

The announcement came on the heels of the local law school's ribon-cutting in the East Village on the school's first dormitory building, a 13-story monster at 81 East 3rd Street.

Crain's reporter Mary Sisson wrote:

The law school will build a new 337,000-square-foot facility on Leonard Street between West Broadway and Worth Street, where it is currently located, using a $145 million bond issue approved by the city’s Industrial Development Agency. A tax waiver will save the school about $4 million in mortgage costs.

The new building, which will be five stories tall and will have four underground levels, will house academic facilities and administrative offices. The expanded space will allow the school to add 21 people to its current staff of 422.

Building dorms has recently become a mainstay of local schools hoping to heighten their profile by getting students from beyond the metropolitan area who would balk at the cost of living here otherwise. Dean and President Richard A. Matasar said as much at the ribbon-cutting:

“In all its 114-year history, New York Law School has never had its own dormitory,” said Dean Matasar, “and this has been a significant consideration for prospective students from beyond the New York metropolitan area. Now we can offer students a comfortable, convenient accommodation that will allow them to have the full experience of living and attending law school in Manhattan.”

You'll recognize this as a central part of New York University's strategy to attract more students--and, by increasing the competition in the admissions process, better students; whether the East Village can continue to absorb this teeming student population is a matter of debate.  read more »

- Tom McGeveran

Pataki today pledged his half of the remaining $3.4 billion in Liberty Bonds to Larry Silverstein’s buildings at Ground Zero. That’s a big shift from last week, when the Governor was expected to pool the state’s portion with the city’s and was letting Mayor Bloomberg drive the negotiations. The Mayor wants Silverstein to cede some of his 10 million square feet in development rights to other builders who would build residential, which Bloomberg believes will be rented or sold faster than will office space.

“The state will be working with Larry Silverstein to issue inducements for Liberty Bonds for the Freedom Tower and building two,” the Governor said today at a question-and-answer session, according to a transcript. “But we also have issues that still have to be resolved between the Port Authority and Silverstein…. We want this to be completely resolved within 90 days, but we’ll be issuing an inducement letter for the Liberty Bonds for the Freedom Tower so that can go forward.”

Originally, the city and the state each were given $3.2 billion in Liberty Bonds from the federal government for commercial projects around town to divvy up as they saw fit, and together they have spent about $3 billion so far. Silverstein had applied to the city’s agency, the Industrial Development Agency, for $3.345 billion, with the understanding that the state would also pitch in. But a state official told the Real Estate that after the I.D.A. decided on Monday to table the issue for another month, the Governor decided to go it alone.

This should bring a happy end to a day that Silverstein started with a Wall Street Journal article quoting his financial backer, Lloyd Goldman, who said that he would “evaluate and accept” a deal to reduce Silverstein Properties’ role at Ground Zero if it “makes sense.” (That's to say nothing of the jolt he must have felt to have been called a "Power Geezer" by The New York Observer.)  read more »

Tomorrow, more fun at Ground Zero: Silverstein announces the name of the architect for Tower 2. He is said to be deciding among these three: Sir Norman Foster, Fumihiko Maki and Jean Nouvel.

-Matthew Schuerman