After much speculation, brouhaha, and scaling back
the MLB has decided to remain in their Secaucus, New Jersey location. From A.P.:
A $435 million project with Vornado Realty Trust was announced in January to construct a 21-story office building in Harlem at Park Ave. and 125th St. Instead, baseball has decided to remain at the former MSNBC studios in Secaucus.
“The Harlem project ran into difficulty getting financing, developer financing,” DuPuy said. “There’s no activity on the Harlem project. At the moment, we’re very satisfied with the Secaucus facility. It’s a terrific facility and will serve our needs very well.”
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Posted in: Fitness/Sports, Real Estate
Pete
November 20, 2008
Come on, narmer. The issue here is that the credit markets have dried up, so it is difficult to finance the up-front costs of the project — none of which were ever going to be paid by government funds. At best, they were going to get favorable tax treatment and other incentives that would reduce their costs and provide incentive to build, but none of that is real unless the project happens.
The picture you paint about companies stepping up to the public trough and losing interest when they’ve had their fill just doesn’t match reality. And the outrage is especially misplaced at a time when there are so many real examples of such abuse happening at the federal level…
D. Bell
November 20, 2008
Do we know for a fact that these companies are pocketing the money and not being called out on it?
illoquentgent
November 20, 2008
wow, while I can’t say I didn’t expect this i was hoping for a reworking of the deal where MLB would take up less space or something like that. it seemed like this was the marquee tenant to anchor the building’s occupants.i wonder what the fate of Harlem Park will be now?
narmer
November 20, 2008
Did we really think that MLB was going to build on that spot?
That piece of land is being used as a “Pork Barrel” by investors who offer it to a company for development, and that company gets the funds from Federal,City and State agencies and then drop out of the development deal.
There have been Three projects for that parcel and Two Real Estate holding companies in Three years, and nothing yet.