January 30, 2004
Land cost to land on Ratner?
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Peter Kalikow may have thrown a monkey wrench into Bruce Ratner's Nets arena plans, declaring that the cash-strapped MTA will not transfer development rights to 10 acres of rail yards for free, as had been widely expected. "Any property that is transferred will have to be transferred at fair market value," said Kalikow, leading a Ratner aide to reply that "it's always been understood that it will be fair market value." (Actually, Ratner said in December that "whatever land we buy for housing, office, we'll pay the fair-market value as determined by appraisal" - implying that the several acres of land under the arena would be provided for free.)
The value of the MTA land is still unclear - one city appraiser told the Daily News his "guesstimate" was $50-75 million, while other real estate experts have estimated a price as high as $500 million. Whatever the price tag, if Ratner does agree to pay it, that would reduce his requested public subsidy to a mere $585 million, which would still be the largest taxpayer expense on a basketball arena in history.
