March 21, 2005

The final three

The bids are in for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Manhattan rail yards, and there are no surprises: The three previously announced bidders - the New York Jets, Cablevision, and longshots TransGas - were the only three announced as accepted by the MTA. (Two other bids were rejected for, among other things, failing to include the required $25,000 deposit.) Details of the revised bids weren't released, so it's anybody's guess who'll come out the winner when the MTA board votes, possibly next Thursday.

It's a bit of a disappointing denouement to what was briefly expected to be a bidding war for the site, but given the zoning and other uncertainties facing all bidders not spelled J-E-T-S, it's hardly surprising. The final nail in the coffin was the political pressure brought to bear by the mayor on local developers: As one told the New York Times's Charles Bagli, "Right now, everyone's scared of bidding."