Yankees garages to be razed for hotels? Not so fast

This was first reported last Friday by Crain’s New York, but I missed it until it was spotted by Streetsblog (and passed along by a Twitter reader): The continually troubled New York Yankees parking garages are now in default on their city-issued bonds, running at less than 50% occupancy, and could be torn down to make way for hotels, as several developers have expressed interest in doing. “This appears to be the first time a public official has publicly suggested that the garages could be erased completely,” notes Streetsblog.

Before anyone calls in the wrecking balls, though, a couple of caveats: First off, this couldn’t affect either of the two new garages built (at an astounding cost of $340 million, about $61 million of which came from taxpayers) for the stadium, as one has a football field and track on top of it, and the other is smack up against the new stadium and is used by Yankee players and employees. The garage likeliest to be razed, then, is the 1970s-era triangular structure south of the old stadium site, though then it would still raise the question of why the Yankees needed two park-demolishing garages to be built in the first place.

Second, that seven developers have responded to a request for qualifications doesn’t mean that any of them are actually going to build anything — it’s the development equivalent of kicking the tires. And it’s still possible that any developer could want subsidies of their own before putting up a hotel in the South Bronx. So, many miles yet to go before this particular fiasco reaches its denouement.

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