Crain’s: MTA Should Pick Most Financially Sound Developer

Unsurprisingly in the wake of the subprime crisis and general market shakiness, much of the Rail Yards dialogue has turned away from design and towards financials.
Of course, guessing is a bit tough, given the MTA’s refusal to make the financial bids public (which the HYCAC called for as part of its summary of top [...]

Crain’s has more on the MTA’s Strings Attached

Crain’s has the latest on an increasingly complicated set of requirements for developers, as outlined by the MTA in their January 28 letter.
According to the article by Theresa Agovino, the winning developer will be contractually obligated to create a set of seperate funds that will go to the MTA for Rail Yards expenses and earmarks [...]

MTA Pushing Developers to Lease the Rail Yards

According to Crain’s,  it now looks as if the MTA would prefer to lease the Rail Yards site to developers for 99 years, rather than sell it.   
A source at one developer said the MTA was caving in to public pressure not to sell the property, which includes active MTA rail operations. But the MTA spokesman says that under a [...]

Open letter to the MTA from Hudson Yards Community Advisory Committee

HYCAC, an official community coalition made up of members of Community Board 4, local electeds and community organizations, has written a letter to MTA CEO Lee Sander with its reaction to the five proposals.
The letter also brings up community concerns about the planning process at large, including the lack of infrastructure and affordable housing planning, the megablock [...]