Basically, the area has been rezoned and will be built out. The Javits is being, approx., doubled with a connecting 1500 room hotel. The 7 line should be extended, but that's up in the air. The Jets still have the right to develop the staidum, they just have to pay for most of it ($300 mill from the city still doable I think) and are deciding how and if they will. Should know soon.
I read this in the thread at SSP:
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Bear Stearns says that "commercial development [is] projected at 1 million square feet annually" starting in 2006 in order to make the Olympic bond payments. This makes a total of 10 million square feet by 2015, a full World Trade Center's worth.
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Since NY lost the Olympics, will commercial development still be developed at 1 million sf annually?
Originally Posted by Pottebaum
No one knows, but the area will develop regardless. The main thing now is to get the 7 extension funded. This is key for the area. The railyard will develop one way or another in due time.
Yet, we can look at the Upper East Side and see that a new subway line is not necessarily needed to spur development.
True, but what do you think will happen when and if the 2nd ave is actually built?
It is an interesting time in the city, because we are seeing that the only limitations to developing in ANY neighborhood seem to be around zoning laws - not transportation.
STAR LEDGER
NJSEA decides to reduce Jets' rent
Friday, July 22, 2005
BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
A year after vowing not to give in, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority reduced the Jets' rent at Giants Stadium in an effort to convince the team to make the Meadowlands its permanent home.
In a unanimous vote yesterday at its regular monthly meeting, the sports authority's board of commissioners approved settling a $20 million lawsuit the team had filed against the agency.
The Jets sued the sports authority last year after state officials refused to reduce their rent from 15 percent of gross ticket sales to 10 percent, which is the amount the Giants pay. The Jets will also receive an increased share of concession sales during their games. The Giants received the rent reduction and the concessions boost in 1998, when they agreed to extend their lease to 2026, and the sports authority said the Jets should only get a similar reduction if the team agreed to extend its lease, which currently expires in 2009.
However, since the Jets' plans to move to Manhattan fell through last month, the sports authority has tried to ease relations with the team in hopes it will partner with the Giants to build an $800 million stadium at the sports complex.
"We feel like this agreement builds the foundation of a relationship that we hope becomes long term," said George Zoffinger, the sports authority's chief executive.
In a statement, Jets chief executive Jay Cross said:
"Since Woody Johnson became owner of the New York Jets in 2000, we have worked hard to enforce our rights of economic parity with the New York Giants guaranteed by our current lease at the Meadowlands. We are pleased to have finally achieved that goal while continuing and solidifying the strong cooperative spirit that has characterized so many other areas of our relationship with New Jersey."
In an interview yesterday, Giants chief executive John Mara said he approved the Jets rent reduction to show how much his team wants the Jets to remain in the Meadowlands and reduce the risk involved with the new stadium, which the Giants now plan to pay for on their own.
"We're all trying to work together here," Mara said. "I think we're going to be able to reach a deal. It just makes too much sense."
Hopefully this will put the final nail in the coffin for the westside shoe box.
The westside "shoebox" as you put it was dead when Silver rejected the deal. This project wont happen
Not necessarily. This is the end of a lawsuit that was brought forth by the JETS last year - and only applys to the current JETS lease which expires in 2009. Earlier the state had agreed to a new lease which would allow the JETS to leave during any year, but decided that didn't make sense for the state. The only thing this says is that the state of New Jersey is trying harder to accomodate the JETS now that they are again exploring options with a new stadium.
You better believe that if the westside stadium were more of a certainty, they wouldn't have setteled.In a unanimous vote yesterday at its regular monthly meeting, the sports authority's board of commissioners approved settling a $20 million lawsuit the team had filed against the agency.
northjersey.com
Sports authority slices Jets' rent
Friday, July 22, 2005
By JOHN BRENNAN
OCEANPORT - The New York Jets on Thursday finally got what they've wanted for years: a one-third reduction in their annual rent.
Now, say acting Governor Codey and leading Meadowlands officials, it's the Jets' turn to make them happy by working out a partnership with the New York Giants on a new $800 million stadium in East Rutherford.
"We just sent a signal that we are backing up our talk with action," Codey said. "They've got the football now; they're on offense."
That signal was a unanimous endorsement by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority of a revised Jets lease that is virtually on par financially with the Giants' lease.
The vote also brings an end to a two-year lawsuit that sports authority President George Zoffinger said could have cost the state up to $32 million.
Zoffinger said the new terms were a crucial step toward a new stadium deal with the two National Football League teams. The teams would pay the construction cost and keep annual revenues from the building.
"It's difficult to tell somebody you want them while you're also involved in litigation with them," Zoffinger said after the agency's monthly meeting, held Thursday at Monmouth Park. "It puts us in good position for the teams to have joint ownership of a new stadium."
Although the vote did not commit the Jets to working out a stadium deal at the Meadowlands, sports authority Chairman Carl Goldberg said he expects the Jets to stay in New Jersey long after their lease expires in 2009.
"We're very confident that the Jets are going to keep playing in the state, and that confidence is reflected by our desire to approve today's transaction," Goldberg said.
The Jets have protested their rent payments ever since Woody Johnson became the team's principal owner in 2000, a year after the Giants' rent was reduced from 15 percent to 10 percent of gross ticket receipts in exchange for their agreeing to add 10 |years to their lease. Citing their "most favored nation" clause, the Jets demanded the same reduction.
Sports authority officials had said the reduction would be made only if the Jets agreed to extend their own lease as well -a deal breaker for the Jets, who until last month were insistent on moving to a $2 billion stadium on Manhattan's West Side before the end of the decade.
"We have worked hard to enforce our rights of economic parity with the New York Giants that is guaranteed by our current lease at the Meadowlands, and we are pleased to have finally achieved our goal," Jets President Jay Cross said in a statement.
The Giants agreed not to start their own legal fight over the fact that the Jets are getting the rent reduction without extending their lease.
"We're hopeful that this agreement paves the way for a new stadium," said Giants Vice President John Mara, adding that representatives for both teams have held preliminary discussions since the Jets' West Side plan fizzled. "We want the Jets joining us sooner, rather than later."
Goldberg said it was not practical to tie in a Jets stadium commitment to a rent reduction that he called "leveling the playing field" for the Jets.
"When you have complicated situations like this, I've found you solve them a piece at a time," Goldberg said. "This will provide the example for how the rest of the equation gets solved."
Zoffinger said sports authority officials had "done a lot of research" on a Munich, Germany, stadium that is shared by two soccer teams. The exterior of the stadium can be lighted to reflect the team colors of whichever one is playing at the time.
"The idea is that it should no longer be a Giants stadium with the Jets just playing there [as tenants]," Zoffinger said. "The technology today allows that to be done."
Zoffinger still hopes to persuade the teams to include a retractable roof, even if the state must pay for it. He said that becoming a regular host for Super Bowls and NCAA basketball Final Fours, and gaining a shot at becoming the centerpiece of a 2016 New York-New Jersey Olympic bid, would justify the investment.
The sports authority board also approved the purchase of a video board made from light-emitting diodes, or LED, for Continental Arena. The New Jersey Nets would pay all operational costs for the screen and gain the right to sell all available signage within the arena, as well as other signage at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
Its funny how quickly the same people who criticized NY officials for wanting to do the same thing can change their tune.Zoffinger still hopes to persuade the teams to include a retractable roof, even if the state must pay for it. He said that becoming a regular host for Super Bowls and NCAA basketball Final Fours, and gaining a shot at becoming the centerpiece of a 2016 New York-New Jersey Olympic bid, would justify the investment.
The Jets Miss a Deadline for West Side Rail Property
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: July 23, 2005
The Jets, who never formally gave up their quest to build a football stadium over the railyards on the West Side of Manhattan, missed an important deadline this month to buy the development rights from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, agency officials said yesterday.
As a result, the agency's board may formally terminate its agreement to sell those development rights to the Jets at its meeting on Wednesday, according to officials at the authority. That step would probably represent the official conclusion to the stadium plans.
Though the state's top legislators did not approve a $300 million subsidy for the proposed $2.2 billion West Side Stadium on June 6, the team has clung tenaciously to the idea that it could resurrect the proposal by getting the money from union pension funds or other sources. At the same time, the Jets have talked to officials in New Jersey about the possibility of remaining in the Meadowlands and building a new stadium with the Giants.
Butthis month, the transit authority requested that the team declare whether it was prepared to proceed with the $250 million acquisition of the railyard by July 18, which would have required the Jets to negotiate a contract and put up a nonrefundable $50 million deposit.
Catherine A. Rinaldi, general counsel of the M.T.A., said yesterday that the Jets had failed "to get back to us." "As of today," she said, "we have not heard back from the Jets. On Wednesday, we're going to bring the board up to speed as to the status of the negotiations. We'll figure out how to proceed."
The Jets have already spent four years and more than $63 million on its effort to build a new home in Manhattan.
The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Peter S. Kalikow, and other members of the authority's board have been anxious to resolve the issue with the team and move on. They believe that the property could bring a high price and help to resolve some of the authority's financial problems.
Mr. Kalikow and the authority's president, Katherine N. Lapp, met with the president of the Jets, L. Jay Cross, and Matthew Higgins, a team vice president, on July 12 and asked them to make a decision. According to people on both sides, Mr. Kalikow said that prospects for a West Side stadium were nil, given that the Jets did not have state approval or the prospect of the 2012 Olympics.
The Jets, however, wanted more time to consider their options, including a plan in which they built the stadium and a commercial or residential building. But Mr. Kalikow was unwilling to consider it because real estate development was not part of the tentative agreement the two sides had reached in March. He and other board members say that they can get more money by selling it to developers themselves. Some M.T.A. officials say the board may void the agreement with the Jets on Wednesday.
Over the last month the team has not made any public comments. Mr. Higgins of the Jets would not comment yesterday. But another Jets executive, Thad Sheely, discreetly asked city officials recently about the possibility of building a stadium at Willets Point, in Queens, near Shea Stadium. And earlier this week, Mr. Cross went out to Willets Point to review the site.
While the team and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg were pushing for a Manhattan stadium, the Jets had indicated they were not interested in moving to Queens. But the team played in Queens for many years before moving to New Jersey in the 1980's and it still wants a stadium of its own.
The Jets also ended their dispute with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority this week, after the authority agreed to lower its rent to the same level as that of the Giants, who plan to build a new stadium in the Meadowlands.
"We hope this will be the first step in the process that will keep them here long term," said George R. Zoffinger, president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. "We're confident that we, the Jets and the Giants can work out a way that they'll be equal partners in a new covered stadium in the Meadowlands."
A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, Edward Skyler, declined to comment.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
Um, yes please. If we can't have Manhattan, then Queens it is. It's not good that no word has been given yet, but it IS good that a "NO" has not been given yet. I think this means plans may still be in the works. Who knows, this could be a chess game to get more out of Jersey, but I would have to think that their own place in Queens is better than still being 2nd fiddle in Jersey.
I would like to see the new stadium to the West of the new Shea, not in Willets Point. Build some multi-level parking and have no surface lots. A new Shea, a new football stadium and the USTA all within a few minutes of each other. That would be quite a sports complex.
The Jets, however, wanted more time to consider their options, including a plan in which they built the stadium and a commercial or residential building.
Hmmm. Wonder what that was all about. Too bad we'll never learn more about it...
If the JETS lose the railyards, that's it. But at least the yards will be there for future generations to debate over.But Mr. Kalikow was unwilling to consider it because real estate development was not part of the tentative agreement the two sides had reached in March. He and other board members say that they can get more money by selling it to developers themselves. Some M.T.A. officials say the board may void the agreement with the Jets on Wednesday.
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