EDC Strikes Easement Deal For Randall's Island Connector/South Bronx Greenway Project

Existing Randall's Island connector path. The pedestrian and bicycle span will link the South Bronx to the Island's parks and ballfields. The City needed an easement in order to build a path from the bridge to E. 132nd St. on the Bronx side. An agreement was reached last month with Harlem River Yard Ventures according to New York City Economic Development Corp. The land between the bridge and the South Bronx is part of a sprawling 96-acre rail yard owned by the State Department of Transportation but controlled by the private Harlem River Yards Ventures company under a 99 year lease it secured in 1991.

(Photo: New York City Economic Development)

Rendering of the Randall's Island Connector and pedestrian bridge that links the South Bronx and Randall's Island. (Image: New York City Economic Development Corp.)

Bronx/Randall's Island

By Geoffrey Croft

Low Tide - The Bronx Kill. The Randall's Island Connector bridge, which links the South Bronx and Randall's Island was built last year but has yet to open. The project was orginally supposed to be completed in 2010. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on image to enlarge

The quarter-mile Randall's Island Connector is a part of the 1.5 mile South Bronx Greenway, an initiative meant to increase waterfront access in the borough. The Connector will link to a greenway network that stretches from Randall's Island to Astoria, Queens and East Harlem.

The delays isn't the only source of contention on the project. For years South Bronx residents and environmental groups have been pushing for Con Edison to remove its deteriorating concrete conduit (above) located under the bridge. The company has utility cables buried in the structure that spans across the Bronx Kill that blocks human-powered craft including kayaks, canoes and rowing vessels from navigating the waterway.

"A navigable passage through the Bronx Kill is essential for the development of safe recreational boating in New York harbor and ongoing paddling and rowing programs, as well as the NYC Parks Water Trail," a April 30, 2008 letter sent to Mayor Bloomberg and EDC president Seth Pinsky stated.

The eleven signatories on the letter included representatives from numerous boating, park, and environmental organizations.

Last month a Con Edison spokesperson told A Walk In The Park that the Fire Department recently removed its electrical equipment which will pave the way for the structure's removal.

Con Edison's deteriorating concrete conduit is now located under the newly built Randall's Island Connector bridge. In June 2011, Con Edison finally agreed to remove the concrete-encased cables which blocks kayaks and canoes from navigating the Bronx Kill waterway.

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Yankee Garage Developer Giant Tax Deadbeat

"The simple fact is that Bloomberg and his aides made a costly mistake when they succumbed back in 2005 to the Yankees’ demand for a 9,000-space garage system. It was all part of the deal for the team to build a new stadium in the Bronx."

Garages at 153rd St. and River Ave. near Yankee Stadium have few fans, or customers, and owner has become a tax deadbeat. Bronx Parking Development has turned into a giant tax deadbeat. The firm has failed to pay any rent or property taxes, even though the garages sit on 21 acres of leased public land. It currently owes the city a whopping $25 million.

The developer of the 9,000-space Yankee parking garage system now projects less than a 38% occupancy rate on game days. The city's Economic Development Corp., which authorized $237 million in public bonds for the garages back in 2006, is facing at one of the biggest defaults of a New York City bond in decades. (Photo: Howard Simmons)

Bronx

THE FIRM that built and manages the new Yankee Stadium parking garages can’t repay $237 million in tax-exempt bonds the Bloomberg administration arranged for it four years ago, new financial records show, according to the New York Daily News.

Bronx Parking Development Company LLC is running perilously low on cash reserves and faces a looming default by the end of the year, according to a report filed Friday by a trustee for the firm’s bondholders.

Time is running out, in other words, to avoid one of the biggest failures in decades of bonds issued by a New York City agency.

The simple fact is that Bloomberg and his aides made a costly mistake when they succumbed back in 2005 to the Yankees’ demand for a 9,000-space garage system. It was all part of the deal for the team to build a new stadium in the Bronx.

But Yankees fans have shunned the garages, where game day self-parking rates soared last year to $35 — up from $23 previously and more than double the original $14 charge. Valet parking now goes for $48.

So many fans are staying away, in part due to the lure of cheaper local competition, that Bronx Parking Development now projects only 3,500 paying customers per game for the upcoming season.

And that occupancy rate — a measly 38% — will exist only on days when the Bronx Bombers take the field. For the rest of the year, the garages will remain a ghost town, since a mere 70 South Bronx residents currently park there each day.

At the same time, Bronx Parking Development has turned into a giant tax deadbeat. The firm, which is not connected to the Yankees, has failed to pay any rent or property taxes, even though the garages sit on 21 acres of leased public land.

It currently owes the city a whopping $25 million.

In a desperate effort to preserve cash, the company plans to slash the salaries of a handful of full-time garage employees and to reduce the number of game-day parking attendants from 76 to 57. But those cuts are unlikely to stave of its collapse.

For the second year in a row, garage revenues will be “insufficient” to cover debt service payments due in April and October, the bondholder trustee said, thus triggering default provisions of the bonds.

The company’s chairman, William Loewenstein, has repeatedly referred all questions about the garages to the city Economic Development Corp., the agency that sponsored Bronx Parking Development’s creation. Two of Bronx Parking Development’s board members, in fact, are officials from the EDC and the Parks Department. Another is a representative of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

“There’s no way this crisis can continue this way into next year,” one board member said.

Diaz has been pressing City Hall to come up with an emergency plan to restructure the bonds, tear down some of the garages, and replace them with low-income housing or even a new hotel.

But four private developers who responded late last year to a request from Diaz for hotel proposals all wanted major city subsidies, one official said.

“We continue to actively assist the (Bronx Parking Development) Board as it evaluates all options,” said EDC spokesman Dave Lombino.

Bloomberg’s aides say the city never pledged to back these bonds, nor did its Industrial Development Agency, the entity that actually issued them. Any loss, they say, will have to be borne by the bondholders.

So, while City Hall keeps washing its hands of any responsibility for this mess, overpriced garages on 21 acres of city land keep producing nothing of value for the public.

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Randall's Island/South Bronx Connector Path Land Easement Still Not Secured

Existing Randalls Island connector path. The pedestrian and bicycle span would link South Bronx to parks and ballfields. The land between the bridge and the South Bronx is owned by the State DOT but controlled by a private company, Harlem River Yards Ventures under a 99 year lease. The New York City Economic Development Corp. needs an easement so it can build a path from the bridge to E. 132nd St. (Photo: New York City Economic Development)

Bronx

The city could be building a bridge to nowhere, thanks to a muddled South Bronx land deal.

The Randalls Island Connector, a planned pedestrian and bicycle bridge, will eventually span the Bronx Kill, a narrow waterway separating the South Bronx from public ball fields and green space on Randalls Island.

But land between the bridge and the South Bronx street grid is controlled by a private company, Harlem River Yards Ventures. The New York City Economic Development Corp. needs an easement so it can build a path from the bridge to E. 132nd St, according to the New York Daily News.

The EDC and HRYV have worked together on the project for years and now that the city is ready to start bridge construction, it has made the company an easement offer. But no deal has been struck and now the project is in doubt, sources said.

Anthony Riccio, senior vice president of HRYV, said negotiations are ongoing and claimed there is no cause for concern.

"There is no problem," he said. "We are confident we will reach a satisfactory resolution soon."

But the viability of the $6 million bridge is at stake, said an EDC spokesman.

The Connector will link the South Bronx to a greenway network that stretches from Randalls Island to Astoria, Queens and East Harlem.

We are hopeful that the negotiations with (HRYV) can be resolved quickly, so the city can move forward with this important project," said Kyle Sklerov, EDC spokesman, claiming the bridge will help South Bronx residents enjoy the outdoors.

The strip of land needed for the path is actually public property already, part of a sprawling 96-acre rail yard owned by the state Department of Transportation.

But HRYV controls the land because it secured a 99-year lease for the site in 1991 under terms later slammed by the state controller as a sweetheart deal.

Harry Bubbins, executive director of Friends of Brook Park, a South Bronx group, called the Connector "an extremely important" project with widespread community support. But he blasted the easement negotiations.

"The site belongs to the state. It is unfathomable why we even have to pay to use it and (HRYV) should expedite the easement."

The EDC and HRYV are also in talks about building a new headquarters for Fresh Direct at the rail yard. The Queens-based grocery delivery company is mulling a move to the site, with the EDC offering it millions of dollars in public benefits.

Despite the timing, Sklerov said the Connector and Fresh Direct projects are unrelated.

U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-South Bronx) is betting on the Connector.

"I am confident any last minute problems will be worked out and this important project will move forward," he said.

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