A sports economist hired by Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner to study
the financial feasibility of the basketball arena, office tower and housing
plan released his results this week to a great deal of criticism.
Ratner commissioned the study by Andrew Zimbalist — some call it
his “dribble-down theory” — and it used numbers and assumptions
largely provided by the developer’s project planners. It concludes
that the entire project would net $812 million of additional revenue for
the city and state over the next 30 years.
Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts, has written
several books on sports economics and has regularly described arenas and
stadiums as having no direct economic benefits on local economies.
He says the Ratner But this week many of Zimbalist’s peers came out challenging some According to the report, released Monday, the city and state will pitch Zimbalist estimates that infrastructure costs, including a platform that The large-scale development only becomes profitable when the housing and According to Zimbalist, the 17 residential towers, including 4,500 units Gustav Peebles, a researcher at Columbia University who lives in Fort At Tuesday’s City Council public hearing on the plan, Peebles, who “Based on conversations with former budget officials [Forest City Peebles questioned the logic of that when adding 8 million square feet “Just the traffic cops at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues alone will In calculating how many non-season-ticket-holder Nets fans will travel “That’s ridiculous, the Jets have always been a New York team,” “We should be asking New Jersey for money to subsidize these buildings “His conclusions are that the arena would be a money loser but the To make way for the plan, Ratner is also asking the state to use the power Asked if the borough would be losing out if it only got housing and no Andrew Alper, president of the city Economic Development Corp., said at Even so, Zimbalist says the plan would be an overall boon to the city “Even under the least favorable assumptions in my sensitivity analyses,”
project is different because of the residential and commercial component.
of his figures and assumptions.
in $18 million per year for the arena and will take in about $17.7 million
from the sports complex, intended as home to Ratner’s recently purchased
New Jersey Nets.
would have to be built over the rail yards, and eminent domain property
takings, will cost $187.73 million.
commercial properties are taken into consideration.
of housing, would generate an average of $60 million in city and state
taxes per year. The more than 2 million square feet of commercial space
would bring in close to $15 million, Zimbalist says.
Greene, sent the study out to a team of sports economists across the country
following its release this week.
is working with Develop Don’t Destroy-Brooklyn, a group of residents
fighting the plan, blasted many of Zimbalist’s assumptions.
Ratner] concludes that the increment in fire and police budget would be
negligible,” Zimbalist writes.
of development, roughly four times the size of the Empire State Building.
have to be increased,” Peebles said.
to Brooklyn, Zimbalist uses numbers based on the New York Jets football
team, which has played in New Jersey for more than two decades but retains
its New York identity.
said Peebles, adding that New Yorkers have to travel to New Jersey if
they want to watch professional football, unlike basketball where they
can just go to Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.
Peebles also wondered why if 60 percent of the people moving into the
housing at Atlantic Yards, as Zimablist says, are coming from out of state,
New Yorkers should pay to subsidize the project.
if that’s whose going to be moving into them,” Peebles said.
Neil deMause, author of “Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium
Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit” also questioned the
study’s outcome.
housing would be so great that it would more than make up for the money
you’d lose on the arena. So why are we building the arena?”
asked deMause.
of eminent domain to condemn more than two square blocks of privately
owned land. He is also seeking air rights to develop over the 11-acre
Long Island Rail Road yards.
basketball, deMause said, “From a fiscal standpoint we’re winning
because we don’t have the fiscal debt.”
the council hearing that he still did not know how much in public funding
would go into the project.
and state.
Zimbalist concludes, “the fiscal impact of the Atlantic Yards project
is a significant plus for New York City and New York State treasuries.”
