July 18, 2012. A story by Joan Gralla, Reuters Macroscope.
Critics say the developers – The Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group Inc – should not be tapping taxpayers’ wallets, but should instead be relying on their own deep pockets.
Argues James Parrott, chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank whose funding comes primarily from foundations but which also gets some support from unions:
“This represents the culmination in the evolution over the past 30 years of city business subsidies, first to manufacturing, then commercial in the outer boroughs, then Lower Manhattan commercial, then to ‘smart buildings,’ and now to prime mid-town commercial properties in already heavily subsidized areas … This is the first of what could be several mega-subsidy deals in the Hudson Yards area in the years to come. A testament to the ever-growing influence of the real estate sector.”