Jets team not ready to call off the game

Real Estate Weekly, August 10, 2005 by Elaine Misonzhnik

The New York Jets are far from ready to call it quits on their West Side Rail Yards plan. After several published reports called the team's bid to build a stadium there "all but dead", the Jets insist the Metropolitan Transportation Authority gave them until August 31 to decide whether they would go ahead with the project.

"There is nothing to comment on," said Jets spokeswoman, Marissa Shorenstein, in reference to an alternative plan that emerged at the MTA's July 27 board meeting for a mixed-use development on the West Side, with the MTA headquarters at its center. "They announced at the meeting that they will give us until August 31."

In June, the Public Authorities Control Board rejected the Jets request for $300 million in State funding to build a platform over the yards. However, the MTA, Empire State Development Corporation and New York State Supreme Court have each given the Jets plan a green light.

The team has also rallied an impressive group of developers to build the stadium and mixed-use community.

The MTA's proposal last week to use $493 million of its sudden surplus windfall to build a platform over the Rail Yards and request new bids from developers met with mixed reactions from city officials. Mayor Bloomberg, who has always been a staunch supporter of the Jets stadium, criticized the agency for forgetting about its priorities--running a safe and affordable transportation system for New York commuters--and even City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, no fan of the Jets bid, pointed out that the transit system should be the MTA's primary concern.

However, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields thinks the new proposal has come just in time. She is opposed to the stadium and has been advocating the creation of affordable housing on the West Side.

"The MTA's proposal to build the platform over the rail yards on the West Side could be an excellent investment that would benefit the transit system, the borough of Manhattan and the City's economy," she said.

Jeremy Soffin, director of public affairs with the Regional Plan Association, said his agency might put its support behind the MTA plan if it will focus on a largely residential development. The Regional Plan Association has always opposed the stadium idea because it's wrong for the area "from a land use perspective."

Said Soffin, "We'd like to see a mixed-use development on the West Side, which we've been advocating for more than a year, but [this proposal] depends on what's best for the transit riders and it's not clear that the MTA plan is the best one."

However, according to people directly affected by the redevelopment of the West Side, any kind of project, including a stadium, would be better than the dead zone surrounding the site now.

"Anything would help above and beyond what is not happening there now. It's just a flat area," said Jerry Scupp, deputy executive director of the Fashion Center BID. "I think we could really just speak to the fact that if you are doing something there, it's a good idea."

Scupp insisted that his BID has no feeling for or against the Jets stadium. "The stadium and the MTA plan are two different proposals, I couldn't give a judgment," he said, noting that he hopes the best interests of the Fashion Center will be taken into account when the final decision is made.