Cablevision offers MTA $760M for bid

Subject: Cablevision offers MTA $760M for bid
Date: 24-Mar-05 21:15:23 Eastern Standard Time
From: kitchen@hellskitchen.net
Sent from the Internet (Details)


Cablevision offers MTA $760M for bid
Newsday
BY JOSHUA ROBIN AND PRADNYA JOSHI
STAFF WRITERS
March 24, 2005, 8:42 PM EST

Cablevision offered the MTA $760 million in cash to build a residential
community on the authority's far West Side rail yard, sources close to the
company said Thursday. On its face, the proposal is $40 million higher than
the New York Jets' $720 million offer to build a football stadium on the
site, with apartments and offices nearby.

It also increases Cablevision's original bid of $600 million last month for
the 13-acre parcel.

Also yesterday, Cablevision called on the MTA to break its contract with a
real-estate advisory firm linked to a committee pushing the stadium. The
MTA refused to do so.

A source close to the media company added that its bid was not contingent
on any zoning changes. The $760 million figure also included $360 million
to pay for the platform over the site, and $400 million for the
development, other sources with knowledge of the deal said.

The new proposal will force the Jets onto the defensive in their
long-fought battle to return Gang Green to the city with an arena doubling
as an Olympic Stadium should the city win the 2012 Summer Games.

"It doesn't matter what number Cablevision pulls out of thin air, because
their proposal isn't real, and the MTA will see right through it," said
Matthew Higgins, a team spokesman.

The Jets' $720 million bid would include about $440 million coming from six
city developers. In addition to the stadium, the developers want to
transfer air rights to develop 4.4 million square feet of space in the
surrounding neighborhood.

State and city officials have also tentatively agreed to supplement the
football stadium with $600 million in subsidies. In addition to apartments,
Cablevision's plan calls for a public elementary school, a library, a hotel
and retail space. It has yet to specify who will pay for those projects.

A Cablevision spokesman declined to comment yesterday. The company, which
is seeking to protect its flagship Madison Square Garden from competition,
had previously called its bid superior to the Jets.

Also in the bidding is a Brooklyn energy company, offering $1.05 billion
for the site. But that offer hinges on the company being allowed to build a
power plant in Brooklyn -- a project that has been stalled for years.

As details of the bid emerged, Cablevision also yesterday called on the MTA
to drop its contract with a real estate firm helping the agency sort
through the bids that MSG accused of being "predisposed" toward the
stadium. News of the contract was first reported in Newsday.

Top officials of the firm, Newmark & Co., donated at least $100 million to
city's Olympic campaign, which says New York needs the stadium to win the
bid for the 2012 Summer Games, the MTA has acknowledged.

Cablevision attorney Randy M. Mastro wrote in a letter to the MTA yesterday
that "Newmark's predisposition toward the stadium proposal renders Newmark
unsuitable to participate fairly in the evaluation of competing bids."

Mastro also asked the MTA to immediately make available its bids for the
site -- ahead of the authority's plan to reveal the proposals early next
week. Officials have said a decision on the site could come as early as
next Thursday, when the MTA's board meets.

Tom Kelly, an MTA spokesman, repeated that the authority would not cut the
contract, which carries a maximum value of $250,000.

"The general counsel has determined there is no basis to disqualify Newmark
because they are rendering technical assistance, not making recommendations
or attending any meeting where discussions of the bids will be made," Kelly
said.

As to the earlier release of the bids, Kelly said: "All of the bidders are
more than welcome to release them to the public and the media."

The MTA still plans to make a decision on the developer for the parcel on
Thursday, Kelly added.