How long now before the Yankee Stadium parking fiasco becomes an unpleasant memory?
In a brief Crain's item published last Friday (hat tip to Tri-State), Marlene Cintron, president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation, said that occupancy rates at the taxpayer-financed stadium garages are down from last year, and now stand below 50 percent.
The Bronx Parking Development Company is in default, as expected, according to Crain's, and bondholders are weighing their options.
Seven companies responded to a request for information to build hotels on the garages, which Cintron said would almost certainly have to be torn down.
Though there were rumblings of repurposing or replacing some stadium parking over a year ago, this appears to be the first time a public official has publicly suggested that the garages could be erased completely.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., who has his predecessor Adolfo Carrion and the New York City Economic Development Corporation to thank for this mess, broached the idea of siting a hotel near the stadium in his 2010 State of the Borough address. Ironically, Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez wrote last February that initial proposals were dismissed because developers insisted on “major city subsidies.” Diaz also reportedly asked the Bloomberg administration to replace "some of the garages" with low-income housing. This outcome seems unlikely, given that bondholders, unlike the EDC, expect a return on their investment.
Diaz spokesperson John DeSio told Streetsblog last year that whatever becomes of the garages, the next developer should learn from the city's mistakes -- the squandering of millions of dollars on parking that the neighborhood didn't want, and the Yankees didn't need; approving the deal before conducting an economic feasibility study, and so on. Regardless, given the sordid history of the stadium garages, residents of the South Bronx, and city and state taxpayers at large, would do well to keep their ears to the ground.
