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Originally Posted by Crawford
The area around MSG has some of the highest property values on the planet. It also has, by far, the highest pedestrian counts in the U.S.
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The pedestrians are for Penn Station and the retail corridor anchored by Macy's and have nothing to do with MSG. Anywhere in New York City can be counted as having the highest property values on the planet, but this particular slice of New York performs much worse in all respects than comparable areas such as the rest of Midtown. Office rents are lower than further north and retail immediately surrounding MSG is a joke (TGI Friday's?). Everyone gets in and gets out of MSG as fast as possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
Why would properties lose value due to construction of Barclays Center? The arena is replacing a giant vacant lot. How could a huge mixed-use development of highrises and density hurt property values relative to a giant dead zone of rail yards and empty buildings?
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Half of the land the arena now sits on was full of buildings, many of them being renovated and creating their own economic benefits for the city, but without subsidies. The "development" of Atlantic Yards has so far resulted in a net loss of tax paying residents and businesses as the blocks between Pacific and Dean have been razed. And with the exception of the arena itself, those blocks are likely to stay vacant for a long time - hurting the surrounding neighborhood.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crawford
And why would the designation of a single developer hurt the development pace at Atlantic Yards? How would dividing up the site with a milllion property owners make development easier and faster? That's completely nonsensical.
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As I said before, single developers are in no hurry to build so that they don't glut their own market and drive prices down. Many individual developers might want to collude to also maintain prices, but it's close to impossible to keep everyone in agreement to not build. Smaller developers also tend to have less capital that would allow them to hold properties for long periods of time without developing them.
And as I said before, overall this arena development isn't the worst thing that could have been put here, but to claim that it will shower the neighborhood with riches is to not look at how other arenas, even MSG, affect their surroundings.