A plan to tear down unprofitable parking ramps near Yankee Stadium has collapsed, leaving New York City to basically wait for the parking vendor to default on $240 million in bonds.
When Yankee Stadium was planned, the decision was made by Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation to back parking ramps near the ballpark, with the assumption that they’d be filled 81 days a year with Yankee fans. But the ramps were expensive, and with the majority of fans taking public transit to the ballpark, capacity was only 43 percent this past season, leaving Bronx Parking to default on some $240 million in bonding.
The plan was to eat the loss on the bonds and then approach other developers with plans to tear down the ramps and replace them with retail and hotels, but efforts to bring a new developer on board have failed, according to the New York Daily News. That doesn’t doom the effort — indeed, it’s likely a deal can be reached once Bronx Parking declares bankruptcy — but it does slow it down and male it highly unlikely we’ll see any changes before the 2013 season.
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