Another Hudson Yards deadline is fast approaching that the MTA and Related will miss. After postponing the planned 2009 closing to Jan. 31, 2010 and then pushing it back again to March 31, the two sides have again agreed to delay the signing of the contract, The Observer reports. According to Eliot Brown, the two sides are now targeting an April 30 date as “the process of readying the legal documents has dragged on.”
While officials know it will take decades for Related to develop the area, for the MTA, the concerns here are in the dollars. Initially, Related was to start making installments of the $1 billion it will owe the MTA over the next century last year, but as Brown reports, “now the firm will not have to close on the deal until the economy hits certain specific benchmarks, showing improvements in such areas as vacancy rates.” At some point soon, Related will pay the MTA $43.5 million as an initial payment, and the real estate company has invested heavily in the site already. But the longer these negotiations drag on, the more the value of missed payments to MTA just grows and grows.