Thompson: $6M Was Wasted On Golf Course

The Bloomberg administration's failed attempt to build a golf course in the Bronx included about $6 million in unnecessary payments to a private developer, according to a new report.

Comptroller William Thompson Jr. released an audit yesterday that criticized the city's Department of Parks and Recreation for failing to provide proper oversight on the more than $22 million construction project of a Ferry Point golf course, a development that was aborted last year before its completion.

Developer Ferry Point Partners, which began work on the course in 2000, sought in 2002 to receive additional funds for remediation work on the 175-acre Bronx site, which sits atop a former landfill, according to the audit. Of the $7.2 million the city paid for the work, the comptroller's office found that $5.8 million was not related to remediation, and is considered an unnecessary burden on the city. The parks department said it disagrees with the findings, claiming the agency was prudent in its reimbursements.

"The Comptroller has chosen to interpret the contract with Ferry Point Partners in an inaccurate way that distorts the environmentally sound and cost-effective decisions the City has made," a spokesman for the parks department, Warner Johnston, said in a statement.