Hudson Rail Yards Are Worth $1B, Appraisal Says
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The Hudson rail yards on the far West Side, above which the city has proposed building a stadium for the Jets, are worth $1 billion, according to an appraisal firm hired by the owners of Madison Square Garden, Cablevision.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the rail yards, and the Jets have not publicly announced an appraisal value for the waterfront property. Under the Hudson Yards plan, the Jets are to pay the cash strapped MTA some as-of-yet undecided rent for the right to develop their stadium on a platform over the yards.
Taking into consideration factors from the city’s Hudson Yards plan, including a floor-to-area ratio of 12,a platform over the rail yards and the marshalling yards, and a 10-year timetable for developing the site, the appraiser determined a present value to the stadium site of $114 per buildable foot.
“I think this study is going to cause an uproar in some camps where people said the rail yards were worthless,” the president of the appraisal firm, Daniel Sciannameo, told The New York Sun.
A former MTA chairman, Richard Ravitch, who has been a vocal opponent of Mayor Bloomberg’s Hudson Yard’s plan, said he approves of the appraisal value. “I believe that anything around $100 a square foot is about right, it’s fair market value,” he said.
Allowing commercial and residential development over the rail yards rather than a Jets stadium, known formally as the New York Sports and Convention Center, would generate more revenue for the MTA than renting the space to the Jets, say critics of the Hudson Yards plan.
“This appraisal confirms what many of us have suspected, which is that the fair market value of the rail yards are significant and if properly sold or leased could help alleviate the fiscal problems that exist for the MTA,” Council Member Christine Quinn, who represents the neighborhood, said at a press conference yesterday. “This fact underscores our argument that it is hard to believe that at the same time the MTA is about to slam New Yorkers with yet another fare hike, the MTA is giving away this valuable real estate to build a football stadium that we do not want or need.”
