Monday, February 18, 2008

BRONX COMPANY WAS NEVER IN THE BRONX


On April 4, 2007 the New York City Industrial Development Agency held hearings on $190 million in tax-exempt “civic improvement” bonds for a firm to build and rehabilitate 9,000 parking spaces adjacent to the new Yankees stadium. The firm, Bronx Community Initiatives Development Corporation LLC, was established in March 2007 immediately prior to its application with the NYCIDA signed in March.

BCIDC is not a Bronx organization nor can it be said to have been initiated by the community. Instead, it is a “special purpose” limited liability company whose sole member is a national
entity, the non-profit Community Initiatives Development Corporation (CIDC).

CIDC works in multiple states and exists to secure tax exempt financing for a variety of
developments, a small portion of which are parking garages. CIDC is headquartered in Hudson, New York over 100 miles north of the stadium and apparently it has never worked in the Bronx before.

CIDC’s President William Loewenstein was a strategic partner with incentives procurement advisors Stadtmauer Bailkin Biggins, LLC, until 2006 (Biggins is a former executive director of New York City’s Office of Economic Development, and was later appointed Commissioner of
Ports, International Trade and Commerce.)

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