Gonzalez: Bronx soccer stadium deal near Yankee Stadium offers big incentives to Arab firm

Will it be a last-minute gooooal in the Bronx for the Yankees and their Middle East sheik soccer partner?

City officials are scampering to sign a deal by the end of this month for $300 million in tax-free bonds that would allow the Yankees and a royal from the United Arab Emirates to tear down one of the bankrupt Yankee Stadium garages and build a Major League Soccer stadium, two sources close to the talks have told the Daily News.

A draft of the agreement circulating among Economic Development Corp. staff would require Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio to decide within 30 days of his inauguration whether to approve the deal for the new soccer franchise, the New York City Football Club, the sources said.

Under the complex proposal, the new soccer team — a joint venture of the Yankees and Manchester City Football Club, a British team owned by Sheik Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan — would pay virtually no rent for 38 years for the largely city-owned land on which the proposed 28,000-seat soccer venue would sit.

The new franchise would also be permitted to divert the property taxes it would normally owe the city to pay off its bonds, the sources said — a deal similar to the one the Yankees and the Mets got for their new stadiums in 2005. The soccer club would be exempt from sales taxes or mortgage taxes.

KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

The proposed soccer stadium would be proposed in the top center portion of this overhead view of Yankee Stadium.

The soccer venture would pay an estimated $25 million to bondholders of the bankrupt Bronx Parking Development firm for its E. 153rd St. garage, which sits on city-owned land. In addition, Yankees President Randy Levine is trying to buy out and relocate a nearby elevator equipment company, GAL Manufacturing Corp., which employs more than 350 workers.

The soccer club needs the manufacturing site, the parking garage and an agreement by the city to permanently close E. 153rd St. for the new stadium.

Levine declined Tuesday to discuss the deal or even confirm an agreement was near. But he has been busy courting the support of Bronx public officials for days.

“NYCFC is looking for a home, not simply a place to play,” said Risa Heller, spokeswoman for the soccer venture. “As we have said from the start, we are reviewing sites all over the city.”

Community opposition earlier this year in Queens killed a proposed stadium for the new team in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

REUTERS

Manchester City's owner Sheik Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan would be getting enormous subsidies to build a soccer stadium in the Bronx — including free rent for 38 years.

With the team scheduled to begin league play in 2015, it will have to share space in Yankee Stadium until its own field is built.

Mayor Bloomberg’s aides redoubled efforts in recent days to lock in a deal before de Blasio takes office. The Economic Development Corp. “is trying to get a memorandum of understanding done before Bloomberg leaves office,” one source told The News.

It could still take months or years for land-use procedures and City Council reviews to be completed, but reaching a preliminary accord now could force de Blasio to take a stand quickly.

The last-minute rush has sparked unease even among EDC staffers accustomed to generous deals for big companies.

After all, it was the Yankees who demanded 9,000 parking spaces before agreeing to build their stadium. That led to a financial debacle when fans shunned overpriced garages.

James Keivom/New York Daily News

The New York Yankees and Manchester City have a deal to tear down a bankrupt parking garage on E. 153rd St. to build a soccer stadium on the site. GAL Manufacturing, a producer of elevator equipment that employs more than 350 workers, would also need to be relocated for the deal to go through.

Now the garage company is bankrupt and the city is owed nearly $50 million in back rent and taxes that it will never recover.

So why are city officials considering yet more subsidies to a new sports franchise controlled by the Yankees and a sheik whose family oversees more than $400 billion in oil wealth?

GIFT GOAL

28,000 seating capacity

$300 million in tax-free bonds

38 years of free rent

$25 million in payout to parking lot owners

$400 billion in oil wealth controlled by Abu Dhabi Sheik Mansour