The formal request, available here, asks the city for $10.65 million in tax exemptions -- a number that could rise to $21 million -- contingent on the accounting firm hiring up to 2,100 new employees, and keeping them, along with its existing 4,211 New York employees, in Lower Manhattan for the duration of the 17-year office consolidation project.

Right now, the firm is headquartered at 1633 Broadway, with additional offices at 25 Broadway and World Financial Center.

Should the incentives not come through, Deloitte has other expansion options: "In New Jersey, the Deloitte U.S. Firms have significant operations, including recently expanded, underutilized Class A office space. In Connecticut, the Deloitte U.S. Firms have in excess of 30,000 square feet of space which similarly is underutilized."

The request also seems to indicate that, contrary to some published reports, the Deloitte lease with 4 World Financial Center landlord Brookfield Properties, while nearly complete, is not yet a done deal:

Deloitte is in the process of negotiating a lease for approximately 390,000 square feet at 4 World Financial Center (the "Initial Space"). Subject to execution of the lease and the availability of Agency assistance, this space will house Deloitte's U. S. headquarters and the most of its New York City operations. 

New York City's Economic Development Corporation will hold a hearing on the request tomorrow at its 110 William Street offices. For more information, click here.

drubinstein@observer.com

Two years after buying a duplex apartment atop an ancient townhouse at 49 West Ninth Street, newlywed thespian Keri Russell has sold the Village place for $1.5 million.

Ms. Russell once starred in the weepy college-kid soap opera Felicity, which was enough to earn the top-flight two-bedroom, two-terrace apartment. The place was “private, charming and romantic,” according to the sweet-talking Halstead listing, though maybe she and her new husband wanted more than 1,150 square feet. (Felicity, ironically enough, was set in the Village.)

Plus, the listing says an apartment renovation is required. Was 31-year-old Ms. Russell untidy? She probably didn’t do much work since 2005, when the co-op had been marketed as needing a little T.L.C.

“I went in wearing my most modest shirt,” Ms. Russell said about her co-op board interview, “and tried to be the most prim-and-proper version of myself that I could be.” Now the prim Ms. Russell is gone: Every time a TV star sells her penthouse, the West Village dies a little.

Her buyer, according to city records, is Thomas A. Sachs. (This transaction came in after the deadline for Manhattan Transfers.)

—Max Abelson

City’s First Juice Bar Shakes Off Rats, Reopens

After racking up one of the city’s worst health-inspection scores so far this rat-crazed year, the original Papaya King outpost at the corner of Third Avenue and 86th Street is once again grilling its trademarked “Tastier Than Filet Mignon” franks.

The Health Department shuttered the “World’s First Juice Bar” on March 20, after the TV program Inside Edition aired footage of rodents at the Upper East Side sausage factory.

Citing the 75-year-old venue for “conditions conducive to vermin,” among a host of other health-code violations, inspectors slapped management with a horrendously high score of 111—just 84 points shy of the passing mark.

That’s 19 points worse than the infamously rat-infested KFC-Taco Bell in Greenwich Village, which remains shuttered, but still 49 points behind Manhattan’s most recent high-scorer, midtown’s Café La Fonduta—which, like Papaya King, has since reopened.

In a letter posted at the cash register, Papaya King president and C.E.O. Dan Horan apologized for what he called “an insolated incident,” which required “five days of scrubbing, cleaning and polishing this notably old, but historically significant space” in order to pass re-inspection.

—Chris Shott

Now More Parking, Fewer Fans At Future Yankee Stadium

The deal to build a set of garages for the new Yankee Stadium has been put off for another month or two as the city and the private developer negotiate over the lease, according to a spokeswoman for the city’s Industrial Development Agency.

The need, or desirability, of the $281 million worth of new and renovated parking facilities is a matter of debate, however: They would add almost 3,000 more parking spaces near Yankee Stadium, even though the new ballpark is going to seat 6,000 fewer patrons than the current one.

At an April 5 hearing, a few watchdog groups and community organizations asserted that the more parking spaces you build, the more people will drive. They argued that instead of using public funds to encourage driving, the money should be put toward a proposed Metro North station at the future stadium that reportedly needs another $35 million to meet its budget.

The I.D.A. is considering authorizing $186 million in tax-exempt bonds to a nonprofit developer to build the garages. The agency’s analysis shows that the city will spend $20 million to reconstruct parkland on top of the garages and will lose another $2 million in forgone taxes on the bonds.

Eventually, the city anticipates that it will make more than double its money back through new taxes, lease payments and shared revenues, though it will do so over a 43-year period, the I.D.A. said. It would not release the assumptions for the revenue numbers.

Officials say that a shortage of parking spaces is now forcing drivers to park illegally or to troll endlessly before games to find on-street parking.

But Bettina Damiani, the project director of the watchdog group Good Jobs New York, said the reason why fans parked on nearby streets was simple: “to avoid paying the expensive parking fees, which are projected to rise to $25 a game when the new stadium is completed.”

As for illegal parking, the extra 2,700 spaces that the developer, Bronx Community Initiatives Development Corporation, has proposed would far exceed the 355 cars that the project’s final environmental-impact statement estimated were parked illegally on any given game night.

In fact, the impact statement shows that the new and expanded parking lots and garages would siphon off 808 cars from existing stadium parking facilities every game night, leaving some of the privately operated old ones as little as 60 to 80 percent full.

But the new garages were part of the agreement that the city used to convince the Yankees to devote more of the franchise’s own money toward the new stadium, and a look at a map of the future set-up shows why: for the convenience of patrons.

The new stadium will be moved north a block. The new garages will go right next to it, rendering the existing garages and lots that are farther away less attractive. It is apparently worth $25 for the ticket-holder, and $22 million for the city, not to have to walk three or four blocks after a game.

—Matthew Schuerman

Union Leader Gets Inside Tax-Break Game

The newest member of the Industrial Development Agency, an obscure panel that gives out hundreds of millions of dollars in city tax breaks annually, is promising to cast a skeptical eye on the process.

“New York is so vibrant and strong that companies are under significant pressure to be in New York City,” Kevin Doyle, executive vice president for Local 32BJ, told The Observer. “What’s the rationale for spending public money to do things that [companies] are going to be doing anyway?”

It is rare that a labor representative sits on the I.D.A. board of directors. Mr. Doyle, 58, was recommended to the post by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who has a close relationship with 32BJ, an 85,000-member division of the Service Employees International Union, which represents building workers.

Mr. Doyle also said that he would question the labor practices of companies applying for tax incentives, mentioning that J.P. Morgan Chase, which is reportedly pushing for more subsidies to move to Ground Zero, pays its security guards “as little as $8 an hour.”

Mr. Doyle, who was appointed in February, is realistic about the impact he will have, given that nine of the 15 members are appointed by the Mayor, and the others—recommended by the borough presidents and the city comptroller—must be confirmed by him. (There are currently some vacancies.)

“It’s a mayorally driven process,” he said.

—M.S.

"New York is so vibrant and strong that companies are under significant pressure to be in New York City," Kevin Doyle, executive vice president for Local 32BJ, told The Real Estate. "What's the rationale for spending public money to do things that [companies] are going to be doing anyway?"

It is rare that a labor representative sits on the I.D.A. board of directors. Mr. Doyle, 58, was recommended to the post by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who has a close relationship with 32BJ, an 85,000-member division of the Service Employees International Union, which represents building workers.

Mr. Doyle also said he would question the labor practices of companies applying for tax incentives, mentioning that JP Morgan Chase, which is reportedly pushing for more subsidies to move to Ground Zero, pays its security guards "as little as $8 an hour."

Mr. Doyle, who was appointed in February, is realistic about the impact he will have, given that nine of the 15 members are appointed by the Mayor, and the others, recommended by the borough presidents and city comptroller, must be confirmed by him. (There are currently some vacancies.)

"It's a mayorally driven process," he said.

- Matthew Schuerman

A hearing Thursday before the Industrial Development Agency, an arm of city government, drew a limited but earnest response from watchdog groups and community organizations, asserting that the more parking spaces you build, the more people will drive. They argued that instead of using public funds to encourage driving, the money should be put toward a proposed Metro-North station that reportedly needs another $35 million to come into being.

The I.D.A. will vote on whether to authorize $190 million in tax-exempt bonds for the project in May or June, according to a spokeswoman. The agency's analysis shows that the city will spend $20 million to reconstruct parkland on top of the garages and will lose another $2 million in forgone taxes on the bonds, which will be tax-free.

Eventually, the city will make more than double its money back through new taxes, lease payments and shared revenues, though it will do so over a 43-year period, the I.D.A. said; it would not release the assumptions for the revenue numbers.

Officials pointed to the final environmental impact statement as justification for the project, which states that the garages would reduce "excessive traffic circulation pre-game by motorists circulating on the local streets in search of hard-to-find parking spaces," and would "eliminate illegal parking on local streets."

Critics disputed the notion. "Fans park on neighborhood streets to avoid paying the expensive parking fees, which are projected to rise to $25 a game when the new stadium is completed," Bettina Damiani, the project director of watchdog group Good Jobs New York, said.

Ms. Damiani said that the reason why tax-exempt bonds, which have lower interest rates, were being used for the garages was because "the free market decided the garages were not worth building."

A spokeswoman for the Economic Development Corporation, which solicited bids for the garages said there were "multiple qualified bidders," but would not say how many there were.

The impact statement counted 355 cars in illegal spaces on a typical game night, meaning that the new parking facilities would provide eight times as many spaces to ensure that people would follow the law. The statement predicts that the new and expanded parking lots and garages would overbuild to such an extent that they would siphon off 808 cars from existing stadium parking facilities every game night, leaving some of the privately-operated old ones as little as 60 to 80 percent full.

The winning bidder, the Bronx Community Initiatives Development Corporation, is a nonprofit which exists, according to its mission statement, "to lessen the burdens of local governments to service the needs of their residents." Awarding the contract to a nonprofit rather than to a for-profit company enables the use of tax-free bonds, which lower the cost of the project by lowering the interest rate.

But municipalities can build garages with tax-exempt bonds also. Joseph Seymour, the former Port Authority executive director who is BCIDC senior vice president, explained the benefit of having a non-profit do it this way: "It doesn't go on their consolidated debt."

So why are the Yankees and the city--which included the new garages in the agreement for the new stadium--insisting on new garages, especially when the city will have to temporarily occupy current parkland in order to do so?

Convenience. The new garages will be right across the street from the new ballpark, while the old ones are farther away. It's apparently worth $25 for the ticket-holder, and $22 million for the city, to not have to walk three or four blocks after a game.

- Matthew Schuerman

Normally, the mayorally controlled Industrial Development Agency publishes an agenda about two weeks in advance of its meetings and holds a public hearing a few days before each. But the new MetLife deal didn't come up in the public hearing last week, and wasn't on the advance agenda for Tuesday's IDA board meeting.

"It demonstrates they were not willing to put it in front of the public, which is sort of to the detriment of the deal," said Good Jobs New York research associate Dan Steinberg. "The city would have had more leverage if the public was allowed to comment on it," he added, since the public's objections would show the pressure that the city was facing to exact greater concessions from MetLife.

For the full Good Jobs statement, see here. The details of the new agreement, passed by the IDA's board, can be found in the city Economic Development Corporation's press release here.

- Matthew Schuerman

The announcement came on the heels of the local law school's ribon-cutting in the East Village on the school's first dormitory building, a 13-story monster at 81 East 3rd Street.

Crain's reporter Mary Sisson wrote:

Building dorms has recently become a mainstay of local schools hoping to heighten their profile by getting students from beyond the metropolitan area who would balk at the cost of living here otherwise. Dean and President Richard A. Matasar said as much at the ribbon-cutting:

You'll recognize this as a central part of New York University's strategy to attract more students--and, by increasing the competition in the admissions process, better students; whether the East Village can continue to absorb this teeming student population is a matter of debate.

- Tom McGeveran

“The state will be working with Larry Silverstein to issue inducements for Liberty Bonds for the Freedom Tower and building two,” the Governor said today at a question-and-answer session, according to a transcript. “But we also have issues that still have to be resolved between the Port Authority and Silverstein…. We want this to be completely resolved within 90 days, but we’ll be issuing an inducement letter for the Liberty Bonds for the Freedom Tower so that can go forward.”

Originally, the city and the state each were given $3.2 billion in Liberty Bonds from the federal government for commercial projects around town to divvy up as they saw fit, and together they have spent about $3 billion so far. Silverstein had applied to the city’s agency, the Industrial Development Agency, for $3.345 billion, with the understanding that the state would also pitch in. But a state official told the Real Estate that after the I.D.A. decided on Monday to table the issue for another month, the Governor decided to go it alone.

This should bring a happy end to a day that Silverstein started with a Wall Street Journal article quoting his financial backer, Lloyd Goldman, who said that he would “evaluate and accept” a deal to reduce Silverstein Properties’ role at Ground Zero if it “makes sense.” (That's to say nothing of the jolt he must have felt to have been called a "Power Geezer" by The New York Observer.)

Tomorrow, more fun at Ground Zero: Silverstein announces the name of the architect for Tower 2. He is said to be deciding among these three: Sir Norman Foster, Fumihiko Maki and Jean Nouvel.

-Matthew Schuerman