New Agreement Provides Immediate Financial Assistance
Read my comments from the AvalonBay announcement.
The City and AvalonBay Communities have agreed to amend the terms of our land disposition agreement in order to provide immediate financial assistance to New Rochelle. Specifically, AvalonBay has agreed to accelerate so-called Final Land Payments, which had been scheduled for 2029 and 2035, and to make these payments during the next five years as follows: $3,000,000 for 2010, and roughly $1.5 million annually for 2011 through 2014, for a total of about $9,000,000. This breakthrough agreement will provide significant financial resources to our community at a time when these resources are needed most.
In addition, the City will now assume the day-to-day operation and enforcement of 38 publicly available parking spaces on the ground level of Avalon’s Phase II garage, thereby retaining the income associated with parking fees and fines, estimated to be roughly $30,000 per year.
While this is certainly welcome news for New Rochelle’s budget and taxpayers, the agreement will not, on its own, address all of our fiscal challenges. The economic trends that place such a strain on municipal budgets everywhere are still present, and we expect that difficult choices will still be required during the course of this year and in the adoption of our budget for 2011.
You can read the full text of my comments at a press conference announcing the AvalonBay agreement HERE.