Are the projects related?

It’s interesting that Related Companies of New York is one of four companies bidding on a development deal at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, according to a story in Saturday’s New York Times.

“Four major real estate developers are vying to buy a minority stake in the $3.1 billion project and to take over the leasing and operating of the skyscraper," the Times reported. "This week, the developers submitted their final offers to the owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which plans to pick a winner by June.

“’The building has real international significance, and it’s important for New York,’ said Stephen M. Ross, chief executive of Related Companies, one of the four companies competing for the $100 million deal.”

No doubt there are many complexities involved in why the big private real estate development company has the ability to go after another big real estate deal in Manhattan, but it can’t find a way to finish the Base Village project.

It’s gotten to the point in Snowmass where the town council is considering classifying the Base Village project as something of a failure so it can find a way to move beyond the unfinished project in what has always been seen as the missing heart of the ski-resort/community. The Snowmass Sun reported this week that the town council was considering “urban renewal authority” status as a way to get the project completed.

“Councilmembers Arnie Mordkin and Butler weighed in on the side of taking the first step in investigating whether urban renewal is the right carrot on a stick for the Village,” the Sun reported.

“’Urban renewal has been used by many, many communities to get inaction off the dime. When you start shaking the sword of urban renewal and condemnation, they start running like rats,’ Mordkin said.”