Since the midterm elections passed, we haven't heard that much about the so-called Ground Zero mosque planned for the former Burlington Coat Factory store on Park Place. Until today: Apparently developers have filed for a federal grant asking for $5 million in funds meant to rebuild lower Manhattan after 9/11. According to the Daily Beast, "While news of the application has not previously been made public, developer Sharif El-Gamal outlined it in closed-door meetings, according to two individuals he spoke with directly."
The application allegedly asks for funds to cover the cultural aspects of the proposed community center, but does not list the prayer room. Also, "Part of the strangeness of the application is that it blows past the suggested range of $100,000 to $1 million that these grants are supposed to fall to within (I’m told the entire pool for this round of cultural funding will come in under $20 million). According to the two sources knowledgeable about the thinking behind the proposal, the strategy behind the $5 million ballpark was trying to yield a higher figure in the end."
