Gothamist rounds up interesting movement in some of the big city development projects:
- A City Council committee shot down plans for a BJ's Wholesale Club in the Bronx. The Daily News notes that labor unions were aggressively lobbying against the BJ's, as well as a potential Wal-Mart in Queens (as mentioned in yesterday's NY Times), with one lobbyist saying that this decision mean "The handwriting is on the Wal-Mart." Ha. But there are already BJ's Wholesale Clubs in Brooklyn and Queens.
- A group of Red Hook residents has sued the city, not to mention the City Council, Ikea, and U.S. Dredging Corporation for permitting Ikea to move in. The NY Times reports that the lawsuit's claim is that the development approval was based on "faulty environmental impact statement and was inconsistent with the city's own land-use guidelines." Gothamist predicts this will drag out for a little while, but Ikea will probably becoming.
- And the Independent Budget Office, the nonpartisan watchdog group, says the Jets Stadium on the West Side would be profitable in the next thirty years (here's the IBO's PDF on it). However, the IBO's projected profits are $200 million, versus the City and Jets' estimate of $1 billion. The Mayor is currently saying that the Cablevision bid for the West Side railyards would, ahem, derail the city's efforts to land the 2012 Olympics. Gothamist would like the IBO to projected profits of a West Side plan without the stadium.
