Forest City Ratner says AY is not eligible for $55 million in federal tax credits

Well, like some other people, I'm still trying to figure out for what Forest City Enterprises got $55 million in federal tax credits, if it wasn't for Atlantic Yards.

The New York Daily News today advanced (and muddied) the story today, with an article headlined Forest City Enterprises could get $55M boost from feds [for Atlantic Yards*]. Note that the words in brackets were later excised from the article.

The newspaper reported:

"We're looking at their business plan, we're looking at their track record of doing these types of projects," said Bill Luecht, a spokesman for the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which awards the money.

"We're looking at their ability to actually raise that capital and deploy those tax credits," he said. "If the reviewers thought there was a chance they couldn't get those credits out ... they wouldn't be scoring high enough" to win them.

Forest City spokesman Joe DePlasco said Atlantic Yards was "not included in the application" and "is not eligible for this money."

But Luecht said the developer could use the money for any project located in a census tract classified as low income - and the four tracts covered by Atlantic Yards are on CDFI's list of spots that qualify. He said he could not disclose what projects Forest City had named when they applied for the money.

Well, multiple states were listed: Connecticut, District of Columbia, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania. If the feds won't tell us (and Luecht didn't respond to three queries I sent since Friday), maybe Forest City can do so.