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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJared Kushner and his partners used a program meant for job-starved areas to build luxury skyscraper
Jared Kushner and his real estate partners wanted to take advantage of a federal program in 2015 that would save them millions of dollars as they built an opulent, 50-story residential tower in this citys booming waterfront district, just across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan.
There was just one problem: The program was designed to benefit projects in poor, job-starved areas. So the projects consultants got creative, records show.
They worked with state officials in New Jersey to come up with a map that defined the area around 65 Bay Street as a swath of land that stretched nearly four miles and included some of the citys poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods. At the same time, they excluded some wealthy neighborhoods only blocks away.
The tactic critics liken it to the gerrymandering of legislative districts made it appear that the luxury tower was in an area with extraordinarily high unemployment, allowing Kushner Companies and its partners to get $50 million in low-cost financing through the EB-5 visa program.
The move was legal, and other developers have used similar strategies in recent years, often aided by state officials who welcome the infusion of cash.
But it illustrates how Kushner, who ran his familys real estate company before he became a senior adviser to President Trump, and his partners exploited a loophole in a federal program that prominent members of both parties say has been plagued by fraud and abuse.
On the south side of Jersey City, which has some of the most entrenched poverty in the New York City region, many people interviewed one day last week were surprised that their neighborhoods troubles were part of the reason that 65 Bay Street got cheap financing.
Thats very sad, said Pastor Shyrone Richardson of the World Outreach Christian Church in the struggling Bergen-Lafayette section of Jersey City. Unfortunately, the people who are benefiting from this are not the people in this area.
At: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jared-kushner-and-his-partners-used-a-program-meant-for-job-starved-areas-to-build-a-luxury-skyscraper/ar-BBBKhnz?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
SunSeeker
(51,657 posts)The whole family is a bunch of sleazy grifters.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,335 posts)What else is new.
The politically connected know the government is a gigantic piggy bank for their own benefit.
They talk about small government but they really want small oversight while they raid the coffers.
Republicans want small government like bank robbers want small police forces.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Maybe enforce rent control so that housing is affordable long term to poorer families. It shouldn't surprise me (but it does) that they don't ask obvious questions like "What will these units rent/sell for?" I hope this is on AG Schneiderman's list of things to do.