The Brooklyn Paper reports on a MTA finance committee meeting this morning, where the MTA decided give Bruce Ratner a good deal.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will move ahead with a
massive public bailout of the struggling Atlantic Yards project,
changing the project’s financing to save developer Bruce Ratner
hundreds of millions of dollars.

The MTA’s finance committee met this morning to discuss a new deal
for the developer, who had originally promised $100 million for rights
to build over the Vanderbilt railyards in Prospect Heights, but would
now pay just $20 million up front for the prime eight-acres.

The remaining $80 million would be paid out, at 6-1/2 percent
interest, over the next 22 years, said MTA Chief Financial Officer Gary
Dellaverson, who presented the package to the committee.

Ratner had originally gotten the railyard rights for less than its
MTA-appraised value because he also promised $345 million in
infrastructure improvements to the MTA facility.

Under the new deal, which is expected to be rubber-stamped by the
full MTA board on Wednesday, Ratner would make just $147 million in
railyard improvements.