Delinquent Debt-Buying Vultures Sighted Circling Around Yankee Stadium In Search Of Next Big Meal

In The Bronx, New York, Bloomberg reports:

• Hedge funds specializing in distressed debt are buying municipal bonds backed by parking lots and garages at the new Yankee Stadium, which face a payment default as soon as next year, according to two people familiar with the purchases.

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• “This facility seems meaningfully impaired, but there are some potential fixes,” said Laurence Gottlieb, chief executive officer of Fundamental Advisors LP, a private-equity firm in New York that buys municipal debt. “Costs can be reduced and it could be repositioned for commuter parking.”

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• Bronx Parking Development Co. issued the bonds through New York City’s Industrial Development Agency to build three garages, renovate two others and refurbish six lots near the 50,287-seat stadium.

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• The garages generated $2.4 million in April, 28 percent less than assumed, according to a May 25 report available to bondholders. They hold 9,266 spaces and the average occupancy has been 43 percent since the Yankees’ home season began March 31, according to bond filings. Self-parking on game days costs $35, an increase of $12 over last year.(1)
• The facility will not have sufficient operating revenue to make an interest payment on April 1, 2012, based on current projections, according to Steven Polivy, an attorney at Akerman Senterfitt LLP in New York, which represents Bronx Parking. That payment would need to be made out of the debt service reserve fund, he said.

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• “The Yankees continue to draw consistently strong attendance,” Morgan Stanley executive director Pete Block said in a March 18 report. The Yankees attracted 1.4 million fans to home games this season through June 9, up 16 percent from 1.2 million in the same period last year, according to the Sports Network news service. The Yankees led all Major League Baseball teams in attendance last year at 3.77 million, according to ESPN.

For more, see Hedge Funds Target Yankee Stadium Parking-Garage Muni Bonds Near Default.

(1) With the No. 4 train (East Side) and the B and D trains (West Side) continuing to make stops (after all these years) at East 161st Street and River Avenue, and the MTA Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line stopping at the Yankees' E. 153rd Street Station, who the hell wants to get clipped for $35 in self-parking.

Further, I'm sure it doesn't help the bondholders much that the Yankees, on their own website, promote the use of mass transit in traveling to and from The Stadium "without having to deal with the hassles of parking, tolls and traffic" and give the general public this advice:

• Remember: Mass Transit is the best way to get to Yankee Stadium!