Reprieve

NY1 reports:

According to a source briefed on the matter, as of now, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver will not give final approval to the project before January 1st. There's word he still has financial questions about Atlantic Yards, which includes office and apartment towers and a sports arena for the Nets basketball team.

Officially, a Silver spokesperson says the speaker hasn't decided. But Silver is said to be ready to either vote no or not vote at all if the projects are put before him at a meeting of the Public Authorities Control Board this week.

Via NoLandGrab, which also links to an appraisal by Streetsblog that suggests the reporting of Atlantic Yards Report's Norman Oder may be responsible. Which, if true, is pretty cool.

UPDATE: Sigh. Or not.

Just hours after New York 1 reported that Silver — who has already killed two big development projects with his vote on the Public Authorities Control Board — would block Ratner’s Prospect Heights Xanadu before its expected approval Wednesday, Empire State Development Corporation project planners arrived in his office.

“We are in the process of being briefed on the project,” Silver spokeswoman Eileen Larrabee said.

As a result, it now appears that the PACB vote will indeed happen Wednesday. The other two men on the board — Gov. Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R–Rensselaer) — support the project, making Silver the target of project opponents’ last-minute hopes.