Despite a new Far West Side development deal, prospects for saving the MTA’s current capital plan still seem as barren as the Hudson Yards (Image via Hudson Yards Development Corporation).

Last week, developer Tishman Speyer backed out of a deal to develop a mega-complex of offices, residential units, and park space over the MTA’s Hudson Yards, on the far West Side of Manhattan. Against expectations, the MTA quickly negotiated a new deal, tentatively agreeing to a 99-year lease of the Yards to the Related Companies. Furthermore, Related has agreed to pay the MTA as much as Tishman Speyer had — $1 billion, which will go into the agency’s capital budget.

In some ways, Related’s proposal appears to be an improvement over Tishman Speyer’s. The Related proposal adds 738 parking spaces to the area (Tishman Speyer’s would have added 1,450), and explicitly includes bicycle connections between the site and the Hudson River Greenway, as well as several bike parking facilities (see MTR‘s earlier coverage). It also includes 440 units of affordable housing, compared to 300 in Tishman Speyer’s.

By negotiating a deal financially similar to the one it had with Tishman Speyer, the MTA has saved itself from slipping further into the hole — but what a hole it faces. As reported in amNewYork, the MTA’s current 2005-09 capital plan is facing a $3 billion gap caused by escalating construction costs.