Vaguely complicated. The 'rent' is a bulk lease payment, Park51 says it should be 25k a month, ConEd says 47k. ConEd's point is that the reduced rate was for a very limited time before exercising the option to buy - not only has the group not exercised that option, but they've failed to get their non-profit status, failed to pay any lease rate, and ConEd's exercising it's right to collect prevailing market value for the property.
There's less and less of a leg for Park51 to stand on - admittedly, a lot of what's happening right now is posturing before the November court date over the disagreements the two had earlier this year. ConEd's saying, 'hey, if you got deep pocket supporters, better tap them, pay us off, and you can move forward with your project. If you don't, time for you to roll up and get out of our way.' Either way, ConEd, even if the court date doesn't go it's way on lease rates, will demand immediate payment and start evicting them. And Park51's hoping to nail down 5 million in federal funds to continue their project.
You’d think some rich sheik would cover it to ensure a mosque gets built.