Post-firestorm, Park51’s latest hurdle is cash

Park51 developer Sharif El-Gamal says he’s “hungrier than the other guys,” and when it comes to available capital for his $100 million Lower Manhattan project, that may be true. According to the Post, an IRS application recently filed by his Park51 group seeking tax-exempt status noted that the developers expect to raise $7.5 million this year. Next year, the projected contributions double to $15 million, but are still a far cry from what El-Gamal will need to get his planned Islamic cultural center, slated to go up two blocks from Ground Zero on the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory store, off the ground. Speaking on a panel earlier this month, the Soho Properties CEO said that the intense controversy sparked by his project, has given him fame and consequently, “a lot more direct access to money,” but it apparently remains to be seen whether that notoriety can translate into actual funds. “I can bring in sovereign wealth from other pockets of the world,” El-Gamal had said. [Post]

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