Appellate Court Rules Against Atlantic Yards Opponents
Bruce Ratner wasted no time announcing his intention to plow ahead with the construction of the Atlantic Yards Arena in the wake of a Court of Appeals ruling in his favor. “This is really the last hurdle that we have and now we can do what our company does best and build an arena and…
Bruce Ratner wasted no time announcing his intention to plow ahead with the construction of the Atlantic Yards Arena in the wake of a Court of Appeals ruling in his favor. “This is really the last hurdle that we have and now we can do what our company does best and build an arena and houses,” said Ratner on Friday, hours after the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court rejected Goldstein et al’s position that the state improperly used eminent domain to seize properties from nine owners who did not want to sell. If Ratner does indeed move ahead with plans to build, the arena the public gets may be substantially different than the glitzy renderings from starchitect Frank Gehry that were used to build public support for the project early on: Ratner has already trimmed the budget for the project by 20 percent and has admitted that he may not use Gehry’s design at all. And Ratner can’t get going quite yet. The plaintiffs have vowed to appeal to the Court of Appeals (the highest court in the state) and there’s still pending litigation surrounding the state’s environmental impact study. “At a minimum, if we lose every single thing imaginable, it’s still going to take them four to six months,” said attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff. The delay is particularly important because Forest City Ratner has only until the end of the year to secure its tax-exempt financing for the arena from the state.
Eminent Domain Case is Dismissed Unanimously [AY Report]
Court Rebuffs Yards Opponents as Legal Options Narrow [NY Observer]
Ruling Puts Ratner Closer to Nets’ Arena [Newsday]
Appeals Court Dismisses Suit Against Atlantic Yards [NY Times]
Ruling Could put Atlantic Yards Project Back on Track [NY Daily News]
Hang in there, folks, because this project will happen. The opponents have won no signficant victories in the legal or political arenas and will always have far, far less money and power than Ratner. If you read their blogs, they all cross-reference one another and put considerable stock in hope rather than reality. A real estate development of this size will take time to build, so what’s a few more months of waiting? Does anyone in their right mind actually believe that after spending millions in money and years of time to get this moving, Ratner is simply going to give up? If so, you are all naive beyond description!
slick:
maybe you ught to read “the geography of nowhere”.
the atlantic center is now, and was from the start, an abomnation in an urban envrironment. it is even an abomination in a suburban environment.
hailing it as a transformative event for brooklyn is more than a little sad.
Slick, please, with all respect, can you explain how it is you arrived at your “pro-arena” position?
(It feels a bit like speaking to a Republican prior to the election for me. Just utterly flummoxed.)
I don’t think anyone was expecting a slew of low density, period looking rowhouses. But on the other hand, not even the very Pro-AY Marty was taken aback by the sheer monstrous size of it. I don’t deny Ratner has done some good things for Brooklyn, but I don’t credit him with revitalizing the idea that Brooklyn is a great place to do business. That was already happening- he just made it more visible.
everyone knocks ratner but people dont realize that the hideous monstrosity of atlantic center (the part w/ pathmark) was groundbreaking in its day. It was the first major development in brooklyn since the 1950s. metrotech was also important as it showed that businesses would move to brooklyn.
I am pro-arena but not as sure about the remainder of the development. If it generates foot traffic and integrates the area into its surroundings, then I’d support it. I’m not sure that will happen though.
Nonetheless, everyone likes to say they could build something smaller there, but they really cant. It will cost $500 million or so to prepare the train yard for development. The cost isn’t justified for a 2 family house.
Ratner is a welfare queen. This is the same person who milked the federal gov’t out of $114 million in Liberty Bonds, intended for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan after 9-11, to build the Bank of New York office building and the attached $150 million mall; half the total cost.
I will be mad as hell if this welfare queen gets a single cent of the $787 billion economic stimulus. But i’m sure that’s a forgone conclusion. I guess it just goes to show you stupid this stimulus crap is.
Someone earlier was making fun of Nader, I didn’t vote for Nader but I did vote for Perot. Nobody wanted to pay attention to his charts and graphs and look where we are now.
“i lived near there. who are you fooling? it’s ghetto and train tracks. the anti people messed up by prolonging the building, and now brooklyn is out a gehry. ”
And you could move, whinelover. The area was already coming back on its own- how else to explain the expensive coop/condo buildings that were built before Ratner got his panties in a bunch? Ratner could have planned something in scale and intelligent and without the use of eminent domain. Instead he went for I’ve got a big dick plan.
“the anti crowd pits a real developer against a dream/a fantasy. there is no ready to roll alternative.”
Actually, during the so-called “bidding” process for the AY land by the MTA, the Extell corporation (who aren’t exactly little straw men for DDDB) bid an amount that was higher than Ratner’s by about $50 million, if I recall correctly.
During the bidding the head of the MTA excused himself, took a call from the Mayor, came back and awarded the bid to Ratner with no explanation as to why the higher bid was rejected.
So Col. Austin is absolutely right – that extra $50m would go a long way in the MTA’s budget.
I have to credit the Atlantic Yards project for opening my eyes (I thought I was jaded enough by then, but I was wrong) as to who really runs this city.
I don’t even know how to respond, wine lover. Your argument is a bit offensive, a bit defensive, and just sort of weird (i.e. “it’s the damn city, get used to it” – and who said anything about a “low rise living guarantee”?)
It’s like the “love it or leave it” crowd: “If you don’t love America, and don’t love everything ‘it’ does and says, then get the frick out, man!” I’m always left scratching my head with a “Huh?” thought bubble floating above my head.
Well, you just managed the same sort of moment for me. In many ways.
Go have some coffee. Or wine.