DDD Finds White Knight at Eleventh Hour
After months of talk, anti-Ratner group Develop Don’t Destroy scored its biggest coup to date when Extell Development Company submitted a rival bid for the Atlantic Rail Yards just in time to beat Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline. Although the details are fuzzy, one can safely assume it will not include any tilting towers! While there…
After months of talk, anti-Ratner group Develop Don’t Destroy scored its biggest coup to date when Extell Development Company submitted a rival bid for the Atlantic Rail Yards just in time to beat Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline. Although the details are fuzzy, one can safely assume it will not include any tilting towers! While there are plenty of ways to improve on the Ratner plan, the group’s idealism may put them at a disadvantage in the bidding, as the memo sent out yesterday from Develop Don’t Destroy to Historic Fort Greene members (via Set Speed) points out:
Keep in mind that Extell has been in a difficult position of having to bid a high number to try to win, while building low enough to satisfy the community. They have essentially been caught between a rock and a hard place: the MTA suggests an FAR (floor to area ratio) of 10 (Ratner is using about 8.9), while the Community wants an FAR of 6.0. So they are likely being pulled in 2 directions… thanks for nothing MTA!
Extell proposes the creation of a corridor of apartment buildings undulating over the yards, with shops, landscaped walkways, recreation areas and 1,940 housing units for roughly 4,800 people. According to the NY Times, there are a total of 11 buildings ranging from 4 to 28 stories tall. (By contrast, Ratner has proposed 17 Gehry-designed buildings with 6,000 residential units housing roughly 15,000 people and 1.9 million square feet of office space In addition.) While this sounds to us like a meaningful difference in size, it’s still on a much larger scale than the existing neighborhood so we have a hard time believing that the vocal opponents of Ratner’s plan as well as those brownstone owners nearby are going to be exactly thrilled by this one either. Sounds like it will also be a little bit of Houston in Brooklyn.
The one thing we feel strongly about is that the area does need a master plan. There are aspects to Gehry’s design which are compelling in our opinion, but others we could do without. If Extell can manage to win the bid while creating a viable plan that’s more in scale with the neighborhood, we’re all ears.
Brooklyn Plan Draws Rival Bid [NY Times]
Jump Ball in Brooklyn [NY Post]
Nets Face Competing Bid [NY Newsday]
Surprise Competing Bid for Rail Yards [NY1]
11th Hour Heroics [Set Speed]
Home Page [Develop Don’t Destroy]
In San Francisco, the Pac Bell Park revitalized the entire area around it. Went from abandoned/condemend houses to new housing, restaurants, galleries.
You must live in a different part of Carroll Gardens if you think the only impact of the Ratner plan will be increased revenue in the city’s tax coffers. Even today, traffic problems on Atlantic Avenue and 4th Avenue often result with gridlock conditions on Clinton and Smith Streets. The traffic problems with the Ratner development, which have not yet undergone any SEQRA review, will be massive. Dont kid yourself that you will be immune.
Apparently Ratner’s rows of condos and an arena are more attractive to Whitbo than Extell’s row of condos. Brooklyn has plenty of iconic landmarks – the bridge and the Willy-B bank tower to name only two. The arena is no icon, its a stalking horse for the gross development Ratner and Ghery have planned.
Ratner has no more “right” to this site than Extell; its only that Ratner has made agreements left and right to make it appear he is the only game in town.
The MTA needs to hold a fair and open bidding process for this site. To promise infrastructure improvements and subsidies to Ratner prior to the bids shows what a sham the process really is.
I’m having trouble with the notion of the Nets stadium as a centerpiece and point of pride for Brooklyn. I don’t want to be a pessimist; I’ve just never seen the neighborhood thrive around a sports arena–quite the opposite, in fact. Can anyone help me understand how this stadium might be a good thing? An Eiffel Tower, it surely won’t be.
Please why americans think that stadium located in the middle of the city is suche great idea?
anybody can explain it to me, plase name one stadium in central location that does not depress whole area.
It my opinion it should be accesable by mass trans but more like waterfront location.
There is a big thing missing in all this — how much will each actually PAY the MTA (the Times said that detail was not released in either plan). Frankly, the MTA should be doing with its property what is best for the cash-strapped MTA – which means getting as much money as it can. Frankly, that is likely to point more toward Ratner than Extell.
As far as the Extell plan being better for the whole borough, i really don’t see it. I used to live on Dean Street across from the soon-to-be construction site, and I know i wouldn’t want to deal with the traffic. Now, as a resident of Carroll Gardens, I frankly would not feel too many effects of the larger development, other than more tax revenue in the borough coffers. And the idea of shooting over of a basketball game on the subway is inticing.
Architecturally, I am pretty suspect of Extell, too. Too much low-scale development in Brooklyn is marked by unimaginative design and cheap materials (look at almost any apartment building built in the last decade). Just because it will be of smaller scale (and 20 stories is still pretty tall), doesn’t make in inherently good.
This really bums me out. If this kills the stadium it will be a real shame. I want to see a landmark in Brooklyn, a source of civic pride, a marker that says to the world, “Brooklyn stands up!”. Will a mass of condos and apartments say that? Aren’t there plenty of other places in the borough to build this? Is the Extell plan’s appeal that it will deny Ratner and the Nets a place to play?
Cities are considered great by their monuments and bold strokes. Do we like Paris because of all the great affordable housing? No, it’s grand because of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre and the Opera House a hundred other great buildings. In fact there isn’t any affordable housing in Paris and we love it anyway.
Very pleased to see a proposal more reasonable in scale, and without the damn stadium. Here’s hoping. . . .
Frank Gehry is a hack
Guess the Ratner plan isn’t a done deal after all. This is starting to remind me of the Jets stadium…