Wrecking Ball Gets Rolling on Atlantic Yards
Forest City Ratner is expected to break ground on the Atlantic Yards project today with the demolition of an old bus depot at the eastern end of the the rail yards; this will create a temporary area to store the LIRR trains that are now at the western end. Later this week, FCR is also…
Forest City Ratner is expected to break ground on the Atlantic Yards project today with the demolition of an old bus depot at the eastern end of the the rail yards; this will create a temporary area to store the LIRR trains that are now at the western end. Later this week, FCR is also planning to start demo on the former auto repair shop (above) at 179 Flatbush Avenue to make way for the base of Miss Brooklyn, should the project clear the remaining legal hurdles. Opponents are calling this week’s work “premature” in light of the eminent domain lawsuit.
Developer Gets Ball Rolling on Nets arena [NY Daily News]
Brooklyn Arena Tip-Off [NY Post]
Photo by Gregg Snodgrass for Property Shark
David:
You are wrong about the AY site. Only 8 acres of the site are the rail yards. The rest is property either owned by Forest City Ratner or the private property of others that he is attempting to have conveyed to him by the State of New York. The properties within the proposed project site that are empty or underutilized are that way BECAUSE Ratner has been holding them vacant. If you walk through the project site area, you will see that in the vacant lots NOT held by Ratner, there is are condo buildings. This is why the “blight” argument for seizing private property and conveying it to Ratner is such a joke.
You are obviously unfamiliar with Propsect Heights since you seem to believe the site is “separated by major thoroughfares” from existing neighborhoods. The area between Flatbush, Atlantic and Washington IS a “real” neighborhood! Moreover, AY will hardly be on the “fringe” of gentrified neighborhoods. The arena is going to be right across the street from Park Slope.
Parts of Prospect Heights that border the rail yards is definitely due for development, development that hasn’t taken place during the current Brooklyn building boom precisely because of the proposed Ratner superblock highrise arena complex. The question is what kind, and with what kind of public subsidy. Development over an active rail yard is likewise a perfect decent idea. The problem with the project has always been lack of transparency re: public subsidies, the circumvention of the usual NYC procedures for land use, and the use of eminent domain to convey private property from one individual to another under the guise of the public interest.
taking ebbetts field out of lefferts sure did wonders for the surrounding property values in that area!
Dreamin while I think your overall analysis is correct, I must object to the perpetuation of the myth that AY is being built in the “midst of a thriving neighborhood”
Actually AY is being built on the fringes of a few successful neighborhoods. If AY was built on 7th Ave and 3rd Street or Underhill and Park place or Fulton and Greene THEN you could say it was “in the midst” of a neighborhood. But the vast majority of the AY site is empty or grossly underutilized, and is blocks from the real “neighborhoods” you are concerned with – generally seperated by major throughfares like Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and Washington Avenue
The AY project is very unique in the sense that an arena is being built in the midst of thriving neighborhoods…I’m not sure we have any other examples of this happening anywhere else in the USA…typically stadiums are built where no one previously wanted to go. Zoning will certainly protect the existing neighborhoods. The areas nearest the arena are, clearly, at risk; however, for less than desirable retail establishments. In the end, I think it will raise the profile of Brooklyn and reward those owners that have unique, protected real estate.
Because we’d rather not have links to human executions and comments about the feminine hygiene habits of regular readers posted. The only other alternative right now is requiring TypeKey registration, which we would like to avoid.
This new procedure for making posts really sucks. Some of us like to post anonymously. Why should there be a ‘hold’ on our posts and not on anyone else’s? It makes me much less inclined to post and I suspect I’m not the only one.
I predict that AY will prove disastrous in the long run and that property values in surrounding areas will decline. But I hope I turn out to be wrong. Time will tell!
I currently live in a coop building in Historic Clinton Hill. When I heard about AY I started looking into buying a brownstone in Bed-Stuy. I have lived on Clinton Ave between Greene and Lafyatette now for 5+ years and have loved it! But I have seen an increase in traffic (cars and people) and it’s beginning to feel like Manhattan. I think when AY gets built it will feel even more crowded and unless the City makes major plans for infrastructure changes, it will be a mess of bridge and tunnel traffic on the weekends. My hope is that this does not happen, but that if it does, it will push the more traditional Brooklyn experience into areas like Stuyvesant Heights (where I am moving) and drive out some of the riff-raff. Maybe I am dreaming (or having a nightmare) but I don’t want to stick around here to find out. So off I go, onto a new adventure as a landlord and brownstone owner in Bed-Stuy. Wish me luck, I know there are those of you out there who believe I am going to need it!
I repeat: since they are powerless to stop it, all they can do is hope that it will fail. Anon 11:01 perfectly illustrates this point.
it’s ok, park slope has more than enough roving gangs of rabid stroller moms who will be happy to ram the drunk stadium-goers in the knees with their oversized SUV strollers if they happen to stray too far into the brownstone areas. we’ll defend our hood, never you fear.