No Land Grab

A Billion Plus in Subsidies
Recently hurt by several years of construction during Atlantic Ave.'s water main/sewer project, merchants are receiving no economic compensation from the City. Ratner, on the other hand, is being promised $1.5 billion in subsidies from the Mayor and Governor.

NYS Empire State Development Corp. (ESDC) has just released a "Final Scope," detailing the latest report of the ever-changing Atlantic Yards plan; while it says that the project is reduced by 5%, the tower at Atlantic/Flatbush will still rise 620 feet. Adding up the square footage in this latest version reveals a plan larger than Ratner's original proposal.

Gates around Green Space?
In this newest plan, Ratner still intends to close several public streets, thereby isolating his project from the surrounding neighborhoods (think MetroTech), and to tear down all the buildings on Pacific and Dean between Flatbush and Vanderbilt, using buyouts or eminent domain to remove those unwilling to sell. Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) would own all green space accessible to the public, and it will have gates!

Opponents of the FCRC project won a small concession in this Final Scope when ESDC agreed to study the Unity Plan and Extell Proposal—which both used the community development guidelines—as well as the Pacific Plan as project alternatives.

Taxpayers Always Get the Burden
What FCRC didn't talk to merchants about... * That Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) proved in a court of law that ESDC had a conflict of interest: hiring an FCRC lawyer to generate the Environmental Impact Statement on an FCRC project. That FCRC has been allowed to demolish six buildings prior to the completion of the Environmental impact Statement (EIS). * That taxpayers always carry the burden of government subsidies. FCRC is asking for discretionary benefits for the Yards project beyond the usual subsidies available to any developer; already the legislature has voted $66 million for the Nets Arena-Railroad Yards project. With real estate values at an all-time high, there is no need for massive government infusions of money. In fact, small businesses surrounding the proposed project area are thriving—without government support. * That the MTA discarded Extell Corp.'s three-times higher bid; instead it accepted the lower bid offered by FCRC on the value of the MTA yards.

AABA continues as a member of the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Coalition to fight this boondoggle.

NoLandGrab: For clarification, there are several properties on Dean Street, most notably the recently rennovated Newswalk building, that are being spared Ratner's wrecking ball. Click here to view a map of the footprint.