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December 22, 2006
APPROVED
State OKs Ratner’s Atlantic Yards
Green light opens floodgates for billions in subsidies
The Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
The political battle over the biggest real-estate development in Brooklyn’s history is over — and Bruce Ratner has won.
The state’s Public Authorities Control Board voted Wednesday to approve Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, giving a final governmental nod to the $4-billion, Frank Gehry-designed mini-city of 16 towers, hundreds of thousands of square feet of office and retail space, 6,430 apartments, and a 19,000-seat basketball arena.
The historic vote capped three years of rancorous debate, but the battle now becomes a judicial one, with suits challenging eminent domain condemnations pending in state and federal courts.
Brooklyn Papers gave a lot of space to this article, which includes quotes from NYC Councilmember Letitia James and ESDC Chairman Charles Gargano, and which covers the question of the developer's profit, the incredible shrinking estimated tax revenues, the "last-minute" concessions political theater, and State Assemblymember-elect Hakeem Jeffries's hope that incoming governor Eliot Spitzer will lift a finger to make the plan better for the actual existing residents.
Posted by lumi at December 22, 2006 7:29 AM