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December 22, 2006
NY State Oversight Board Approves Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn
Commercial Property News
By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor
Forest City Ratner Cos.' $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in downtown Brooklyn received final approval late Wednesday from a New York state oversight board to move ahead with construction of a new Nets basketball arena, 6,430 market-rate and subsidized housing units, a 180-room hotel, office and retail space on 22 acres.
Despite the approval, opposition to the plan still exists and lawsuits against the project (pictured), including one on eminent domain issues, are expected to continue.
...A spokesman for Forest City Ratner said company officials were not conducting interviews today. However, in a statement released after the board voted, Bruce Ratner, Forest City Ratner president & CEO and chairman of the Nets basketball team, thanked the board for approving the project and Mayor Michael Bloomberg for supporting the plan over the last three years.
...
The developer plans to begin construction at the site in January and start building the 850,000-square-foot sports and entertainment arena in the fall.
Meanwhile, the Municipal Art Society hopes to make the project better while watching the development unfold?
While not opposed to development of the rail yards in Brooklyn, the Municipal Art Society has been working with other organizations “to make the plan better for Brooklyn,” MAS spokesman Brian Connolly told CPN today. Connolly said the plan approved Wednesday is still “too out of scale” for a neighborhood of brownstones.
“We are a watchdog organization on these types of things and will continue to watch this as the next 15 to 20 years unfold,” Connolly said.
NoLandGrab: You can count on developer Bruce Ratner to start demolishing properties he owns as soon as possible. We've seen in nearly every instance in which eminent domain is used that developers will level a neighborhood around properties in dispute.
As to what Ratner can build before the lawsuits are settled, that remains to be seen.
Posted by lumi at December 22, 2006 8:11 AM