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March 31, 2007
Eminent domain case gets serious consideration in court (but the press mostly passes)
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder gives an account (consolidated from several sources) of yesterday's hearing in Federal Court for the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case.
One highlight: U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis entertaining arguments that the federal court is the appropriate venue for this case:
Garaufis seemed willing to at least consider the plaintiffs' contention that, if the case remains in federal court, it would not ride roughshod over the eminent domain process in New York State. The defense has argued that, should the Atlantic Yards plaintiffs succeed, future plaintiffs would all go to federal court, which is more friendly to eminent domain challenges, and thus delay projects that relied in part on eminent domain.
Garaufis also appears to be considering a compromise that would allow discovery even if the case is moved to the state level:
The judge also raised the possibility of permitting discovery--the request for background documents--key leverage for plaintiffs in federal court but not permitted when eminent domain is reviewed in New York state court. (The review in the latter is limited to the established record.) Garaufis mused about permitting some kind of limited discovery and having the case moved to state court.
No word as to when an opinion might be forthcoming. Fill the time by clicking here and reading the details.
Posted by steve at 9:00 AM
Marty: Still Looking for Balance
Courier-Life Publications
About 19 paragraphs deep into a Courier-Life article titled "Beep touts coming of Trader Joe’s - Anticipating chic supermarket’s arrival, Markowitz hails changes" by Helen Klein, the Borough Prez gets around to Atlantic Yards.
“We’re going to make it work for the community in the area as well. There has to be a balance. That balance we will find.”
NLG: We've being hearing this kind of talk from Marty for a long time. The only balance found so far seems to be in giving everything to Ratner while the rest of us pay for it in subsidies, congestion, and overcrowding.
Posted by steve at 8:56 AM
What more can be said?
The KnickerBlogger
The KnickerBlogger can't see why the press is ignoring recent Atlantic Yards revelations and their impact on the financial future of New York City:
I am amazed by the lack of interest by most of the mainstream press about the latest Atlantic Yards revelation - the state and city is prepared to hand over billions of dollars in subsidies and loans without even seeing a business plan (hey where do i sign up!) .
NoLandGrab: Sorry, KnickerBlogger, no free $$$ for you.
Posted by steve at 8:49 AM
Progressive Democrat Issue 115: NYC FOCUS: More Atlantic Yards Insanity
Mole333 is understandably upset over having New York City footing the bill to buy the land for Atlantic Yards.
Did you know that you are buying the land for Bruce Ratner to build his Atlantic Yards' project? Yep. That is what Michael Bloomberg wants, as I have previously reported. Ratner promised to pay $100 million for the land to build his project (the low bid, but being Pataki's friend apparantly compensated for his low bid). Guess how much NYC taxpayers are being asked to pay for land acquisition for Ratner? Yep...$100 million. We are buying the land for him. Feel free to tell your City Council member what you think of that.
Having the State move forward without ever having seen a business plan for the project only makes him madder.
It appears that Pataki and Bloomberg went full speed ahead with their support of Ratner, and the Empire State Development Corp. gave it glowing reviews...even though RATNER NEVER SUBMITTED A BUSINESS PLAN! That's right. The ESDC approved the project and Bloomberg is asking us to foot the bill but Ratner never submitted a business plan. Of course we only know this because Jim Brennan SUED to get access to the business plan.
Mole333 recommends taking action by attending the April 4 Spunk Lads reunion at Southpaw, which will raise funds for the Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn Legal Fund.
Posted by steve at 8:36 AM
March 30, 2007
Heads in the Sand
The failure of Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner to submit financial projections for the project leads to several questions.
From Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:
Does anyone who approved this project, for which the government intends to use the awesome power of eminent domain, even know if it's financially viable? Does anyone in Albany or in City Hall have any idea how Ratner's potential profit compares to the public's meager return? Does anyone know if Ratner might pull the plug on Phase Two if he makes all his money on Phase One? Apparently not.
Would a bank give you a small business loan (let alone hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies) if you didn't show them a business plan?
NoLandGrab: Since the answer to all of the above is an unequivocal "NOT," the next question is "Why?" [And don't say, "Because we like you."]
Posted by lumi at 11:12 AM
Eminent Domain Hearing Time Change
From Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:
Federal Eminent Domain Case Back in Court Friday
PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGEThe eminent domain hearing was scheduled for Friday at 11 AM.
That time was just changed by the court to 2pm. Please make a note of it if you plan on attending.
Attorneys representing the 13 plaintiffs in the "Atlantic Yards" eminent domain case will be back in court this Friday, arguing that Goldstein et al vs. Pataki et al should be heard in Federal court rather than at the State level, as Magistrate Judge Robert Levy recommended in a report issued last month. We encourage you all to come out to demonstrate to the Court how much the community cares about this case and its outcome.
Oral arguments are scheduled as follows:
Friday, March 30th, at 2:00 pm* United States District Court. Eastern District of New York. 225 Cadman Plaza East. Courtroom 4D
* Court dates can change frequently. We will notify you if the hearing is postponed.
We recommend that you arrive 30 minutes early if you plan to attend the hearing. Please be advised that cell phones, cameras and recording devices are not permitted in the courtroom, and will have to be checked in the lobby. As always, decorum is of the greatest importance inside the courthouse.
We sincerely hope that you will attend Friday's hearing, and show Judge Garaufis through your presence that our community cares passionately about the abuse of eminent domain.
Posted by lumi at 10:50 AM
Yonkers GOP chief sent financial data to state
The Journal News
By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
Here's the latest installment of the saga in Yonkers, over possible impropriety concerning Bruce Ratner's controversial Ridge Hill plan.
Embattled GOP Chairman Zehy Jereis did file financial disclosure forms after all - but with the state, not the city, as federal investigators supposed in a subpoena filed as part of a conspiracy probe of City Hall.
Jereis filed disclosure forms with the state Legislative Ethics Committee between 2003 and 2005, while working as a legislative aide to then-state Sen. Nicholas Spano, a Yonkers Republican and longtime mentor to Jereis.
...
Federal investigators served a subpoena on City Hall on March 19 seeking financial disclosures filed by Jereis with the Yonkers Ethics Board in his capacity as city Republican chairman. Jereis contends he was not required to file, and the law changed since to exempt him.The subpoena was the second served on the city this month. On March 2, the City Council was asked for records dating to 2004. Two boxes of documents were delivered to FBI offices in White Plains earlier this month.
The subpoenas have led to widespread speculation and prompted at least one council member to consult with an attorney. A source close to the federal investigation told The Journal News the first subpoena sought records relating to the council's actions on Ridge Hill Village, a $600 million residential and retail "mini-city" along the New York State Thruway in Yonkers.
Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney's Office would confirm or deny the existence of the probe.
Posted by lumi at 9:15 AM
State: We never saw Yards numbers
The Brooklyn Paper
By Ariella Cohn
State officials admitted this week that when they approved Atlantic Yards last year they were relying on documents that were incomplete — and may have even been in violation of Bruce Ratner’s original pact with the state and city.
The documents contained Ratner’s cash-flow projections and other information required under the original Atlantic Yards Memorandum of Understanding, but lacked other key financial details of the project’s arena, 6,000 housing units and hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial development.
...
Ratner’s failure to provide a comprehensive plan appears to violate the 2005 MOU, which was signed by the developer, Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki. That document mandated a public review of a “financing and operating plan” in exchange for political support and $200 million from the city and the state (since raised to $305 million).
Local pols are hopping mad...
Assemblyman Jim Brennan (D-Park Slope) and state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D-Park Slope) sued the ESDC to get the full review. Now it turns out that the state never had it to provide — and local politicians are furious.
“The state should have known everything there is to know about the project and disclosed it to the public,” said Sam Rockwell, a spokesman for Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights).
...as if Bruce Ratner cares:
Forest City Ratner did not respond to questions from The Brooklyn Paper.
Posted by lumi at 8:48 AM
Once again, KPMG report on IRR doesn't mean profit
Atlantic Yards Report
If you're as confused as we are about the difference between "profit" and "internal rate of return," join the press corps:
Two published articles this week have inaccurately suggested that the KPMG audit the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) commissioned actually estimated Forest City Ratner's profit on the Atlantic Yards project.
First, the New York Sun reported, in an article noting that the state never saw a full business plan for the project:
Cash flow projections and interviews with executives were the basis for the report's conclusion that the developer would stand to make a total return on its investment of about 9.8% on the mixed-use portion of the project.
Then the Brooklyn Paper followed up:
The KPMG report projects that Ratner will walk away with a $400-million profit from his state-backed $4-billion Prospect Heights Xanadu.
So how do we square this with New York magazine's estimate of $1 billion profit? We don't.
As I reported in December, quoting affordable housing expert David A. Smith, internal rate of return (IRR) doesn't mean profit....
Norman Oder explains (link).
Posted by lumi at 8:39 AM
Ratner’s buying him a new car!
The Brooklyn Paper
By Dana Rubenstein
No one can say how much Bruce Ratner is coughing up in a settlment with Lars Williams, after the footprint homeowner was thrown in jail for removing one of Ratner's surveillance cameras from his own building.
However, since swearing false statements is bad, really bad when you're having someone arrested, Lars has the opportunity to pay off student loans, attend cooking school and help himself to a new set of wheels.
Upon his release, he and his father promptly filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against Ratner; his vice president, James Stuckey; and Michael Machuch, who signed the police complaint against Williams. The lawsuit charged that Ratner had no right to install the camera on the Williamses’ property or have Lars Williams arrested.
Forest City Ratner has refused to comment on the case and would not even confirm that it had been settled.
But Peter Williams said the settlement has been a financial boon for his son.
“Now, Lars can study cooking in London for three months,” said Williams. “No one likes to be arrested. But if you can pay off your student loans and pay your lawyers’ [$28,000 legal] bill, worse things could happen.”
Posted by lumi at 8:29 AM
Bloomberg says...
Queen's Crap posted a link to Mayor Bloomberg on the campaign trail, where he tells folks what they want to hear.
Bloomie sez:
"This city cannot build the schools, expand the libraries, fix the potholes and build big sports facilities at this time...Shea and Yankee Stadiums don't make any money for the city...If you counted the infrastructure for Shea and Yankee Stadiums, they are disasters for the city...We are only going to build stadiums if there's private money."
NoLandGrab: Even though Bloomberg eventually got NY City to pony up $205 million for the Ratner arena — for starters — and left us on the hook for "extraordinary infrastructure costs" (read: blank check), in 2004 he sold Atlantic Yards as a private project:
"The new stadium over in Brooklyn for the Nets is private money. Bruce Ratner is going to finance it himself."
Bruce Ratner doesn't build anything exclusively with private money. Anyone who thinks so doesn't have what it takes to be Mayor of anything.
Posted by lumi at 7:15 AM
God to Ratner: Don’t build so big
The Brooklyn Paper is running a special edition this week called, "Faith in Brooklyn."
Atlantic Yards critics have always had faith that somehow common sense, fairness and propriety would prevail in Prospect Heights. What they might not have known is that God is on their side.
Is God reserving a special, Old Testament-style wrath for his disloyal servant, Bruce Ratner?
Simplification or not, an increasing number of men of the cloth believe He is.
The debate over the godlessness of Ratner’s 16-tower arena, office and residential development began earlier this year when a Long Island priest, the Rev. Fred Jenkins of St. Luke’s Pentecostal Church, announced that he opposed Atlantic Yards on religious grounds.
God, he said, does not support the use of eminent domain — which is necessary if Ratner is to realize his vision.
The moral crusade against the mega-development was later joined by the Rev. Daniel Meeter of the Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope.
On his blog (yes, even pastors have blogs nowadays), Meeter called Atlantic Yards “a moral issue” because of its sheer size.
Posted by lumi at 7:04 AM
Words fail me
The Daily Gotham
In reference to news that NY State approved Atlantic Yards without reviewing financial projections, "Bouldin" makes "two really simple and basic points:"
One, Since FCR wants your money to build its monstrosity, the least, the absolute least they can do is tell you how they intend to spend it.
And two, this is the kind of crap that happens when you don't have a real legislature. Neither the State Assembly nor the State Senate have ever held hearings on a $4 billion development subsidized with public money and, as we're now finding out, for which the developer
Has.
Not.
Submitted.
A business plan.
If anyone can imagine a better example of a complete failure of oversight, please, I'd like to hear it.
Posted by lumi at 6:55 AM
Ratner’s new ‘Ward’
The Brooklyn Paper
Bruce Ratner is about to tear down the most historic building in the footprint of Atlantic Yards, but he’s doing it green!
The building — whose destruction “would constitute a significant adverse [historic] impact” according to even Ratner’s boosters at the Empire State Development Corporation — will not be saved, but it will live on in a very different form: Three-quarters of the rubble will be recycled.
“We are seeking out every possible way to make Atlantic Yards as eco-friendly and environmentally responsible as possible,” Ratner said in the statement.
But Ratner’s green thumb is not just a matter of enviromental stewardship, but also his bottom line: In New York State, builders who meet certain criteria for energy and waste efficiency can claim up to $7.50 per square foot against their state tax bill, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Posted by lumi at 6:49 AM
PRESS RELEASE: Richard G. Leland to Join Fried Frank’s Real Estate Practice
BusinessWire.com
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP announced today that Richard G. Leland will be joining the firm as a partner in the Real Estate Department, resident in New York. He joins Fried Frank from Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, where he was chair of the Environmental Department.
Mr. Leland is an environmental lawyer and litigator, specializing in the environmental aspects of real estate development and land use. His clients include real estate developers, non-profit organizations, and public authorities. He has represented New York State in the nation’s first privatization of a federal and state owned airport in upstate New York and has assisted major New York City developers, cultural, and educational institutions in environmental impact reviews for real estate developments. He presently represents Forest City Ratner in connection with litigation relating to the Atlantic Yards Development in Brooklyn, Columbia University in connection with a major expansion and the joint venture between The Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust that is the designated developer for the Moynihan Station project in connection with environmental reviews of that project. He has also represented developers, municipalities, and public authorities in a variety of zoning matters and litigation arising from zoning determinations in suburban counties in the New York metropolitan area.
Posted by lumi at 6:36 AM
March 29, 2007
Procedural arguments return as eminent domain case hearing approaches
Atlantic Yards Report sets the stage for tomorrow's hearing on the federal eminent domain suit:
The Atlantic Yards eminent domain case gets another day in federal court Friday, as both the plaintiffs and the defendants will argue to U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis that the report and recommendations made last month by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy were incorrect.
Remember, Levy recommended that the case be dismissed and more properly filed in state court. However, he did so based on only one argument by the defense; he agreed with two other arguments by the plaintiffs, 13 property owners and tenants organized by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), that the case should remain in federal court.
Thus, while the DDDB plaintiffs are asking Garaufis to overturn Levy’s one argument for dismissal, the defendants—the city, the Empire State Development Corporation, and developer Forest City Ratner—are not only backing Levy’s dismissal argument, but contending that he was incorrect in not dismissing the case on other grounds.
It’s not automatic that a federal judge will hold a hearing on the responses to a magistrate’s recommendations; the judge could simply rely on legal briefs. But the decision to hold a hearing seems to indicate a recognition of the complexity of the legal arguments and even the importance of the case.
Click here to read details about the most contentious and delicate legal arguments, including an explanation of the Burford precedent.
Posted by lumi at 9:20 AM
...a thousand words
Posted by lumi at 9:13 AM
Buying a Billionaire?
The Wonkster
Compiled by Gail Robinson
Yesterday NY Observer reporter Matthew Schuerman revealed that Bruce Ratner donated beaucoup bucks to a foundation that is near and dear to the Mayor's heart, as his Atlantic Yards project was being considered for large direct taxpayer contributions on top of a bevy of subsidies.
The Wonkster notes that this is just the latest notch in City Hall's shakedown of the private sector in what is starting to look like a pay-to-play scheme.
The conventional wisdom has long been that Mayor Michael Bloomberg remains immune to the blandishments of special interests, since he is too rich to be bought. And certainly the mayor has not needed a penny of campaign contributions to finance his $70 million plus election campaigns.
But does that mean money is not one way to this man’s heart?
Forest City Ratner, developer of Atlantic Yards, gave between $450,000 and $1 million to a “nonprofit closely associated” with Bloomberg, just as the debate over the controversial megaproject was heating up, Matthew Schuerman reports in today’s Observer. The firm’s Bruce Ratner is a registered lobbyist, and according to Schuerman, “The donation came six months after a meeting with Mr. Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris that… Ratner reported was a lobbying contact—although the parties now dispute that it should have been characterized as such.”
...
This is not the first time the issue of contributions has arisen. When Bloomberg and his Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff were still fantasizing about New York as the site of the 2012 Olympics, businesses gave millions to NYC 2012. Although WNYC could not find a “quid pro quo,” its Andrea Bernstein reported at the time, “Some donors… told us they felt they HAD to give, but they didn’t want their names used for fear of souring city business deals. One businessman said Doctoroff told him – after a city hall meeting on a non-Olympics-related matter, that he’d hear from Jay Kriegal, executive director of NYC2012. He did, and he gave a six figure contribution.”
Posted by lumi at 8:26 AM
On Drug Crimes And Business Plans
Gumby Fresh has a pretty damn good explanation as to why the non-existent financial projections for Atlantic Yards are important, why Forest City Ratner doesn't want them to see the light of day, and why this only happens in the public sector (emphasis added):
I was pretty gobsmacked to learn that the developer had not submitted a business plan to the state when asking it for all kinds of juicy subsidies and the power of condemnation and so forth. This is pretty much project development 101, and gives you a pretty good idea of how much Bruce Ratner is winging it.
...
A business plan would give the interested reader an idea of what revenues Ratner is devoting to repaying what sources of financing, and which parts of the project are included within the scope of the naming rights cash, tax-exempt debt, taxable debt, state subsidies, state money towards infrastructure improvements and so forth. It is, wearingly enough, often withheld as commercially sensitive, and I'd assumed that the state could stonewall in this fashion for ever.But no, Forest City has not actually bothered to put a business plan together for its public partners, partly because it wants to be able to slosh its capital expenditure towards whichever use is most lucrative, and partly, I suspect, that it wants to dedicate as little of the project revenues towards servicing the taxable debt as possible. This would indeed have a substantial effect on the project's internal rate of return (a number, expressed as a percentage, that is not the same as "profit", or many other accounting concepts, but both do correlate with a large number of the same inputs, per a discussion here).
But anyway, I need to put a business plan together before spending more than a couple of grand of my employer's money. It is abject lunacy that Ratner cannot assemble one of these for a sprawling mixed-use development that threatens to gut the prettiest county in the United States. [Actually I can't get sign-off on a few hundred in expenses from my employer right now as a result of some tedious interdepartmental feuding. Wonderful]
NoLandGrab: Upon hearing the news, we were pretty "gobsmacked" too... or was it "gabberflasted?"
Posted by lumi at 8:13 AM
Atlantic Yards: "It's been a done deal from the beginning without anybody really looking at it."
The Albany Project pricked their ears at yesterday's news that the State never received financial projections from Forest City Ratner.
This is too rich. For quite some time now, many opponents of the
Atlantic YardsRatnerville project in Brooklyn, including Assemblyman James Brennan, have been trying to get a hold of the business plan one would assume the developers had submitted to the Empire State Development Corporation before the the ESDC would agree to dole out hundreds of millions in public money and other goodies to the controversial development. Brennan eventually sued ESDC last month to get his hands on the plan. There was one problem, however. The developers never submitted one and the ESDC therefore has no plan to produce. Really.
More indications that Atlantic Yards is the posterchild for Public Authorities Reform (emphasis added):
This project has smelled pretty bad from the beginning and this is just the latest instance of big boy power politics in a litany of them. Ratnerville really is just the latest example of pretty much everything that is wrong with how government works in New York. Whatever your personal peeve with state government is, you can find it somewhere in the Ratnerville mess.
Posted by lumi at 8:12 AM
Library looking to branch into site ownership
NY Daily News
By Rachel Monahan
An article about the threat of the use of eminent domain (note: eminent domain is only used as a "last resort"), concerning a library in Gravesend, references Atlantic Yards as the project that turned the term "eminent domain" into a dirty word.
[Community Board 13] District Manager Chuck Reichenthal attributed the land use committee's vote to objections to the city's potentially big-footing property owners.
"I think the issue was those two words: eminent domain," Reichenthal said.
The term has "taken on a difficult image since the whole downtown project," he said, referring to Forest City Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project, which will likely require the use of eminent domain to make way for the 22-acre development.
NoLandGrab: We don't really expect a Brooklyn Community Board District Manager to know the difference between Downtown Brooklyn and Prospect Heights. Bruce Ratner's eminent domain-abusing Atlantic Yards plan is in Prospect Heights, for real.
Posted by lumi at 7:51 AM
Ward of the State (Development Corporation)
Brooklyn Downtown Star
Nik Kovac and Norman Oder report on the beginning of demolition of the Ward Bakery building:
The presence of several sign-wielding protesters organized by the Prospect Heights Action Coalition (PHAC) seemed to cause a show of discretion from the contractors charged with removing the asbestos and other hazardous materials from the 96-year-old bakery turned warehouse before it is taken down piece-by-piece. Upon seeing the signs - which said things like, "Stop the Department of Buildings before they blight again!" - the foreman immediately pulled the chain on a metal gate, hiding from view several trash-filled black plastic bags. He later opened it just long enough to allow a truck from Topline Contracting, Inc. (based in East Williamsburg) to back in.
Most of the protesters are categorically opposed to the overall Atlantic Yards plan, but the issue of the Ward Bakery demolition has focused the debate on issues of timing and sustainability.
Posted by lumi at 7:39 AM
Roman Holiday
New York's ambassador lives high, large, and loose
The Village Voice
An article by Tom Robbins compiles a litany of travel and dining expenses racked up by the former head of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), Charles Gargano, the pal of former-Governor Pataki who led the quasi-governmental corporation while it sought approval of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan.
With just two months to go in his job as the state's economic development czar, Charles Gargano hopped on an Alitalia Airlines flight last October 20 and flew to Rome. His ticket included an open return, from Rome's Da Vinci airport to JFK. The cost, $3,579, was billed to Gargano's state-supplied corporate American Express card.
...
The only explanation offered was a one-line entry from his secretary to the accounting department: "This charge is for airfare to Italy for last minute request for Chairman to speak at an event."What event? Whose request? Officials say they don't have a clue.
...
In September 2005, while Gargano was traveling with Pataki on a trade mission to China, he took a side jaunt to Helsinki to visit real estate tycoon Earle Mack, a major Pataki campaign contributor who had recently been named ambassador to Finland by President Bush. The $1,496 cost was justified, his secretary wrote, since Gargano was "addressing potential investors in New York State."Back in New York, Gargano liberally used his corporate AmEx card to pay for meals at many of the city's poshest dining establishments—rarely explaining why.
NoLandGrab: Those who are following "The Ambassador's" post-ESDC woes will recall his other ethical lapses: a visit to a port contractor in Red Hook and how the ESDC paid the rent on nephew Frank Gargano's headquarters.
Gargano is also the guy who promised that financial information concerning Atlantic Yards would eventually be forthcoming, in an interview with New York Voices (transcript, Atlantic Yards Report):
Q: Some individuals--lawyers, some journalists--want to know exactly how you came up with the figures, of the gains and losses, and they've even filed under the Freedom of Information act, but the [ESDC} has refused...
A: Well first of all, what they are looking for is internal documents, working documents... Completed documents, once the project is approved, once we have completed the negotiations with the developers, they will all be public record.
Yesterday, The NY Sun reported that Forest City Ratner never provided such documents to the State, which contradicts the assurances given by Gargano. Hence, our enduring interest in the fate of "The Ambassador" Charles Gargano.
Posted by lumi at 7:18 AM
Hub law firm signs lease at new N.Y. Times tower
Boston Herald
By Scott Van Voorhis
Forest City Ratner's Times Tower, co-owned by the building's namesake, The New York Times Corporation, just added another law firm to its list of tenants:
Boston-based legal firm Goodwin Procter has inked a deal to lease several floors in The New York Times [NYT]’ new Manhattan high-rise headquarters.
The law firm will lease seven floors, totaling 216,000 square feet, in the 52-story Renzo Piano designed building, which is now nearing completion.
...
The new Times headquarters building is a joint venture between The New York Times Co. and Forest City Ratner Cos. The 1.6 million-square-foot New York Times Building, which will open in the fall, is now almost fully leased.
Additional coverage:
GlobeSt.com, Goodwin Procter Signs On for NYT Space (emphasis added)
The law firm’s 100,000-sf lease at 599 Lexington Ave. is set to expire at the end of 2008, and Randall tells GlobeSt.com that the search for a new space started almost a year ago. After looking at dozens of properties, mostly in Midtown and a few Downtown locations, Goodwin Procter opted for the NYT building. The prestige of the location and the buildings anchor tenant as well as the amenities and the development company, which is a Goodwin Procter client, that will be part of the facility sealed the deal for the firm....
NoLandGrab: This lease was originally announced two weeks ago and constitutes the fourth law firm to sign a lease for the building housing the new Times headquarters.
Posted by lumi at 6:30 AM
Forest City Enterprises Reminder of Year-End Earnings Conference Call Thursday March 29, 2007, 11:00 A.M. ET
dBusinessNews Cleveland
CLEVELAND -- Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:FCEA)(NYSE:FCEB):
TO: Interested analysts, brokers and investors
FROM: Forest City Enterprises
RE: Forest City’s Year-End Conference CallForest City Enterprises announced its fiscal 2006 financial results yesterday, Tuesday, March 27, 2007, and will be conducting a conference call on Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 11:00 A.M. ET.
You are invited to dial into a conference call with Charles A. Ratner, President and Chief Executive Officer.
The conference call is scheduled for 11:00 A.M. ET, Thursday March 29, 2007. To participate, dial 1-866-277-1182, using access code 95909835, approximately five minutes before the call and tell the operator you wish to join the Forest City Year-End Earnings Conference Call. The live broadcast will also be available online at www.forestcity.net.
The call will be replayed from March 29, 2007, 5:00 P.M. ET to April 29, 2007, 11:59 P.M. ET. The replay number is 1-888-286-8010, access code 30678984. The webcast replay will be available at www.forestcity.net.
If you have questions, please call AnnMarie Fenske at Forest City, 216-621-6060.
Posted by lumi at 6:23 AM
March 28, 2007
Yankee station costs climbing?
MetroNY
By Patrick Arden
There's a lot of handwringing going on in the Bronx over how to cover the "projected $15 million to $30 million shortfall" for the new Metro-North station at Yankee Stadium.
Last April, the MTA board had approved $40 million for the station to serve Yankee Stadium.
“Where are those Yankees?” wondered rider advocate Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. “We always thought the team should chip in when the station was at $40 million. But with the inevitable increased cost, the very profitable franchise should be helping.
“The MTA is broke, and the idea that they will unendingly fund a Metro-North station is just wrong. The Yankees are going to benefit from it, and they should step up to the plate and participate.”
Click here to read the rest of the article, including Russianoff's highly excellent idea for squeezing more money out of the tight-fisted Steinbrenner.
NoLandGrab: We bring you this article to point out that there isn't any such handwringing with the Atlantic Yards project.
Part of Bruce Ratner's winning low-ball bid for the railyards is the "added value" of station infrastructure improvements. However:
- those improvements were never requested by the MTA,
- moving the tracks to make way for the arena leaves no room for a future AirTrain between JFK and Lower Manhattan,
- Bruce Ratner isn't paying for the improvements out of his own pocket, and
- any shortfalls are covered under "extraordinary infrastructure costs" and will be paid for by the taxpayers of the City of NY, in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Mayor and Ratner.
This MOU is a blank check to cover just such shortfalls that have "shockingly" materialized in the Yankee Stadium Metro-North station.
Posted by lumi at 10:10 AM
State Never Saw Business Plan For Atlantic Yards Project
The NY Sun
By Eliot Brown
Atlantic Yards critics have always had the sinking feeling that Bruce Ratner never submitted financial projections for Atlantic Yards, not to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as part of the "Request for Proposal" for the railyards, or to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) as part of the approval of public funding of by the Public Authorities Control Board.
Really, why would Ratner need to explain the finances of the project when it was a backroom deal all along?
Today, The NY Sun confirms Brooklynites' worst fears about the project:
In examining the $4 billion mixed-use Atlantic Yards project for approval, New York State's leading development agency never saw a business plan from developer Forest City Ratner, documents and officials now say. The project, which plans more than 6,000 units of housing and a home for the Nets basketball team, was approved by the state just before Governor Pataki left office.
Critics contend that state officials should have reviewed a full financial model before promising hundreds of millions of dollars in public incentives and subsidies. Forest City's full financial plan has long been sought by critics of the project and legislators, including Assemblyman James Brennan of Brooklyn, who sued the Empire State Development Corporation to obtain it last month, presuming that it was in their possession. The Empire State Development Corporation has denied Mr. Brennan's repeated records requests for the comprehensive model.
A spokesman for the Empire State Development Corporation, Errol Cockfield, now says the state has never seen or possessed any comprehensive business plan from the developer.
Here's a surprise:
A spokesman for Forest City Ratner declined to comment.
NoLandGrab: Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report pointed out to us in an email message this morning that the reporter, Eliot Brown, is "confusing profit with IRR [Internal Rate of Return]."
Ratner's "profit" will probably be much higher, since he's not putting up all of the money for the project but will likely reap more of the returns. How much higher? No one but Ratner knows, since he never provided that information to anyone, including the officials who approved every aspect of the project.
We don't mean to slam Eliot Brown. As a 20-something cub reporter, he just scooped the entire NY press corps (yes, even the "Odert Report") with this story.
Posted by lumi at 9:02 AM
Public park, indy ESDC, "derelict stretch"? Looking back at the eminent domain argument
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder highlights strong indications that the lawyers for Bruce Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation drink the developer's Kool-Aid, in his review of the transcript from the previous hearing:
As the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case gets another day in court Friday, it’s worth taking another look at a few questionable statements made by defense lawyers during the 2/7/07 hearing.
Would the project really bring public parks and public housing? Is the ESDC really independent? And was Forest City Ratner the only developer that might be interested in a "derelict stretch" near Brooklyn's busiest transit hub?
Posted by lumi at 8:46 AM
Forest City Ratner Gives to Coney Island Carousel, Other Bloombergian Public Projects
The donation was for ‘causes close to Mayor’s heart,’ says watchdog
The New York Observer
By Matthew Schuerman
This is a must-read article if you've been wondering how Bruce Ratner does it. How does The Brucester get every top politician on his side, though he's been telling everyone for years that he no longer contributes to political campaigns*?
In December 2005, right as the debate over the Atlantic Yards complex was heating up and before the city made several crucial decisions about the project, Forest City Ratner gave between $450,000 and $1 million to a nonprofit closely associated with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The donation came six months after a meeting with Mr. Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris that Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner reported was a lobbying contact—although the parties now dispute that it should have been characterized as such.
What makes the contribution stand out is how unusual it is: Mr. Ratner, Forest City’s chief executive, tends to shun any of the civic glitz that other developers put on in order to “give back” to the communities in which they build. Mr. Ratner, a former city consumer-affairs commissioner, eschews campaign contributions and doesn’t even serve on the Real Estate Board of New York, preferring to allow his senior employees and paid lobbyists to exert influence on his behalf instead.
The best one-liner in the article comes from Ratner PR flack "Joey from Cobble Hill" DePlasco:
“Bruce and Forest City Ratner have indeed supported the rehabilitation of that amusement, and they are guilty of thinking it will be much loved again by kids and their families,” Mr. DePlasco said.
So why isn't this a conflict of interest?
But part of Mr. Bloomberg’s obligation, in order to raise money for these good causes, has been to abide by one stipulation handed down by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board in a May 2003 ruling: officials soliciting on behalf of city-affiliated nonprofits must refrain from asking “a prospective donor who the official knows or should know has a specific matter either currently pending or about to be pending before the City official or his or her agency, where it is within the legal authority or the duties of the soliciting official to make, affect or direct the outcome of the matter.”
By the time that June 2005 meeting happened between Mr. Ratner and the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor, Mr. Bloomberg had already pledged his support and $100 million of city funds for Atlantic Yards, a 22-acre complex that’s supposed to consist of 6,430 apartments and an arena to house the Nets basketball team.
NoLandGrab: So, AFTER the City pledged $100 million towards Atlantic Yards and AFTER the June, 2005 meeting, the City pledged an additional $105 million for "land acquisition." Why this wouldn't be a matter for the Conflict of Interest Board is unclear. Maybe the Public Advocate can look into it.
* Ratner's funding for political campaigns goes through family members, as reported by Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report in 2006, on: * September 5 * September 8 * September 13 * November 29
Posted by lumi at 7:54 AM
PRESS RELEASE: COLUMBIA EMINENT DOMAIN IN HARLEM CONDEMNED BY ALUMNI
New York City 3/28/07 Columbia University president Lee Bollinger’s plan to use eminent domain to obtain land for a new campus in the Manhattanville section of West Harlem faces new opposition from the Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY) led by Columbia College alumni. State Chair Richard Cooper, Christopher Garvey and Mark Axinn condemn the University’s resort to the Empire State Development Corporation to condemn property-owners who will not sell voluntarily from West 125th to 133rd Streets between Broadway and 12th Avenue. The ESDC designated the area as “blighted.” Cooper responds, “Hands off Harlem!”
Cooper notes that he previously fought SUNY-Stony Brook’s eminent domain grab of Flowerfields in St. James. “Eminent domain is a legalized assault on tenants, taxpayers and property-owners. Moses said to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” The Libertarian Party says to our modern pharaohs, the politicians and bureaucrats, “Let the people stay.” Bollinger cites our beloved Columbia’s educational mission and the infamous Kelo decision. Is it Columbia’s mission to teach that legalized theft is just and constitutional? Is it to teach that the end justifies the means?”
Mark Axinn, a Manhattan real estate attorney and Manhattan LP treasurer, laments “I am particularly appalled that Columbia University, which already has significant real estate and financial resources far in excess of others is desirous of relying on the thuggery of government to force other real estate owners to relinquish their property rather than simply purchasing any land it desires on the open market. Surely an institution with the power and wealth of Columbia could simply buy property. By seeking to usurp others' legitimate property rights by eminent domain, a university of which I should be proud lowers itself to the level of the street bully simply taking what it wants from those weaker individuals who might also be on the schoolyard.”
Christopher Garvey, a Long Island patent attorney and former LPNY candidate for Governor,is outraged. “On The Brian Lehrer Show (3/8/07), President Bollinger stated his case for expansion into the Manhattanville section of West Harlem. He described the activities of his private university as "public purposes", which justified having the government invoke its powers of eminent domain to steal property from existing owners to give to the University. How arrogant! Declaring one's "purposes" to be "public" is so much easier and cheaper than buying property fairly, from willing sellers on the free market.”
Besides the Columbia University Manhattanville eminent domain, the Libertarians oppose the Brooklyn Nets Arena/Atlantic Yards project. They will hold their State Convention on Saturday, April 28th at the Radisson MacArthur Hotel in Holtsville, New York. –30-
For more information about eminent domain (listing does not imply endorsement of the Libertarian Party):
Castle Coalition www.castlecoalition.org
Institute for Justice www.ij.org
Manhattan Libertarian Party www.manhattanlp.org
No Land Grab www.nolandgrab.org
Property Rights Foundation of America www.prfamerica.org
Posted by lumi at 7:43 AM
Relief at the ballot box? Housing expert says ESDC justification seems hollow
Atlantic Yards Report
The next hearing in the Federal eminent domain case is this Friday. In advance, Norman Oder considers the defense's position against claims of backroom dealing:
Is voting the rascals out sufficient redress for those who want courts to examine what they believe to be eminent domain abuse, as a lawyer representing the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) has suggested?
Not at all, says David A. Smith, an affordable housing expert in Boston who supports the targeted use of eminent domain and has been watching Atlantic Yards from afar.
That issue came up during the 2/7/07 oral argument in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain hearing, when U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy posed a hypothetical question to Douglas Kraus, representing the defendant Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC).
Levy wondered that if a constitutional violation would occur in a case involving eminent domain that led to a clear public use--a result that historically justifies condemnations--but also benefited an insider, the governor's brother-in-law.
Kraus:
"That might be an issue for the prosecutor; it also might be an issue for the electorate, right. [Plaintiffs' attorney] Mr. [Matthew] Brinckerhoff told us they're all politicians and they're all elected. If his clients or if other members of the community think this was really a terrible project, they can express themselves in the next election when they vote for their City Council representatives, their State Senators, their State Assembly members, their Congresspersons, and their federal Senators."
Smith, who has supported use of eminent domain for economic development but thinks it must be done with safeguards, was perturbed by Kraus's formulation.
He told me, "In my view, Mr. Kraus's flip comment ["terrible project"] tacitly concedes he has no legal case for his client. For if the project is terrible, and the sole remedy is electoral relief, then there is no check in law to a development agency run amok, and no limit on the powers agencies claiming eminent domain (for removal of blight, economic development, or otherwise) can wield."
Posted by lumi at 6:31 AM
March 27, 2007
Homeowner Stares Down Wreckers, at Least for a While
News from Chongqing about taking of private property for a private project has been all over the papers and Internet during the past two weeks.
Since The NY Times is practically allergic to covering eminent domain, they're pretty much the last at the table. What's left to say that hasn't already been said? In today's article, the Times covers the coverage:
CHONGQING, China, March 23 — For weeks the confrontation drew attention from people all across China, as a simple homeowner stared down the forces of large-scale redevelopment that are sweeping this country, blocking the preparation of a gigantic construction site by an act of sheer will.
At a site in Chongqing, all of the households but one have left.
Chinese bloggers were the first to spread the news, of a house perched atop a tall, thimble-shaped piece of land like Mont-Saint-Michel in northern France, in the middle of a vast excavation.
Newspapers dived in next, followed by national television. Then, in a way that is common in China whenever an event begins to take on hints of political overtones, the story virtually disappeared from the news media after the government, bloggers here said, decreed that the subject was suddenly out of bounds.
Still, the “nail house,” as many here have called it because of the homeowner’s tenacity, like a nail that cannot be pulled out, remains the most popular current topic among bloggers in China.
NoLandGrab: As structures in the Atlantic Yards footprint are being demolished by Bruce Ratner around property owned by those who are still fighting in the courts, we hardly expect the Times to cover it, at least not before bloggers in China pick it up first.
Posted by lumi at 8:14 AM
Protest targets Atlantic Yards demolition
amNY
By Michael Clancy
The free commuter paper published by Newsday was the only local daily to cover the demolition of the Ward Bakery building:
A handful residents protested in front of Ward Bread Bakery on Pacific Street Monday morning as workers began to prepare for the demolition of the structure to make way for the Atlantic Yards arena and housing project.
"It's a beautiful building and it part of the historic fabric of this neighborhood," said Patti Hagan a member of the Prospect Heights Action Coalition, a group that opposes the $4 billion megadevelopment. "To take it down is just wasteful."
Posted by lumi at 7:39 AM
Planned demolition of 475 Dean means more "urban room" on crucial block
Atlantic Yards Report
Though it hasn't been announced yet in a press release, Forest City Ratner "in the near future" intends to demolish 475 Dean Street (Lot 48 on the map at right), according to a 3/15/07 notice sent to Community Board 6 by the developer.
This demolition was not part of the developer's recent press release, nor has Forest City yet applied for a demolition permit.
Posted by lumi at 7:02 AM
PLANYC2030: what might sustainability mean?
Atlantic Yards Report
As we await the results of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC2030 dog-n-pony show community outreach, Norman Oder scrutinizes the goals as stated in the media campaign plan for NYC's future.
The battles over land use, including Atlantic Yards, have clearly pointed to the need for planning by the government and various stakeholders, beyond a process driven by real estate developers.
Now, it seems, the city government has recognized that, and more.
...
As we await an announcement of implementation details in April, numerous questions have been raised, among them what goals have been downplayed, whose interests are being served, and how much democratic process will be involved.The ten goals are grouped under the following color-coded rubrics, with further details in the graphics: OPENYC (housing, transit capacity, parks); MAINTAINYC (infrastructure for water, transit, energy); and GREENYC (carbon emissions, clean air, brownfields cleanup, waterway restoration).
Posted by lumi at 6:52 AM
Atlantic Yards Demolition Begins
WNYC Newsroom
NEW YORK, NY March 26, 2007 —Demolition begins today at the former Ward Bakery building at the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn. But even as work crews begin dismantling the building on Pacific Street, protestors plan to rally against the action.
Posted by lumi at 6:51 AM
The man behind Mesa del Sol is no stranger to getting things done
The Albuquerque Tribune
A story about the Forest City exec behind the Mesa del Sol project, Michael Daly, has this reminiscence from our own Bruce Ratner:
In 1987, Daly, then in his early 20s, caught the eye of Bruce Ratner, now CEO of Forest City Ratner, the New York arm of Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland. Ratner is also owner of the New Jersey Nets NBA franchise.
"I hired him because he was the youngest guy on our account," Ratner said. "He was young. He was eager. You could tell he had integrity.
"He was honest, in terms of always telling the truth as well as in the way he dealt with companies."
Daly later went to work for Forest City on MetroTech, an urban renewal project in Brooklyn, with the tall task of luring Wall Street companies out of Manhattan.
As head of the project's commercial division, Daly enticed global investment firms like Goldman Sachs, power utility KeySpan Energy and the New York Stock Exchange as tenants to the project.
"People thought it was not possible to get companies to move to Brooklyn," Ratner said. "Michael led the effort."
NoLandGrab: With MetroTech losing tenants, it might be time to bring back Daly. Then again, a guy with "integrity" might feel more at home with Bruce's Cleveland cousins, who have a little more practice at telling the truth.
Posted by lumi at 6:38 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
strong>East Village Idiot, March Radness: Round 2, Day 2
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn supporters apparently had no gas in the tank after scoring an upset victory over their division rivals in last week's March Radness, either that or they were too busy trying to score a real upset by saving the Ward Bakery building. This week, they fell to the mighty F Train, "who will move on to the Sweet 16 with their 81-19 win."
Brooklyn Record, Another Clan Evicted from Atlantic Yards
Looks like Bruce Ratner forgot to warn one group that his wrecking ball is coming — a colony of feral cats that inhabits the future home of Atlantic Yards. Laura Brahm, the assistant executive director of Slope Street Cats, is saving these felines, one by one.
Our feline friends didn't even get an honorable mention in the Environmental Impact Statement.
Poop City, Poop-O-Rama: Non-recall edition More on the feline refugees:
CRACK & CLAM JUICE: Slope Street Cats has relocated the last of the feral colony endangered by the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. The effort gained attention via coverage in the Brooklyn Paper and even the Times, but in the end it was a Meow Mix-clam juice combo what done the trick. Says SSC's Laura Brahm: "When you're working on a trapping project, sometimes nabbing that last cat is better than crack!"
Lost City, A Walk to Ward's
One guy's take on the Ward Bakery building.
I wouldn't call it an architectural gem, exactly, but it has an integrity about it and I would support its being landmarked, since whatever is erected in its place by Ratner will most certainly not be anywhere near as attractive. But that, of course will not be.
The Gowanus Lounge, Is City Consultant Deliberately Ignoring Underground Railroad Records?
Could the consulting firm hired by the city to examine the history of downtown Brooklyn buildings have deliberately ignored key documents? There is significant evidence the buildings were part of the Underground Railroad, but the downtown Brooklyn plan counts on Underground Parking to trump Underground Railroad history. Now, there's a suggestion that consultants took a pass on documents that suggest the development will bulldoze African-American history.
Posted by lumi at 5:55 AM
March 26, 2007
More controversy in the Atlantic Yards project
Residents rally against demolition of 'Ward Bakery', located near site of new Nets arena
WABC Eyewitness News
By Ken Rosato
For nearly a century, it stood at 800 Pacific Street in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood. The former Ward Bread Bakery building is in the heart of an industrial corridor that was once home to the Daily News printing plant and the Spalding sporting goods factory, a major dairy and an ice cream warehouse.
Today, demolition began to make way for part of the Atlantic Yards project that would include a new basketball arena for the Nets, and at least 16 residential and commercial skyscrapers. Many are opposed to the move however, and held a protest this morning.
Supporters of Forest City Ratner came out to frame the argument as those without jobs vs. those with wa-a-ay too much time on their hands:
"This project means, a lot to us that live in this neighborhood. Ratner is offering training and [an apprenticeship] program that is actually going to be life changing to people from over here," Brooklyn resident Caprice Watson said.
People like Caprice Watson are saying they just want a job and it is important that people realize that those protesting already have jobs and they do not.
NoLandGrab: Those supporters know what they are doing, by deflecting the argument about sustainable development, to "jobs."
In case you haven't administered your daily dose of Atlantic Yards Report, Norman Oder highlighted an interesting point made by Donovan Rypkema about preservation and local employment:
While new construction is half-labor, half materials, historic rehabilitation is 60% to 70% labor and puts more money in the local community. However, he acknowledged, it’s more piecemeal work and generally not unionized and thus not backed by organized labor.
Posted by lumi at 2:31 PM
Ward's Bakery: The Calm Before the Storm
Brownstoner
There were more protesters and members of the media than construction workers on site this morning at Ward's Bakery. The Hagan sisters were there with their signs and Norman Oder with his camera. Meanwhile, the only instrument of destruction onsite was this Keyspan backhoe.
Posted by lumi at 1:22 PM
Ward Bakery: Sustainable Development
Brit in Brooklyn; photo, Adrian Kinloch
Early this morning outside Ward Bakery, preparations were underway for the 'recycling' of the structure.
NoLandGrab: Pictured are protesters Barbara Skinner (no relation to Principal Skinner, we think) and Patti Hagan, who spent the weekend passing out flyers to inform the public that Ratner was poised to start demolitions.
Posted by lumi at 1:14 PM
GROUNDHOG DAY: Three press releases for work at Atlantic Yards
Is it ironic, or just a crying shame, that Forest City Ratner put out three press releases between February 20th and last week to announce the preliminary work/demolitions for their Atlantic Yards development project?
February 20, 2007
March 1, 2007
March 22, 2007
This is the same company that doesn't provide any information to the community through the know-nothing Community Liaison Office, though the office is mentioned in the first press release.
The slow drip of press releases is a pretty smart way to keep the demolitions in the news. Every few weeks it's Groundhog Day all over again.
BTW: There are indeed workers at the Ward Bakery building today. It looks like Forest City Ratner sometimes does keep its word.
Posted by lumi at 12:01 PM
Demolition Begins For Atlantic Yards Project
WCBS
Developer Bruce Ratner is determined to push his $4 billion project forward, announcing the start of the demolition of 800 Pacific St. -- the site of the former bakery.
Along with the demolition comes the so-called abatement process -- the removing of hazardous substances, such as asbestos.
It's been reported that Ratner spent $2 million to lobby state and local lawmakers for the project last year -- the third-largest amount in the state -- behind a state healthcare insurance association and Verizon.
The centerpiece of Atlantic Yards will be the Frank Gehry-designed Barclay's Center Sports Arena, which will be the new home of the New Jersey Nets. The team will be renamed the Brooklyn Nets.
But the Atlantic Yards project remains controversial.
Lawsuits have been filed in opposition. And some critics contend that Ratner's plan to include affordable housing along with the commercial development is in reality a mask for a massive luxury project.
Posted by lumi at 11:03 AM
Groundhog Day: "Demolition Begins For Atlantic Yards In Brooklyn"
AP, via MyFoxNY.com
In case you haven't heard, demolition is to begin on properties in the Atlantic Yards footprint:
Demolition begins today at the former Ward Bakery builidng at the controversial Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn.
But even as work crews begin dismantling the building on Pacific Street, protestors plan to rally against the action.
NoLandGrab: By "demolition," Bruce Ratner means removal of asbestos and other hazardous materials, which, by the way, he would have to do if he was doing the right thing, like, say, renovating this architectural beauty into housing.
Posted by lumi at 10:29 AM
Online Petition: STOP DEMOLITION OF WARD'S BAKERY
It's worth repeating that the following petition is on line at PetitionOnline.org.
Click here to sign if you haven't already. Also send the link to a friend.
To: Mayor Michael Bloomberg
The Ward's Bakery at 800 Pacific Street is a gem of historic industrial architecture. Completed in 1911, it's builder, George Ward, had taken his architects to Europe for inspiration in its design.
The building is graced with rows of Greco-Roman inspired arches, embellished with a delicate band of a classic wave motif, and clothed entirely in gleaming white terra cotta tile.
Ward's Bakery is a magnificent candidate for adaptive reuse and would yield amazing living and/or workspaces. The success of such conversions has been demonstrated again and again in former industrial enclaves, such as SOHO, Tribeca, and the meat-packing district.
Forest City Ratner is poised to demolish this building, even while their proposed project is still being litigated and may never materialize, leaving us with a wasteland of demolition sites.
We urge you intervene immediately and save this irreplaceable historic treasure for the delight of generations to come.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Posted by lumi at 10:20 AM
Preservation, planning, and Brooklyn at issue at HDC conference
Atlantic Yards Report
Forest City Ratner’s much-criticized plans to demolish the Ward Bread Bakery, the issue of whether demolition can be truly green development, and the Atlantic Yards project in general represent Brooklyn embodiments of several issues raised at the Historic Districts Council (HDC) annual conference on 3/10/07.
Author and urbanist Roberta Brandes Gratz led off an overview panel by citing the enormous changes since the 1970s, when local activists responded to the city’s decline by establishing pocket parks in abandoned lots, community groups harnessed sweat equity and government funds to rehabilitate buildings, and intrepid brownstoners invested in yet-to-be historic districts.
“Anyone who doubts the enormous impact of historic preservation either wasn’t here or wasn’t paying attention,” Gratz declared.
Now, however, commented City Council Member Tony Avella, “The very people who brought the city back are being priced out of their developments.” While that may not be true for owners who’ve seen their property rise, Avella expressed a commonplace: “The system is geared to development.”
Avella and Gratz both bemoaned the seemingly inevitable rezoning of manufacturing districts to residential and the shift to a service economy. “The reason we don’t have planning from the bottom up is it’ll take away power from the people at the top,” Avella said. “We let the real estate industry do the planning.”
Posted by lumi at 9:40 AM
EDIBLE BROOKLYN: NICE ISSUE
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn mentions that Dan Zanes is featured in the new issue of Edible Brooklyn (Download PDF of the Zanes article). Zanes is a Brooklyn-based Grammy-winning musician and member of the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Advisory Board.
I loved the piece by Dan Zanes about the contents of his refrigerator...
Find out what Dan says about the Food Coop (he LOVES it but is no longer a member), where he shops now (Fairway), and his affection for Brooklyn (despite the Atlantic Yards problem).
So what does Zanes say about Brooklyn and Atlantic Yards?
The thing that I love about Brooklyn is also the thing that drives me crazy about it. We have so much progressive thinking, but not at the upper leadership level. Look at Atlantic Yards.
Posted by lumi at 9:08 AM
Top lobbyists all have strong ties to state Assembly majority
AP, via NY Newsday
By Marc Humbert
One of last week's big stories (in every paper but The NY Times*) was the record-breaking year for lobbyists in NY State. Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner topped the chart for the largest single contract and came in a respectable third overall, just behind telecommunications giant Verizon.
But what does $2.1 million buy you in Albany and City Hall and how does it work?
NY Newsday explains:
The three top lobbying firms working the halls of New York's state Capitol have something in common other than making tons of money _ their chief operatives each have strong ties to the state Assembly's Democratic majority.
* Nothing seems to start the week off right like a dig at The New York Times. It's almost too easy.
Posted by lumi at 8:41 AM
Summit still not started
A year behind first proposed groundbreaking, retail project still wading through DEP process.
The [Pennsylvania] Express-Times
By Kristen Ziegler
Authorities are being prudent with the environmental review of one of Forest City's projects in Pennsylvania:
BETHLEHEM TWP. | Environmental review has delayed construction of The Summit Lehigh Valley, a 500-acre "town center" complex that developers wanted to open this year.
The developers, Forest City Commercial Group and Bayer Properties, planned 100 stores and restaurants at Route 33 and Freemansburg Avenue in the first phase of construction. A 20-screen Muvico Theatre was scheduled to break ground in spring 2006, but the entire site has remained virtually untouched.
...
DEP spokesman Mark Carmon said... the environmental review, which studies air and water pollution, could present a larger hurdle, particularly if the project disrupts a higher water quality waterway.The Lehigh River borders the south end of the property.
While Carmon provided details of the environmental process, he could not predict whether The Summit Lehigh Valley developers would break ground this year.
And wouldn't you know it, the Cleveland cousins are just as tight-lipped as their more controversial Brooklyn kin:
Robert J. McGurck of Forest City Commercial Group did not return phone or e-mail messages seeking comment last week.
Summit Lehigh Valley spokeswoman Leslie Resnik referred calls to Brian J. Ratner, Forest City Commercial Group president of East Coast development, and Mark G. Bulmash, Forest City Commercial Group senior vice president of East Coast development.
Neither Ratner nor Bulmash returned calls seeking comment last week.
NoLandGrab: For the record, Atlantic Yards is practically three years behind the original date of Bruce Ratner's planned groundbreaking.
Posted by lumi at 8:23 AM
Cavalcade of homeowner holdouts
boingboing
A couple of weeks ago I posted a couple of entries about people who refused to give up their homes to new development and ended up being surround by a parking lot, freeway, or airport. Many readers offered stories of other holdouts. Here they are.
Here's a long interview with 40-year-old Mrs Wuping, the owner of the "nail house" (called that because it sticks out of the pit around it like a nail).
Wuping: until present I haven’t received a single bit of monetary compensation or a resettlement. According to the pertinent regulations, at the minimum they have to give us temporary housing, and you’ve seen in the picture there aren’t any, we can’t even get up to the building. This absolutely is the government and businessmen working together; there is nothing we can do. Jiulong Hills is completely managed by the district party committee and government. At the hearing yesterday I cited several laws and regulations, all are explicit, the city cannot force people to leave their homes for demolition.
More "holdouts," or "hanger-oners," here.
Posted by lumi at 8:06 AM
EDC Document Undermined by Local Reporter's Poetry
Daily Gotham
Wouldn't you know it — in order to produce a study that concludes that two houses on Duffield St. in Downtown Brooklyn have no historical ties to the abolitionist movement, AKRF (yup, the same company that produced Bruce Ratner's Environmental Impact Statement for Atlantic Yards) had to leave stuff out.
Previously, AKRF produced a flawed study, in which they outright lied, and they got caught. But practice makes perfect, so they did it again, this time omitting and glossing over critical information. Now time is running out for the Duffield St. houses that are under threat of eminent domain in order to make way for a parking lot (cue Joni Mitchell).
Click here to read about what critical evidence AKRF left out this time, evidence buried in the study that contradicts its own conclusions, the differences and similarities to Atlantic Yards and what comes next.
Posted by lumi at 7:32 AM
March 25, 2007
Sunday Comix
By Malcolm Armstrong
Posted by steve at 9:08 AM
Bonus Sunday Comix
From Brooklyn Papers
Posted by steve at 9:04 AM
Inconsistent silence: the Times editorial page forgets Atlantic Yards subsidies
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder points out how The New York Times has stated that public subsidies are unnecessary for Atlantic Yards, but doggedly keeps silent even as the City has doubled its subsidy to $205 million.
AYR also wonders how The Times manages to remain silent over the issue of the demolition the Ward Bakery.
Posted by steve at 8:45 AM
How Green Is Demolition?
Brooklyn Views
Jonathan Cohn points out the absurdity of Forest City Ratner's planning to demolish the Ward Bakery while trying for a Leadership in Environmental Design (LEED) certification at the "Certified" level by recycling the remains — which, it turns out, is not so hard to qualify for. More importantly, what's so eco-friendly about leveling a beautiful old building to make way for parking lots?
Oh c’mon. Demolishing this building to make a giant parking lot is as “eco-friendly” as driving a Hummer to the supermarket to buy air-freighted “organic” food.
Posted by steve at 8:31 AM
The Journal News: Controversy dogs Yonkers GOP chairman
A cloud continues to hover over Forest City Ratner's Ridge Hill development, as Yonkers Republican Chairman Zehy Jereis is asked to provide financial disclosure documents to Federal authorities. It doesn't look like they'll see anything right away.
A second subpoena, served last week on the city Board of Ethics, demanded copies of Jereis' financial disclosure forms filed with the city. No documents were turned over, however, because Jereis never filed any. He said he wasn't informed of the requirement.
In another Journal News item, a few Yonkers residents are asked to weigh in on the investigation:
Some Yonkers residents support federal probe into City Hall
There is further clarification as to why financial disclosure requested by the Feds may not be forthcoming:
No documents have been turned over to federal authorities because Jereis never submitted any forms to the city board. Political party chairmen were excused from filing under the new Code of Ethics that took effect in 2006. Jereis became party chairman in 2003.
One of the Yonkers residents hits the nail on the head:
"It's very strange that there's no documents of finances - there's definitely something wrong there..."
Posted by steve at 7:57 AM
Before Bulldozers, the Sound of Purring
New York Times
By Jake Mooney
The folks at Slope Street Cats are in the process of saving 11 feral felines living around the proposed Atlantic Yards site. The Times follows along with the executive director of Slope Street Cats, Laura Brahm, to detail the efforts to round up the last two "holdouts," nicknamed Eleanor Roosevelt and Mamie Eisenhower.
The animals did not take long to appear, edging under a chain-link fence to nibble on a trail of rotisserie chicken and dry cat food leading to the trap. Eleanor Roosevelt stepped under the cage toward a plate of food, but Mamie Eisenhower hung back. Ms. Brahm paused for a moment, decided that one cat was better than none, and yanked the string.
The cats are being moved to a brick shed in a nearby backyard. The article ends with an evocation of childhood delight in having multiple pets.
The woman who owns the shed is a supporter of the project, Ms. Brahm said, and was happy to offer it. “Her son is very excited about the idea of having 10 cats in his backyard,” she added.
NoLandGrab: No mention of how people living on the site under the threat of eminent domain abuse feel about what's going on in their backyard.
Posted by steve at 6:37 AM
March 24, 2007
FCR's Stuckey: the right man for the job, as shown in Times Square saga
Atlantic Yards Report
Forest City Ratner is in a rush to demolish a neighborhood even before court cases preventing Atlantic Yards from moving forward are settled. A key member of the team following this strategy is Jim Stuckey. Mad Overkiller Norman Oder profiles Stuckey.
The key phrase for Mr. Stuckey is: "The ends justify the means".
But Stuckey also has a sensitive side. Note his musical accomplishments:
Stuckey, who's described in his Forest City Ratner biography as "an accomplished musician, capable of playing ten instruments," has a notable set of community involvements. He's served as Vice Chairman of Community Board 2 in Staten Island, and as a Trustee of the Jacques Marquis Center of Tibetan Art, also in Staten Island. (Yes, the point man for the city's densest development lives in New York's least-dense borough.)
NoLandGrab: How many more musical instruments would that be if you had to count all the politicians who have been played so well?
Posted by steve at 8:42 AM
PRESS RELEASE: Brooklyn Eagle Discovers Gaps in Massive EDC Study
Excludes Key Documents Related To Alleged Underground Railroad Homes
BROOKLYN 3/23/07 – The Brooklyn Eagle published today important new information showing that the Economic Development Corportation (EDC) and AKRF failed to do its job in exploring the claims of the historical connection between Duffield Street and the Underground Railroad movement. The homes are slated for destruction by eminent domain as part of the Downtown Brooklyn redevelopment plan.
The EDC released a 500+ page report purporting to the an exhaustive exploration of the history of the Underground Railroad in Downtown Brooklyn, including contacts with the descendents of known Abolitionists who live there such as Paul Truesdell. The EDC report states "To Mr. Truesdell knowledge, there are no family oral traditions related to the Truesdell family's potential involvement in the Underground Railroad." (page S-23)
To quote the Daily Eagle at length (article, subscription required):
Despite records showing that Harriet and Thomas Truesdell, who lived there from 1851 to 1863, had a long history of activism in the abolitionist movement and entertained prominent abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, the study found insufficient documentation proving that they actually helped African-Americans escape slavery.
But AKRF was made aware of documentation that could have been critical in proving that involvement, if it existed, according to Paul E. Truesdell, Jr., the great-grandson of Thomas Truesdell, who was contacted by AKRF for the study.
Paul, a retired chief hospital corpsman for the U.S. Navy living in Japan, told the Eagle, "I do have [Thomas Truesdell's] cash journal which covers the period June 1844 through January 1864.
"I have offered the journal to AKRF," he said, "but have had no response regarding this.
The 12 expert panelists AKRF hired to review its research were not made aware that such documents existed, according to the six who were reached by the Eagle.
"I just can't believe that this document exists. I mean, literally this is the first time that I'm hearing about it," said Cheryl LaRoche, a professor at the University of Maryland who was hired as a peer review panelist because of her extensive research on the Underground Railroad. "To look over that to see if there are any names on it, or what this ledger is, would be extremely important."
"It just seems to indicate that they're hired not to find the truth, despite all the efforts that [AKRF] did put into producing this study," said panelist Jim Driscoll, a researcher for the Queens Historical Society who co-authored "Angels of Deliverance: The Underground Railroad in Queens, Long Island, and Beyond."
The EDC and AKRF, the private firm hired to do the research, was caught lying to the City Council in the summer of 2004. The EDC claimed that there was no historical evidence for the historical connection to the Underground Railroad, citing Christopher Moore of the Schomberg Center, among others. Moore later testified that he had not been consulted, forcing the EDC and AKRF to write another report.
The City Council will examine the issue again at a public hearing on April 11.
Where: City Hall
When: Wednesday April 11, 11am
Who: Landmarks Subcommittee
Posted by lumi at 8:33 AM
Park Slope one-way traffic plan dead? Well, "not moving forward"
Atlantic Yards Report
Is the Department of Transportation's (DOT) plan to convert 6th & 7th Avenues to one-way streets dead, or not dead yet? Norman Oder tries to pin down a DOT official to get a straight answer:
The Brooklyn Paper this week reported:
“We’re listening to the community and not moving ahead with the proposal,” said Department of Transportation (DoT) spokeswoman Kay Sarlin, who had earlier promised that the agency would kill the controversial proposal if “the community” rejected it.
I followed up and asked Sarlin: "Is that any different from following the CB6 transportation committee resolution, which requested that DOT not move forward 'at this time'? In other words, is the plan dead? Or just on hold for revision and discussion? Or?"
Her response: "We're not moving ahead with the plan."
Oder also rounds up the coverage and criticism of the DOT proposal.
Posted by lumi at 8:02 AM
Furor over 1-way on 7th - Residents balk at traffic change
Courier Life Publications
By Gary Buiso
In response to the neighborhood furor over the Department of Transportation's traffic plan, Forest City Ratner summoned their transportation consultant Sam Schwartz to issue the usual denials:
“This has absolutely nothing to do with Forest City Ratner,” Schwartz told this paper.He said the city’s proposal took him by surprise.
“I asked around at Forest City Ratner and it took everybody by surprise.”
“We never contemplated making any change to Sixth or Seventh avenues in Park Slope,” Schwartz said. Ratner’s traffic plan actually calls for Sixth Avenue to be made two-way between Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, where it is currently one-way.
“There is nothing behind the scenes here,” he said.
The DOT has its reasons, but ain't telling you why:
[DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael] Primeggia said several studies have shown that one-way streets have proven to be safer, by eliminating roadway conflicts, “providing more periodic and predictable crossing opportunities and eliminating the possibility of head on collisions.”
He said one-way streets have been proven to improve safety for all users by 20 percent.
The DOT, asked to cite specific studies, did not return with the information at press time.
Posted by steve at 7:58 AM
March 23, 2007
Atlantic Yards work on Dean Street?
Not Another F*cking Blog
spray paint markings on the sidewalk and Dean St appeared over the past couple of days. it looks like they're mapping out the gas and water lines for some upcoming road work.
i'm guessing that this work is related to the preliminary work on the Atlantic Yards development, and some of this work was already started further up Dean St last month. let's hope that they've got their act together since then and that our water or other utilities won't be a casualty.
NoLandGrab: The Empire State Development Corporation, AKRF and Forest City Ratner cited graffiti as a "blight" characteristic, and now they are going around painting MORE graffiti.
Helpful hint-ner: Residents who experience problems with Atlantic Yards-related work have been advised to call the Mayor's helpline — that's "3-1-1."
Posted by lumi at 3:21 PM
In defense of Glenmore Avenue
In his weekly column, Brooklyn Paper editor Gersh Kuntzman takes "a swing at" "fellow Park Slopers" for being dreadful hosts at last week's Community Board Six meeting, giving concerned residents hell by calling 'em "closed-minded, anti-intellectual whiners!"
In defense of fellow Brooklynite and DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia, Kuntzman cited the Cobble Hill resident's claim that "statistics [which] show that a 1998 (boo!) conversion of then-two-way Glenmore Avenue in East New York (boo!) resulted in 16 percent fewer total accidents and 22 percent fewer injuries."
If Kuntzman had sent a reporter to East New York, or ventured there himself, he might have figured out the one fact that Primeggia didn't share, that Glenmore Avenue:
* starts off life as a one-way street running westbound for one block,
* then reverts to eastbound for 12 blocks,
* until it switches to one-way westbound for 27 blocks,
* only to finish off its run going eastbound for the last 16 blocks.
If you don't have access to a car or bike, you can check it out at Mapquest.
What we have here is a classic traffic-calming measure. Either Primeggia didn't understand this or didn't think anyone would bother to check (credit for checking goes to Brooklyn Views blogger, "J. Co"). There are a whole host of additional traffic-calming measures (like turning one-way streets into two-way streets) that residential neighborhoods in Brooklyn have been clamouring for (Third Ave, for instance).
Kuntzman also mentions that "Primeggia also cited a Federal (boo!) Highway (boo!) Administration report that concluded that one-way streets (boo!) are safer (boo!) for pedestrians." We're not sure if Kuntzman set eyes on this mysterious Federal study, because there are a whole host of studies that indicate otherwise. Links for actual studies were posted by Aaron Naparstek over at StreetsBlog.
All "closed-minded, anti-intellectual whiners" (boo!?) want is for the DOT to stop patronizing them and make traffic better, not faster.
Posted by lumi at 2:21 PM
Ohio, China...Brooklyn?
So what do Ohio, China and Brooklyn have in common?
Develop Don't Destroy explains:
Norwood Ohio, where 3 homeowners eventually won their eminent domain lawsuit in Ohio's Supreme Court, after the developer had demolished every structure around them. When they won their suit, the developer had no Plan B and walked away.
...
That's the Ohio example that we should all be dead set on avoiding.
Will Ratner be allowed to follow this example from China (where apparently the state has been unwilling to seize this private property to benefit a private developer)?
...
An update on the Chongqing villa comes today: A Chinese court has allowed the demolition of the property, on what grounds, we do not know.
Posted by lumi at 2:00 PM
Neighbors vow they will swat B’ball City
The Villager
Go figure... this from news that the community is troubled by Basketball City's new plans:
Bruce Radler, Basketball City’s president, spoke very little during the meeting last week, leaving the presentation to a group including his lawyer, a representative of the city Economic Development Corporation, the building architect and the landscape architect.
Here's the real coinkydink: Radler's Basketball City has partnered with Ratner's Nets to run free basketball clinics in Brooklyn (link).
Advice for Radler: Sign an "historic" "community" "benefits" agreement with anyone who doesn't flat-out oppose your plans!
Posted by lumi at 1:42 PM
It came from the Blogosphere...
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, ANGER AT PARK SLOPER'S SHORT SIGHTEDNESS
OTBKB links the letter to The Brooklyn Paper from Sloper Rob Underwood along with this note:
Here's one Park Slopers response to the recent One Way No Way controversy. I was just waiting for charges of NIMBYism (NOT IN MY BACK YARD). Yes, it's true. Most Park Slopers stood on the sidelines for the Atlantic Yards debate.
The Gowanus Lounge, Ratner to Recycle Ward's Bakery!
Just when we thought the Atlantic Yards Well of Irony had run dry, along comes the attempt to spin the impending demolition of the old Ward's Bakery in Prospect Heights that preservationists have been trying to spare from the wrecking ball. The building sits in the Atlantic Yards footprint. Yesterday, Forest City announced that it was going to start demolition on Monday. Its Press Release boasted that "Over 75% of Building to be Recycled as Part of LEED Certification."
Historic Districts Council Newsstand, Historic Ward Bakery Building To Be Demolished For Parking
The HDC's news blog picked up Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's press release about the Ward Bakery building.
gridskipper, Atlantic Yards Art
After missing "Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood" at a Prospect Heights gallery, I recently learned that the exhibit traveled to nearby Brooklyn Public Library. Fantastic! Except that a portion of the exhibit got kicked out for drunkenness and public disturbance; it stumbled over to nearby Freddy's Bar and Backroom, a dive bar that hosts an art gallery, bands, game nights, readings, and arts and crafts nights.
brooklyn lens, atlantic yards 1
Cool black-and-white photo of Vanderbilt Yards posted on a new photo blog.
The Knickerblogger, Frank Gehry: Novelty Without Skill
We already have plenty of 'souless' architecture here in Brooklyn, courtesy of Bruce Ratner, who now propooses to replace it with 'senseless' architecture designed by Frank Gehry.
...
I can skip the Whitney and go to the Frick if I want, but Gehry's obnoxious, garish funhouse architecture can't be avoided, nor disposed of as easily as a painting. But this just reveals what some of us have known all along, the tastemakers have no taste.....or common sense.
Posted by lumi at 12:42 PM
Interim Atlantic Yards Environmental Monitor in place (and guess who?)
Atlantic Yards Report
This would be funny if Norman Oder were joking:
Residents around the Atlantic Yards footprint have noticed an engineer walking around and an air monitoring station set up. It turns out that, while the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) has yet to hire an Environmental Monitor, as per a Request for Proposals (RFP) issued last month, an interim monitor is in place.
The monitor? AKRF, the consulting company known for producing lengthy environmental impact reports that justify development projects while resisting legal attack.
Posted by lumi at 12:02 PM
Bruce Ratner Prepares to Destroy Ward Bakery
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn just posted a fascinating description of the Ward Bakery building along with their most recent update on the situation:
In 1911, the Ward Baking Company building at 800 Pacific Street was built as a gleaming white example of a modern industrial facility. The founder, George S. Ward, a captain of industry and soon-to-be baseball magnate, brought a team of architects to Europe for inspiration and they designed this building on the long boat ride home.
In a 1921 Ward Bakery Publication called The Story of our Research Products, company writers bragged about their founder, who had “the courage and the pioneer spirit to erect the first sanitary and scientific bakery in America.” The same publication describes the New York factory as “the snow-white temple of bread-making cleanliness.”
With four acres of area divided between its six floors and basement, this factory employed hundreds of New Yorkers. And with its capacity to turn out 250,000 loaves per day, it fed hundreds of thousands.
Posted by lumi at 11:45 AM
Bulldozers for Ward's Bakery
Brownstoner
In a press release yesterday, the visigoths at FCR announced that 800 Pacific Street, aka Ward's Bakery, had less than 100 hours to live. One of the most architecturally significant — and most easily adaptable — buildings in the Atlantic Yards footprint, Ward's Bakery didn't make the cut with LPC (politics, anyone?). Trying to save a little face with the preservationists and environmentalists, FCR announced that it would be recycling 75 percent of the demolished building materials.
Posted by lumi at 11:15 AM
FCR announces plans to demolish Ward Bakery
Brooklyn Speaks posted Forest City Ratner's press release concerning the demolition of the Ward Bakery building along with this statement:
Note that while FCR is claiming their demolition strategy is "sustainable", the greenest buildings are those that are already built, and a truly sustainable strategy would reuse the Ward Bakery and other historic buildings in the footprint. And there is nothing sustainable about demolishing buildings to create enormous parking lots that will generate traffic and blight the surrounding neighborhoods.
Posted by lumi at 10:50 AM
Desktop Day: Ward Bakery, Atlantic Yards
Brit in Brooklyn
It's "Desktop Day" on BIB and Adrian Kinloch is giving away a detail of the Ward Bakery Building.
If you want to understand why preservationists are going gray over the thought of losing this building, check out Kinloch's post showing details of the white-glazed terra cotta facade. Down to the crackling of the glaze, they don't make buildings like this anymore.
Posted by lumi at 10:21 AM
Forest City embraces historic preservation, but not in Brooklyn
Atlantic Yards Report article on possible adaptive reuse of the Ward Bakery building is a must-read. So check out the blurb if you only have a moment, but surf on over to Norman Oder's site (link) when you get a chance.
The first curious thing about yesterday’s announcement that Forest City Ratner would demolish the Ward Bread Bakery (right), a nearly century-old set of interconnected brick and terracotta-clad buildings beloved by preservationists, is: why now?
The towers planned for the block between Pacific and Dean streets and Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues wouldn’t be built for seven or eight years at the earliest, and likely much longer. Phase 2 of the Atlantic Yards project, which would deliver all the promised open space, isn’t supposed to start until after 2010, and that block would come last. Moreover, the promised ten-year build-out could take 15 or 20 years.
Norman Oder speculates on the reasons why Forest City Ratner feels compelled to demolish the historic building and explains why this move goes against the grain of Forest City Enterprise's corporate mythology:
The second curious thing is that the developer, and especially its parent company, truly embraces historic preservation as a strategy—just not here. Compare the photo of FCE's River Lofts project in Richmond, VA (right) with the view of Pacific Street east of Carlton Avenue (below), with Ward Bakery in background. The Atlantic Yards project would involve not only the demolition of the yet-unrenovated bakery, but the demolition of two other former industrial buildings already renovated into condos, and another partially renovated for office space--the yellow building in the photo. (Former owner Shaya Boymelgreen once saw the "blighted" Ward Bakery as a potential hotel.)
...
During the National Trust for Historic Preservation's National Preservation Conference in 2002, FCE was the principal sponsor, and keynote speaker Ronald Ratner, president and CEO of Forest City's Residential Group, made a strong case for incorporating buildings like those on Pacific Street into the company's projects."We need to think more about the adaptive re-use opportunities,” Ratner declared. “That's how we can balance historic preservation and economic reality." He cited the importance of looking at the urban fabric: "We cannot focus on a single building. There is a much broader context of neighborhood, district, city and region. No matter how skillfully done, a building must be part of a vibrant urban fabric if it is to maintain its value and provide a return on financial and civic investment.”
...
Forest City has done adaptive re-use residential projects in Philadelphia, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Providence, and Richmond, for a total of 1673 units at eight properties, and converted “train stations, mills, warehouses and other historic buildings into upscale, mixed-use complexes.” In Times Square, the developer moved the landmark Empire Theatre 168 feet down the street to house the lobby of the new AMC Theatres.
But no worries, Forest City Ratner proposes "archival documentation of the buildings," so if you get to missing the majestic white elephant, there will be a DVD somewhere that will tell its story.
Posted by lumi at 9:00 AM
Mayor urges Yonkers GOP chief to resign
Here's the latest from Yonkers where the mayor has called on the offical named in the second subpoena to resign.
Here is all they know for certain:
Speculation remains rampant over the ultimate focus of the federal investigation, with Jereis and the council's handling of Ridge Hill Village as the only clues thus far.
The project, now scheduled for groundbreaking this year, has resulted in citizen opposition and two lawsuits.
One stemmed from a move to rezone the 81-acre property to allow construction of the massive residential-retail development.
The rezoning was ultimately approved last year when Democratic Councilwoman Sandy Annabi changed her opposition and cast the deciding vote in favor.
Annabi would not discuss the probe yesterday and she would not comment on the controversy surrounding Jereis, who is a distant cousin.