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March 16, 2007
News Analysis: Great Timing, Cuz!
Downtown Brooklyn Star
Norman Oder reviews the Forest City timeline gaffe, where someone got it wrong and the public is expected to believe that it wasn't the Brooklyn division of the national development company.
When the Atlantic Yards project was announced in December 2003, construction was to begin in 2004, the Brooklyn arena was expected to open in the fall of 2006, and the 17-building project completed after ten years. Last year, when the project was approved, developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) said the arena would open in the fall of 2009 and the project finished by 2016.
Not so fast.
Speaking to real estate investment analysts in Florida last week, Chuck Ratner, CEO of parent Forest City Enterprises (FCE), said that the arena would open for the 2010-11 season and the project would take 15 years - and even that was questionable, given that the company is "terrible" at predictions.
After the news surfaced, first in this writer's Atlantic Yards Report blog, the developer backpedaled, issuing a statement to the daily Metro, insisting that the 15-year buildout "was referring to the total time, from the idea or conception of the development to completion of the final building" and that actual construction would take ten years.
NoLandGrab: We're pretty slow here, but we just realized that Forest City's incredible explanation would place the conception of the Atlantic Yards project around 2001, thus making the case that Bruce Ratner's plan was a backroom deal intended to favor a predetermined "interested party."
Posted by lumi at March 16, 2007 9:39 AM