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December 6, 2007
Maestro Bruce Ratner plays real estate spectators like a violin
Ever since NYC real estate became a spectator sport, and especially since blogs came on the scene to feed the beast, Bruce Ratner has been playing the crowd like a violin. By leaking sneak peeks of projects and then repeatedly telling folks that the renderings are "out of date" and are still being "finalized," the mega-developer has succeeded in creating more buzz than one would think possible.
Take the Beekman St. project — an entire series of renderings of the downtown skyscraper was released, enough to get the fanatics at Curbed.com drooling for months. Then the site was prepped, the crane arrived, and STILL NO RENDERINGS!!!
Now the Renzo Piano-designed City Tech tower has the Brooklyn blogosphere (including NoLandGrab) and local press rabidly trading links and tipping their hats to one another — meanwhile, all of the leaked renderings are out of date? Puh-leeze, it's Beekman Street Redux and we're all buying into it. Ratner is chumming the waters again, and why not — it worked so well the first time.
Sorry if we seem a little cynical here at NoLandGrab, but we're still sitting around trying to find something nice to say about Atlantic Yards other than, "high rises make great arena bollards!"
Posted by lumi at December 6, 2007 5:09 AM