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March 28, 2008
Atlantic Yards Stalled, But Arena Remains Goal
Brooklyn Downtown Star
by Norman Oder
Here's a comprehensive overview of the fallout from the front-page Atlantic Yards article that appeared a week ago in The New York Times, and the State Funding Agreement for the project, released, also one week ago, by the Empire State Development Corporation. The agreement had been signed in September but not released to the public.
For months, Atlantic Yards opponents and critics had suggested that developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) over-promised plans for the arena-plus-16-towers project, citing, for example, a statement last year by an executive from parent Forest City Enterprises that the project would take 15 years rather than the officially announced decade.
Last Friday, in a front-page article in the New York Times, CEO Bruce Ratner acknowledged that the project was stalled, citing a slowed economy and legal challenges, though he wouldn't predict completion dates. Even the flagship tower known as Miss Brooklyn is on hold, as the developer takes the unusual step of essentially cold-calling office tenants with a letter signed by architect Frank Gehry. Now the arena at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, without any of the other four towers in which it would be nestled, has become the developer's priority, with a stated - if questionable - opening date of 2010.
On Monday, more details emerged, as the blog Atlantic Yards Report (written by this journalist) revealed that a State Funding Agreement signed last September by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) gives FCR up to six years after the close of litigation and the exercise of eminent domain to build the arena, 12 years to build the five towers of Phase 1, and an unspecified time to build the additional eleven towers.
This, said project opponents Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), was "bait-and-switch," given that the ESDC, when approving the project in December 2006, endorsed a plan that "anticipated" project completion in a decade.
After reviewing reaction from Atlantic Yards opponents and supporters, Oder looks ahead to what might come next:
On Friday, after the Times article was published, a State Funding Agreement, divided into 37 parts, surfaced on ESDC's web site. Beyond the seemingly flexible timetable, the document suggested that, should the project be abandoned, the city might pursue a plan that would bring 1,845 units of housing, 646 of them affordable, and two acres of open space, as opposed to 6,430 units, 2,250 of them affordable, and eight acres of open space. (The document also makes reference to a City Funding Agreement that has not yet been made public.)
In other words, Atlantic Yards might result in a much smaller project built with or by other developers. Alternatively, some suggested, Ratner's announcement Friday sets the stage to negotiate for additional subsidies to build the housing. Either way, FCR's history, as with the MetroTech office complex in Downtown Brooklyn, is apparently to build projects at a pace compatible with the market rather than any announced timetable.
Posted by steve at March 28, 2008 5:49 AM