« New Delays Hit Mixed-Use Sector as Credit Crunch Continues | Main | U.S. Supreme Court should consider case from Brooklyn »
April 3, 2008
Group Files Petition Against $4B Atlantic Yards
GlobeSt.com
By Natalie Dolce
A story about the petition filed this week by property owners and renters fighting to save their homes and businesses from eminent domain seizure in the footprint of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project contains two curious points:
Although Forest City Ratner, developer of the $4-billion Atlantic Yards project tells GlobeSt.com that they have no formal comment at this time as far as a response to this particular petition, they did note that the company has won 18 consecutive court decisions." A spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that "when we started we owned 0% of the condos and co-ops and 35% of the rental units. Currently we own 89% of the land needed to complete the project, including 93% of the condos and co-ops--64 of 69--81% of the rental units--83 of 102."
NoLandGrab: Considering the developer's consistently strained relationship with the truth, the first point deserves some fact checking. We're pretty sure that there haven't been 18 court decisions handed down, in total. If Forest City Ratner is counting motions, the company definitely hasn't won them all.
Also, the Forest City Ratner spokesperson is suffering complete amnesia when it comes to Henry Weinstein's big courtroom victory, in which a state judge ruled that Forest City had unlawfully sublet Weinstein's Pacific St. property, upending the claim that the company "controlled" the land... which leads us to wonder about the veracity of figures presented above, and of their relevance, since the developer needs to control 100% of the property in order to build.
Posted by lumi at April 3, 2008 5:06 AM