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August 21, 2008
Forest City in the News
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Career Opportunities Fair Held in Coney Island
An article about a job fair in Coney Island cites Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner's experience trying to hire from the local job pool for its MetroTech complex.
When Forest City started to build the MetroTech complex, it discovered to its regret that the skills level of most of the unemployed who sought jobs did not match what was required.
This lesson was remembered when the company started working on the large Atlantic Yards development. It has subsequently hosted a series of job training workshops to mitigate that reality.
NoLandGrab: Since Atlantic Yards is sputtering along, what's to stop Forest City Ratner from redoubling its job-training efforts at MetroTech?
The Herald-News, Update: New Lenox mega-mall plan in trouble
Forest City's plans to build a mixed-use "lifestlye mall" in Illinois has hit another snag:
The Birches, a 1.1 million-square-foot lifestyle mall planned for the intersection of Cedar Road and U.S. 6, may not proceed as planned.
Developer Forest City has been negotiating for several months to renew an option to buy the 187 acres needed for the commercial project. But those talks recently broke down.
“It was not a question of money, it was a question of time,” said Jerry Ferstman, the company’s vice president of commercial development.
The land owner wanted a quicker resolution to the deal, but with the economy being what it is, Forest City was looking for more time, Ferstman explained. The company had recently pushed plans for a ground breaking for the project from 2009 to 2010.
NoLandGrab: Why not use eminent domain? Forest City has had no problem wielding that governmental power for past projects.
Posted by lumi at August 21, 2008 3:28 AM