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June 24, 2009
Even sweeter deals for developer of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards project
NY Daily News
By Jotham Sederstrom and Erin Durkin
It's been a sweet week for Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner.
State officials Tuesday rubber-stamped a plan for the controversial Brooklyn project, giving Ratner an extra three years to complete the job.
Earlier in the week, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled an agreement giving Ratner 21 years to pay for the Vanderbilt Railyards, where he plans to build an arena for the New Jersey Nets and 16 office and residential towers.
The revised plan calls for the 22-acre project to be completed by 2019 - not 2016 as originally scheduled. The new plan also costs $4.9 billion, up from $4.2 billion.
Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco said Ratner was "confident" he can meet the new schedule, and again vowed to break ground this fall.
One state official acknowledged the time line could not be guaranteed.
"Meeting that schedule is going to require the cooperation of the [financial] markets," said Empire State Development Corp. counsel Steven Matlin.
Bergen Record, Atlantic Yards project closer to final approval
Joe DiPlasco, a spokesman for Forest City Ratner, said that the recently leaked “barn-like” revised renderings of the Barclays Center basketball arena “do not represent the arena design.” The revised design — in the wake of the departure of star architect Frank Gehry — are expected to be made public later this summer.
That frustrates Daniel Goldstein, who may lose his condominium in the arena footprint to eminent domain proceedings.
“The project appears to have no clothes,” Goldstein told the board. “When you approved [the original plan] three years ago, there were grand designs all over the room of the arena and the rest of the project. I don’t see any here today, yet you are about to approve a modified plan when no one even knows what it looks like.”
EmpireStateNews.net, ESDC Board approves over $16 million in grants
NJ.com, New Jersey Nets' Atlantic Yards project takes another step toward final approval
Posted by lumi at June 24, 2009 5:58 AM