« No hint of Phase 2, Site 5, or future Gehry role; also, has promised open space been cut from eight acres to six? | Main | Two reasons Ratner's arena switch is fishy: construction costs down and Gehry design impossible; are other costs being off-loaded? »
June 8, 2009
So, Daniel, how was YOUR weekend?
The Brooklyn Paper
By Gersh Kuntzman
When you're "Atlantic Yards most dogged critic," the price of admission to developer Forest City Enterprises's annual stockholder's meeting in Cleveland is just a few shares.
Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, went to Cleveland on Friday to confront development company officials on why their project should be abandoned.
As one might expect, company officials were not persuaded.
Goldstein listed a litany of recent problems with the project, followed by a question:
“You don’t own the land you need or have the financing you need to construct the arena or the rest of the project. Yet you claim you will finance it, break ground this year and open the arena in 2011, which is already an impossibility. This means the losses from keeping the team in Meadowlands will continue to mount. “You also have a looming end-of-year IRS deadline to issue the tax-exempt arena bond, and missing the deadline would cost Forest City an estimated $150–190 million, likely spelling doom for the project.
“Given all of these challenges, can you let the Forest City Enterprises shareholders know [the] contingency plans if and when you don’t break ground in 2009 and can’t open the arena in Brooklyn in 2011?”
The answer came from Forest City Enterprises Co-chairman Al Ratner:
“The company does believe that it will start the project during this year,” he said, declining further comment because, he said, of ongoing litigation.
Posted by lumi at June 8, 2009 6:28 AM