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December 26, 2009

2009 The Year in Review

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

May

Bruce Ratner celebrates the topping off of his first residential building in Brooklyn, with fanfare. It is a 34-story, 360-foot-tall, 335,000-square-foot rental tower with metal and glass facade at 80 DeKalb Ave. in Fort Greene, which includes affordable units.

September

Three months after the leak of an unofficial, preliminary “hangar”-type design for Bruce Ratner’s Barclays Arena disappointed many, the firm releases a new design for the 675,000-square-foot arena that was hailed as an architectural step forward. According to the Associated Press, the price for the project is $800 million, reduced from an earlier estimate of $1 billion.

October

The Court of Appeals hears oral arguments on the constitutionality of using eminent domain to seize land at Atlantic Yards so that Bruce Ratner can build a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets. Eagle reporter Samuel Newhouse travels to Albany on bus rented by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn to cover the case.

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Posted by steve at December 26, 2009 6:55 AM