« Correcting a misleading Daily News photo/caption regarding condemnation | Main | New condos, Oro and Toren, rise in downtown Brooklyn »
March 4, 2010
It came from the Witt-o-sphere...
Courier-Life reporter Stephen Witt, who has what could be called the "Forest City Ratner beat," has been busy this week.
Barclays Center to do official groundbreaking
Court decision kicks off Atlantic Yards project
With the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Barclays Center arena set for March 11, the ducks finally seem to be lining up in a row for developer Forest City Ratner.
The ceremony was quickly set last week following State Supreme Court Judge Abraham G. Gerges’ final approval ruling for the state’s planned seizure of property to make way for the $4-plus billion Atlantic Yards project.
...On the flip side of the condemnation, the Atlantic Yards project comes at a time when the city has seen little major development come to fruition in recent years. The Freedom Tower, for example, remains stalled, and unemployment is over 10 percent.
NoLandGrab: "Little major redevelopment?" Witt needs to get out more. Someone returning to Brooklyn after a several-year absence would hardly recognize the place for all the new buildings populating places like Greenpoint-Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn and 4th Avenue — many of them empty or only partially filled.
AY starts off an economic boom for Brooklyn contractors
Unanswered questions remain regarding affordable housing
With the Barclays Center arena and the Atlantic Yards project officially underway, all the parties to the Community Benefits Agreement say they expect the agreement to be honored.
...New York ACORN founder and current staff person for NYCC John Kest said it hasn’t been determined yet if the new organization will replace ACORN to facilitate the affordable housing.
“The board will be meeting at some point in the next month and will come to a conclusion on whether it will join the CBA,” said Kest.
FCR spokesperson Joe DePlasco said the company remains 100 percent committed to the CBA.
NLG: To Witt, the "unanswered questions" about the promised affordable housing is who'll be administering it. For most of the rest of us, the question is whether or not any of it will ever actually be built.
City to move nearly 500 workers to Downtown Brooklyn
Parasitical developer Bruce Ratner is getting another public host on which to feed.
The Department of City Planning (DCP) recently approved the Bloomberg administration’s plan to move about 460 Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) employees to the MetroTech Campus.
Under the plan, the city will lease 85,000 square feet at the 10-story 2 MetroTech building.
...Both Forest City Ratner and the city refused comment on the move as the deal remains under negotiation.
NLG: "Negotiations" between Forest City Ratner and the city somehow always seem to favor the former at the expense of the taxpayers.
Posted by eric at March 4, 2010 12:33 PM