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October 29, 2011
Forest City: dropping Mill Basin project had nothing to do with corruption probe
Atlantic Yards Report
The Wall Street Journal today follows up on news (as I and others reported yesterday) that Forest City Ratner's Four Sparrows Marsh Retail Center at Mill Basin has been withdrawn, explaining that it's actually dead, but--according to the developer--the Carl Kruger corruption charges have nothing to do with it.
In Plans Killed for Project Tied to Probe, the newspaper reports:
The shopping center had ties to a corruption case involving Mr. Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat, but Forest City officials said that case had no connection to their decision to drop the project.
The builder believed the shopping center faced an uphill battle on two fronts, according to a person familiar with the matter: Forest City was worried about political opposition to the big-box retailers planned for the site, and the developer wanted to avoid an expected lengthy legal battle over turning city park land into commercial space.
Well, Atlantic Yards faced a battle, if not an uphill one, but Forest City Ratner deemed it worth it. There's always a cost-benefit analysis, and I'd bet that the corruption case was another factor in Forest City's analysis of Four Sparrows.
Posted by steve at October 29, 2011 3:33 PM