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March 1, 2012
Window Into Developer’s Relentless Quest to Get a Yonkers Project Approved
The New York Times
by Benjamin Weiser
Testimony and e-mails introduced as evidence have offered an unvarnished look at how [Forest City Ratner] carried out a relentless behind-the-scenes quest to get the project approved.
Well-connected politicos were hired as consultants. Public officials were asked to apply pressure. Meetings occurred at Jake’s Steakhouse and Madison’s in the Bronx. In one episode, a Forest City executive had to kick Mr. Bender under the table because a third executive had gotten too confrontational.
Mr. Bender, 55, a Brooklyn-born government relations executive, led the effort. Variously described as incisive and charming, cutthroat and bullying, Mr. Bender has spent a career in Democratic politics. He was also at the forefront of Forest City’s Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn.
In the Yonkers project, Mike Spano, now the city’s mayor, was one of the influential consultants that Forest City Ratner used to lobby City Council members. Another was Albert J. Pirro Jr., a Westchester County power broker who was then married to Jeanine F. Pirro, then the county’s district attorney.
Ms. Annabi’s lawyer, William I. Aronwald, suggested during cross-examination of one witness that Mr. Pirro had been paid $1 million for his efforts.
Mr. Spano testified last week about Mr. Bender’s brusque e-mail in 2005: “He was really being pushy, really being persistent, wanting to know every second that he possibly could — ‘What are you doing to try and get a positive outcome for the project?’”
...A Forest City spokesman, Joseph DePlasco, said on Wednesday that critics had focused unfairly on the developer’s role. “This is really about a company trying with great difficulty to navigate the byzantine maze of politics in Yonkers,” he said.
NoLandGrab: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Posted by eric at March 1, 2012 10:18 AM