August 6, 2008
Nets in ’11?
The Brooklyn Paper
by Mike McLaughlin
Bruce Ratner has pushed back the New Jersey Nets’ move to Brooklyn again — now saying that the basketball team he owns might not play its first game in an Atlantic Yards arena until the 2011–2012 season.
If that turns out to be true, it means the Nets would relocate five years later than originally promised by the developer when Atlantic Yards was unveiled in 2003.
Ratner told investors at the annual Forest City Ratner Companies meeting in Cleveland in June that construction on the Barclays Center, at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, would begin in January 2009, according to the Atlantic Yards Report, an invaluable Web site.
Posted by eric at 12:08 PM
Forest City, CBRE Feeling Effects of Wobbly Economy
The NY Observer
by Dana Rubinstein
In the worsening economic downturn, some real estate investment trusts and brokerages are showing signs of weakness.
On Jan. 2, stocks of Forest City Ratner parent Forest City Enterprises traded at $43.62 a share. On Aug. 4, they traded for nearly half the price, at $25.60.
Posted by eric at 8:29 AM
Building a Technology Park in Baltimore by Rehabilitating a Neighborhood
The NY Times
By Eugene L. Meyer
From the newspaper that has never seen a Forest City project it didn't like, today The New York Times ran a fairly uncritical story about how the development company and Johns Hopkins Hospital "have joined forces to demolish a neighborhood to save it." [No joke!]
Though the article contained this disclosure, "One of its affiliates, Forest City Ratner, was the development partner for the new Manhattan headquarters of The New York Times Company," it doesn't mention that the Times Company and Forest City Ratner (FCR) now co-own the building.
Also absent from the article is any mention of "eminent domain," a controversial component of the plan to build The Times's headquarters and FCR's Atlantic Yards project. Instead, The Times dances around the topic:
To accumulate land for the site, the city, state and Johns Hopkins in 2003 created East Baltimore Development Inc. to acquire buildings, tear them down, and then sell the land to developers.
[Read: In order to acquire enough land, the government and Johns Hopkins created a public-private corporation empowered with the use of eminent domain to force people to sell their homes and/or businesses.]
Check out the rest of the article, which cheerily ends with a quote from a Forest City executive: "Hopefully, this is the last time we’ll have to demolish a neighborhood in order to save it.... It’s a real opportunity to create a new model of inclusive city rebuilding."
Posted by lumi at 5:11 AM
Partnership expected to recommend location for convention center, medical mart
Cleveland Plain Dealer
By Sarah Hollander
CIeveland is about to strike a deal with Forest City Enterprises for a new convention center to be built on land owned by and next to other holdings of the development company, because everyone knows that building another convention center will really pay off for taxpayers in the long run.
Business leaders appear to be cobbling together alternative financing to help make a new riverfront convention center and medical mart possible.
The Greater Cleveland Partnership, the region's largest chamber of commerce, expects to recommend a location to Cuyahoga County commissioners Thursday.
Commissioner Tim Hagan said he heard that the partnership's site selection committee favors a riverfront center behind Tower City [owned by Forest City Enterprises]. This option appears to be much cheaper than the other top contender -- a renovation and expansion at the current Lakeside Avenue location.
...
The report to commissioners is likely to include various financing options for the top choice."We wouldn't make a recommendation to build something without making a recommendation about how to pay for it," Nance said. He wouldn't elaborate.
Cleveland owns the current convention center. But to expand nearby, the county is likely to need to buy private property -- including an office building and parking garage.
Forest City Enterprises owns the riverfront land and would sell its property to the county. The company wouldn't comment on a possible asking price, but has agreed to lease 200,000 square feet in the old Higbee Building for a connected medical mart for $1 year, not including renovation costs.
Sam Miller, Forest City co-chairman, said he wants to strike a deal that's good for both the community and the company.
NoLandGrab: A convention center adjacent to Forest City's Tower City complex might shore up business for the existing project, which critics have called a boondoggle.
Posted by lumi at 4:48 AM
August 5, 2008
Forest City in the News
wkyc.com, Panel: Tower City Convention Center/Medical Mart site is cheaper
CLEVELAND -- A Medical Mart and Convention Center built behind Tower City and in the old Higbee building is significantly cheaper than at the present convention center site.
That's what a panel evaluating and crunching the numbers is expected to tell Cuyahoga County Commissioners.
Forest City downsized and made over its proposal in recent weeks. The revised cost is about $460 million. The lower figure makes it the panel's recommended location.
The cost to put the project at the present Convention Center location is far in excess of $500 million, topping out at between $560 million and $610 million.
CnewsPubs.com, Tenant list grows for Shops at Wiregrass
WESLEY CHAPEL — When the Shops at Wiregrass opens Oct. 30, customers may start at The Walking Company, mosey over to Champs Sports, saunter into Bath & Body Works and stop at the Finish Line.
After having done so, customers will still have more than 40 other choice shopping or dining destinations to visit in the 800,000-square-foot lifestyle center being developed at the intersection of State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard (County Road 581).
Banana Republic, Williams-Sonoma, Sephora and the Children’s Place are among the newest tenants announced Tuesday, July 29 by Forest City Enterprises. Forest City Enterprises, based in Cleveland, and The Goodman Co., based in West Palm Beach, are developing the Shops at Wiregrass.
Gazette.net, Konterra project proceeds near Laurel
Konterra Town Center East, a proposed $3 billion mixed-use development just outside the Laurel city limits, is one step closer to reality after the Prince George’s County Planning Board approved its preliminary site plan last week.
The retail, office and housing development is to be built on a former gravel-mining site.
...
The Gould family, which is developing the site with Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland, has owned 2,200 acres on the eastern side of I-95 for 27 years. Caleb Gould told the Beltsville Civic Association in March that his company, Konterra Realty, has spent the past two-plus decades reclaiming the property, formerly the Contee Sand and Gravel site.
Mutual Fund Facts About Individual Stocks, Forest City Enterprises Inc (FCYA.BE) more shares bought by Bank of America Corp
Bank Of America Corp added additional 47,387 (27.43 %) shares of Forest City Enterprises Inc (FCYA.BE), bringing their current holdings to 220,131 shares as shown by filings made public on 2008-08-01.
Posted by lumi at 3:13 AM
August 2, 2008
Construction in Earnest at 80 Dekalb Avenue
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Brownstoner.com reported this week that “construction has kicked into high gear” and the foundation and basement are in for the new residential building at 80 Dekalb Ave. in Fort Greene, a project of Forest City Ratner. The building was described in an earlier Eagle article as a 34-story, 370,000-square-foot tower with 365 rental apartments.
Posted by amy at 9:32 AM
August 1, 2008
Parents of St. Ann's School kids don't want U.S. Probation office as neighbor
NY Daily News
By John Marzulli
Parents of one of NYC's most exclusive private schools are upset at Forest City Ratner and the development company's newest tenant, a Federal Probation Office:
Parents of students at the snooty St. Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights are outraged at the feds for relocating the U.S. Probation office - and its 1,700 convicted offenders on supervised release - to the same high-rise office building where about 100 kids attend classes.
Chief Judge Raymond Dearie was bombarded with questions hurled by angry and fearful parents at a meeting Wednesday night in the federal courthouse.
...
The Probation Department had to find new space after its leases at buildings on Clinton St. and Livingston St. were scheduled to expire this month. The General Services Administration received only one bid - from Forest City Ratner - and signed a 10-year, $3 million lease for 1 Pierrepont. The Federal Defenders office is moving in, too."We were never informed by the landlord or the court who the tenant was going to be," said Larry Weiss, the head of St. Ann's, where tuition is about $25,000 a year.
Posted by lumi at 4:27 AM
July 31, 2008
Double Dutch Gets Status in the Schools
The New York Times
by Winnie Hu
This story grabbed our attention with an eyebrow-raising sentence:
Mr. Goldstein is also negotiating with the developer Forest City Ratner to sponsor the double-dutch teams by providing $10,000 for uniforms, ropes and other equipment.
That would be Eric Goldstein, "who oversees the Public Schools Athletic League, the governing body for the city’s interscholastic sports." Not Daniel Goldstein, who has no interest in taking Forest City Ratner's filthy money.
NoLandGrab: We hope the PSAL is more successful in its "negotiation" with Forest City Ratner than certain other government entities have been.
Posted by eric at 9:32 AM
July 30, 2008
Forest City in the News
mffais.com, Forest City Enterprises Inc (FCYA.BE) more shares bought by California State Teachers Retirement System
California State Teachers Retirement System added additional 7,792 (6.59 %) shares of Forest City Enterprises Inc (FCYA.BE), bringing their current holdings to 126,018 shares as shown by filings made public on 2008-07-28.
Tampa Tribune, Shops At Wiregrass Tenants Unveiled
The developers of the Shops at Wiregrass confirmed on Tuesday a number of tenants for their plaza that's slated to open Oct. 30.
...
The list confirmed Tuesday included: Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Yamato Japanese Steak House, Cantina Laredo and Brass Tap pub and brewery.Also on the list were American Greetings, Aveda, Brown Shoe Closet, Cacique, Christopher & Banks, Hollister, Hot Topic, Juice Zone, Learning Express, Limited Too, Put A Cork In It and Stride Rite.
The developers of the mall, Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises and West Palm Beach-based Goodman Co., are overseeing construction of the eastern leg of State Road 56. The first portion of the $25 million, six-lane road must be finished before the mall can open.
St. Petersburg Times, Tenant list grows at Wiregrass
Three restaurants and 14 home decor, fashion and beauty retailers are joining the tenant roster at the Shops at Wiregrass, developers Forest City Commercial Development and the Goodman Co. announced today.
SouthtownStar.com, Mayor: Loss of Von Maur won't hurt New Lenox mall project
[A] would-be retail anchor store at one of New Lenox's new malls has announced it will instead build a store in Joliet. But New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann isn't drawing any connections or worrying too much about the department store's change of plans.
"It's not tit for tat," he said of Von Maur's announcement last week that it will pull out of the Forest City shopping center at U.S. 6 and Interstate 355 and instead build a new upscale department store about five miles down Interstate 80 at the Bridge Street Town Centre in Joliet.
...
The Forest City project - dubbed The Birches - will have 1.5 million square feet of retail space with three high-end retail anchors, according to the mayor. It's expected to draw shoppers from eastern and northern Will County and the western collar counties, while Joliet's mall will serve western and southern Will County, he said.
Posted by lumi at 4:22 AM
July 29, 2008
Forest City in the News
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Summit meeting today on fate of casino
Last year, Forest City Enterprises participated in one of two losing bids for the Pittsburgh slot-machine casino license. Now that the winning bidder can't get the financing to complete the project, there's a lot of handwringing going on.
Representatives of the two losing bidders for the license Mr. Barden won -- Isle of Capri and Forest City Enterprises -- would not say yesterday whether they would be interested in competing again.
"It's not an issue. It's not a question. There's a license. Someone has it. The board is deciding what to do with it," said Albert Ratner, Forest City co-chairman.
CnewsPubs.com, Shops at Wiregrass: Moe’s, Grillsmith, BJ Brewhouse, Yamato’s, Cantina
WESLEY CHAPEL – Thirteen restaurants and bars ranging from Mexican to Japanese to a brewhouse are beginning to ask for permits for the fall opening of The Shops at Wiregrass, Pasco’s second regional mall opening later this year.
...
Forest City Enterprises, based in Cleveland, and The Goodman Co., based in West Palm Beach, are developing the 800,000-square-foot Shops at Wiregrass mall.
fibre2fashion.com, Department store chain Gottschalks sells its Palmdale Store
Gottschalks Inc announced that the Company has entered into a purchase agreement to sell its wholly-owned store in the Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale, California, to Forest City Enterprises, a Cleveland, Ohio-based real estate management and development company.
Posted by lumi at 4:01 AM
July 28, 2008
AY advertising, FCR branding, and the Manhattan Media connection
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder speculates that the Atlantic Yards ad in Manhattan Media's "family lifestyle" magazine could be a makegood of sorts for Forest City Ratner's not-so-fondly remembered original foray into fake newspapers, the Brooklyn Standard.
What's a generic Atlantic Yards advertisement--featuring some dubious statements used to promote the project even before it was passed--doing in the July 2008 issue of New York Family/Brooklyn, "a glossy, vibrant city magazine that offers active, sophisticated New York parents an inviting mix of feature articles and selected tips about their interests, issues, and concerns"?
Well, the magazine comes from none other than Manhattan Media, the enterprise that previously teamed with developer Forest City Ratner on the short-lived but much-criticized Brooklyn Standard "publication." Forest City Ratner initially pledged publication "every few months."
NoLandGrab: OK, we have to admit it. We thought the fake news in the Brooklyn Standard was as well done as the fake news in The Onion.
Posted by eric at 11:07 AM
Forest City's New Rochelle project faces hurdles
The Real Deal
By Marc Ferris
Another controversial and possibly eminent-domain-abusing megaproject brought to you by the family from Forest City:
By any measure, Forest City Residential's proposed $450 million, 26-acre Echo Bay development in New Rochelle is a challenging one.
Extensive contamination requires a $20 million remediation, according to a city estimate. Although the site on Long Island Sound sits on an island-dotted bay that glows during the sunset, it is also located next door to a county wastewater treatment facility. And some local veterans threaten to fight the proposed demolition of the dilapidated armory building on the site.
To pull off the Echo Bay project, in May the city chose Forest City Residential, a division of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, which is also the parent company of Bruce Ratner's Forest City Ratner.
The possible use of eminent domain looms if property owners refuse to sell to Forest City Residential, much like Forest City Ratner relied on seizing private property for its massive and controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. The Ratner family is probably feeling confident following the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection last month of a petition by Atlantic Yards opponents. That petition would have granted a hearing to 11 property owners and tenants challenging the government's ability to seize private homes for development.
Forest City is no stranger in Westchester. Bruce Ratner managed to overcome strong opposition to Ridge Hill Village, the largest development project ever built in Yonkers.
Posted by lumi at 3:57 AM
July 25, 2008
Forest City in the News
Crain's Chicago Business, Von Maur plans Joliet store, won't open in New Lenox
Von Maur has signed a letter of intent to open a store at a proposed mega-mall in Joliet, while the upscale department store chain has decided against a store at a proposed center in nearby New Lenox.
...
The decision comes as a big blow for the Birches of New Lenox, a 1.1 million-square-foot mall proposed by Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc. Because of the slowdown in the retail and housing markets, the mall’s opening was already pushed back a year to 2011.A local developer working with Forest City on the project had said Von Maur had agreed to purchase its site there. But Mr. von Maur says the retailer never signed a letter of intent for the Birches project, and never had a binding contract there.
A Forest City spokeswoman and local executive didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Larchmont Gazette, Parking Deck and Apartment Project Transferred to Iron Oak
At the July 9 meeting, developers from Forest City Mamaroneck successfully petitioned the board to authorize the transfer of both the parking deck and the related apartment project to another entity – Iron Oak of Westchester. Both Town Administrator Steve Altieri and Town Counsel Bill Maker assured the board and residents that a contract with Iron Oak Partners would not in any way change any of the prior agreements with Forest City. The design, materials and number and types of apartments and parking spots would remain the same. However, Mr. Maker was able to negotiate an additional clause calling for the creation of a $4 million escrow account for the completion of the parking deck by April 14, 2009. Work on the housing part of the project is to begin in 45 days.
...
As readers of the Gazette are aware, the Town Board has been working with the Forest City organization for a number of years in an effort to build housing units on Madison Avenue and a parking deck on Myrtle Boulevard. The agreement consummated in October 2006 called for Forest City to finance and construct a parking deck on Myrtle Boulevard with no expense to the Town. That responsibility has now been assumed by Iron Oak.
Posted by lumi at 4:09 AM
July 24, 2008
Historic preservation, theory and practice
Atlantic Yards Report responds to a NoLandGrab post:
No Land Grab points out the irony of Forest City Ratner sponsoring an AIANY (American Institute of Architects-New York) panel on historic preservation. I'll remind people that parent Forest City Enterprises embraces historic preservation, just not in Brooklyn.
NoLandGrab: Irony or rank hypocrisy, it explains why no amount of preservation press elsewhere in the nation has managed to improve Bruce Ratner's standing as the Dark Lord of Overdevelopment.
Posted by lumi at 4:35 AM
Forest City in the News
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Forest City revamps proposal for riverfront convention center
The cost of building a riverfront convention center will exceed the $400 million cap set by the county, even with a substantial redesign.
Forest City Commercial Group reworked its plans for a convention center after updated estimates put the cost at more than half a billion dollars.
David LaRue, the company's chief operating officer, said Monday the redesign could shave up to $100 million in construction costs. Still, the company doesn't think it can meet the county's cap.
LaRue wouldn't give the latest project estimate but said it was "within the ballpark."
The Cleveland Free Times, Payrolls And Politics
Forest City unveiled its new design for the planned convention center. To shave a few pennies off the half-billion-dollar, publicly funded construction project, which the residents of Cleveland balked at, they decided to get rid of the stilts and not charge the county for "air rights." Um, thanks?
Posted by lumi at 3:55 AM
July 23, 2008
Historic Preservation Faces Sustainability Hurdles
eOculus [AIA NY Newsletter]
by Jessica Sheridan
Shamelessness or unintended irony? Forest City Ratner sponsored a recent American Institute of Architects NY Chapter forum on historic preservation.
Historic preservation projects tend to take on one of two forms: mimicry and transformation. Architects on a recent panel agreed that successful projects are a result of the latter, and in each of their practices, they strive to reduce a building to its essence, relate it to its context, and preserve its remains yet develop practical uses for the future.
NoLandGrab: Here's an example of Forest City Ratner "reducing a building to its essence."
Posted by eric at 3:42 PM
July 18, 2008
NY Times Building Altered Due to Climbing Trend
Architectural Record covers Forest City Ratner and The NY Times Corporation's response to being the proud owners of the tallest ladder in the world.
When the New York Times Building opened in late 2007, critics marveled at the 3-inch-diameter ceramic rods covering the façade of the 52-story skyscraper—the first glass tower with a sunscreen to be built in the United States. But last Wednesday, dozens of the trademark, and evidently climber-friendly, rods were removed just hours after the third person in five weeks attempted to scale the building. The decision was made as a safety measure to prevent future daredevils from mounting the high-rise that cost more than $1 billion to construct. Increased security in the area after the first stunt clearly was not enough to deter thrill seekers.
The 1.5-million-square-foot project was designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), based in Italy, with FXFOWLE in New York. The firms are working with The New York Times Company and its development partner, Forest City Ratner, to create measures that “will reduce and hopefully limit access to the ceramic screen of the building,” says Bernard Plattner, a partner at RPBW who oversaw the project. The New York Times Company has declined to comment on any changes to the building, although The New York Times newspaper reports that permanent glass panels will be installed to hinder access to glass canopies, which climbers have used as stepping stools to the rods.
Posted by lumi at 4:29 AM
July 12, 2008
Forest City in New York News
Probation Office to Share Building With Elite Brooklyn Hts. School Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Not only is the Brooklyn House of Detention looking to expand in Boerum Hill, but now a federal probation office is set to open next month at 147 Pierrepont St. (One Pierrepont Plaza) in Brooklyn Heights, the same building that houses middle and high school classrooms and a computer center for the prestigious Saint Ann’s School.
...
According to Robert Perris, district manager of Community Board 2, the probation office has signed a 10-year lease for the space. It is owned by Forest City Ratner, who Garoppolo says, “did their due diligence in checking us out. They met with our officers, looked at our current space and had about 100 questions for me. They realized that [for the neighborhood] it wouldn’t be any different from having the US Attorney’s office there.”
Some like Seaport plan’s tower, others say build a school Downtown Express
Unless General Growth Properties adds a school to its plan to overhaul the Seaport, Community Board 1’s leader won’t support the plan.
Julie Menin, chairperson of the board, made that clear when she spoke Tuesday night at the first public meeting on General Growth’s plans for Pier 17. General Growth hopes to build a 495-foot hotel and condo tower in the Seaport, along with lower-rise retail, a boutique hotel and a large open plaza.
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The neighborhood already has a 76-story tower going up on Beekman St., she said. Developer Forest City Ratner is building the tower, which will contain a new K-8 school.
“It’s all the high-rise we need and more for the next millennium,” Brown said.
Posted by amy at 8:53 AM
July 11, 2008
Forest City in the News
The New York Times, After 3rd Climber, Times Alters Its Building’s Facade
The New York Times began removing dozens of the distinctive horizontal ceramic rods that sheathe its year-old building in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, hours after a man climbed up the side of the skyscraper. It was the third time such a stunt had occurred in the last five weeks.
The alteration of the facade of the 52-story tower, which was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and opened last year, represented a reversal for The Times, which had insisted that it would not remove the rods after two men scaled the building on June 5, using the veil of rods as a ladder.
...
The official also said that The Times had increased security after the June 5 episodes, but that its efforts had recently been reduced, for reasons that were not immediately clear. It appeared that Mr. Malone had breached one of the plywood barriers placed on the glass canopies encircling the building after the earlier climbs, the official said.Asked about the statements by the official, Ms. Mathis declined to comment.
The tower is jointly owned by The Times and Forest City Ratner, its development partner.
The rods have been widely recognized as a trademark feature of the tower. They were designed to let sunlight through while limiting heat, helping the building use energy more efficiently. Representatives of Mr. Piano could not be reached for comment about the decision to remove some of the rods.
Reuters, Suburbs feeling the pinch as fuel prices soar
While home prices in the suburbs have crashed, apartments in city centers are in demand. Home builders across the country are frantically trying to unload land they had intended for new subdivisions. And planners are rethinking how they can meet demand for housing.
One such place is Stapleton, on the site of what used to be Denver's airport. Its developer, real estate company Forest City, puts homes within walking distance of schools and stores while linking them to the workplace by public transportation.
TransCanadaRadio, Forest City Lovers: Delightfully engaging
In the heart of Canada’s largest city, Forest City Lovers — Kat Burns (vocals/guitar/piano), Kyle Donnelly (bass/guitar/vocals), Mika Posen (violin/piano/vocals) and a string of drummers — have strived to tame the urban wilderness and add some melody to the chaos.
Posted by lumi at 3:54 AM
July 10, 2008
After 3 Climbs, Facade at Times Building Is Altered
City Room, blog of The NY Times
By David W. Dunlap
Back in 2002, Bruce Ratner characterized the facade of 620 Eighth Avenue, the building co-owned by Ratner and the Times, as "pretty." Yesterday, after a third person climbed the building, the facade was deemed a "pretty" serious security threat and workers began removing ceramic rods.
The screens of ceramic rods that float in front of the clear glass curtain wall are in many ways the building’s signature. “The complexity comes from the skin, the surface of the building actually vibrating, working with the weather,” Renzo Piano, the architect, said in 2001. Likening it to a “fabric of ceramic,” he called the screens a “suncoat” — as opposed to a raincoat — that would cut the transmission of light and heat into the interior, thereby permitting the use of clear, rather than tinted, glass.
Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner Companies, which developed the building with the Times Company, said in 2002: “Mr. Piano refers to the skin as lace. I’ll use a word — it’s not an architectural word — to describe it: pretty.”
The scene was anything but pretty on Wednesday afternoon as four workers, standing on a canopy along the 41st Street side of the building, unclipped the rods from their frames and began piling them on a hand truck to be taken away.
Posted by lumi at 6:02 AM
July 9, 2008
Forest City in the News
Forest City Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards megaproject is mentioned in a quote in an opinion piece covering Cleveland's costly and floundering convention center.
One critical point is that municipalities are subsidizing nearby hotels to serve the convention centers, even though they are privately developed and owned. The idea seemed farfetched until we stumbled over an article about a Forest City hotel project in Pittsburgh that's awaiting subsidies.
Cleveland Indy Media Center, WHERE'S IS THAT MEDICAL MART THAT IS COSTING US 40 MILLION A YEAR
I e-mailed Heywood Sanders, professor of Urban Studies in the Dept. of Political Science at Trinity University at San Antonio and a long-time student of issues involving convention centers. I wanted to find out his current outlook on new convention centers, and particularly Cleveland’s situation.
“The prognosis looks grim,” writes Sanders as he notes that a number of major urban development projects – naming Ballpark Village in St. Louis, Grand Avenue in Los Angeles and Atlantic Yards (Forest City project) in Brooklyn – “are being scaled back or halted.”
...
“Add that all together with a convention market that remains overbuilt, with a number of cities trying to bail out their centers with publicly-financed large hotels (mentioning Portland, Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas, Kansas City and our Columbus),” and the outlook, as he says, is “grim.”Sanders concludes, “Frankly, I never thought the Medical Mart was a workable deal. I don’t think MMPI (Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.) is in any rush to do it now. And if the county moves ahead on its own, well…”
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Westin expansion stalled, but Hilton on the way
The county won't subsidize a convention hotel that would not provide at least 400 new rooms -- a number that's necessary to meet the 1,000-room threshold needed to attract major conventions, Onorato said.
Cleveland developer Forest City Enterprises Inc., owner of the Westin Convention Hotel, has worked with the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority, owner of the convention center, as the developer of a proposed hotel projected to cost $104 million.
Plans were to provide a $34 million subsidy from state gambling proceeds to supplement Forest City's private contribution for the project.
Onorato, though, said it might be necessary to solicit proposals from other developers. Forest City indicated recently that, because of increasing costs, it might reduce the size of such a facility to about 300 rooms.
Brian Ratner, president of East Coast development for Forest City, said yesterday that the company remains involved in the project. Forest City has been waiting for the Sports & Exhibition Authority to award the public funding, he said.
Posted by lumi at 4:06 AM
July 7, 2008
Net Losses Mounted Last Quarter
Nets Daily
The everything-Nets blog cites a report from Sports Business Journal about the latest lop-sided Nets loss — and it wasn't on the hardwood.
The Nets lost $7.2 million last quarter, more than double last year’s total, according to new filings by Forest City Enterprises. FCE is Bruce Ratner’s corporate parent and the team’s leading investor. It holds a 21 percent stake in the team but is responsible for around 31 percent of the operating losses. FCE has said it will continue to bolster team finances, expecting a large return when the team moves to Brooklyn.
NoLandGrab: We wonder how those Nets owners who aren't relying on their investment in the Nets to leverage Brooklyn's largest-ever real estate deal are feeling about mounting team losses.
Posted by eric at 12:52 PM
ESMIN'S FUNERAL TO BE ON THE CITY
NY Post
BY David Seifman
Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city would pick up the funeral expenses of the 49-year-old Brooklynite, who was left to die on the waiting-room floor of Kings County Hospital's psychiatric emergency room on June 19.
The mayor also said developer Forest City Ratner had agreed to pay to fly Green's relatives here from Jamaica and back, and to fly the body there.
Gothamist, City Will Pay Funeral Expenses for Woman Left to Die in Hospital Waiting Room
Posted by lumi at 4:54 AM
July 3, 2008
Movies At McCarren Park!
newyorkshitty.com
Congratulations, Bruce Ratner, your company is now synonymous with "undesirable corporate sponsor!"
Town Square is hosting a series of movies this summer at McCarren Park. I cannot say I am too pleased by the sponsors, among whom are Forest City Ratner and Greenpoint Landing “A Park Tower Development” (which sounds ominous. Whatever it is, I am certain we’ll have the pleasure of finding out soon enough.*), but the line-up looks decent. Of particular interest to yours truly is July 30th: “Country Night” whose cinematic feature will be Blazing Saddles, arguably the best Mel Brooks film ever made.
...* If anyone knows what this is, please enlighten me.
Posted by eric at 9:36 PM
Taken To School In The 64th
The Daily Politics [Daily News Blog]
by Elizabeth Benjamin
Paul Newell held his first official press conference of the campaign season this afternoon, during which he assailed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for his relationship with mega-developer Bruce Ratner, who is building a combination apartment building/school known as Beekman Tower in the 64th AD.
Silver's campaign spokesman Jonathan Rosen hit back, calling it "a little strange" that a candidate seeking to represent an area so sorely lacking in schools would open his campaign by opposing the construction of one.
While admitting Lower Manhattan does indeed need schools, Newell maintained district residents were "blackmailed" by Ratner, with Silver's assistance, because his project qualifies for city tax breaks.
NoLandGrab: Mr. Rosen is omitting several important facts, such as: 1) this will be the most expensive school ever built in New York City; 2) Ratner is receiving both Liberty Bonds and a special, double-the-normal-term 421-a exemption; and 3) Paul Newell's not the only one who used the word "blackmail" in reference to Forest City Ratner.
Posted by eric at 9:00 PM
Serve's Up
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
No byline on this story, which is no surprise, since it reads like a straight press release.
Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment (BSE), in partnership with Atlantic Yards and the AVP Crocs Tour, is bringing professional beach volleyball back to Brooklyn with the Third Annual AVP Crocs Tour Brooklyn Open from Friday, July 18 to Sunday, July 20 on Coney Island.
Posted by eric at 8:41 PM
July 1, 2008
C.B. 1 approves Ratner’s tax break just by saying no
Downtown Express
By Julie Shapiro
And if you didn't have enough reasons to loath Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, check out this un-freakin'-believable report of how his company, Forest City Ratner, used the planned public school in the already heavily subsidized Beekman Street tower to "blackmail" (an observer's word, not ours) Manhattan's Community Board 1 into approving the all-luxury-rental residential tower for a 421-a tax abatement, at the last minute, before the new rules came into effect.
Forest City Ratner executives threatened to halt construction of the new school on Beekman St. unless they receive a 20-year tax break from the city.
At an emergency meeting of Community Board 1’s Executive Committee June 18, Forest City said funding for the pre-K-8 school and 76-story apartment tower was in jeopardy. In March, Forest City closed on $680 million in construction financing for the project, but MaryAnne Gilmartin, an executive vice president at Forest City Ratner, said the money could disappear unless Ratner also receives a 20-year 421-a tax abatement.
Without the abatement, “Work would certainly stop on [the] site and then we would have delays,” Gilmartin said.
...
“I don’t think the project or the school were ever really in jeopardy,” said Paul Hovitz, a board member. “I think they were manipulating us [into helping them get the abatement]. We were being blackmailed.”
NoLandGrab: As if you didn't already know that the folks at Forest City Ratner play hardball 24/7, keep in mind that this project is already receiving Liberty Bonds, ostensibly in exchange for building the school, which the company was threatening to delay even further unless it received a tax-abatement worth millions.
Posted by lumi at 6:03 AM
PRESS RELEASE: Forest City Enterprises Announces Recent Financings
The Earth Times
CLEVELAND, June 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA) (NYSE: FCEB) today announced three recent financing transactions, totaling more than $100 million, in the Company's national portfolio of operating properties and in its development pipeline.
"These transactions, all of which closed within the past 30 days, reflect our continuing ability to access capital to finance our portfolio and to fund development," said Charles A. Ratner, Forest City president and CEO. "They also are indicative of the strong relationships we have with lenders and other sources of funding."
At the Mesa del Sol mixed-use development in Albuquerque, NM, the Company closed a $31.6 million loan for construction of a 210,000 square foot office building for a unit of Fidelity Investments. In January, 2008, Fidelity announced it would locate a new operations center at Mesa del Sol. Huntington Bank was the lender.
At the MetroTech Center mixed use/office complex in Brooklyn, the Company closed a $45 million fixed-rate, permanent financing with Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (Nord LB) for 330 Jay Street (also known as 12 MetroTech Center). The 1.1 million square foot building is fully leased.
At the Station Square mixed-use development in Pittsburgh, the company secured a $25 million mortgage for the Commerce Court office building from Bank of New York. Commerce Court, which was acquired by the Company in February, 2007, is a seven-story, 378,000 square foot office building that includes ground-floor retail space.
NoLandGrab: It was recently reported on Brownstoner that 28 of the 33 stories at 330 Jay St. were purchased for $499,401,179 by NYC.
We're not sure how the $45-million loan mentioned above figures in.
Note that in this uncertain real estate-investment climate, Forest City flexes its muscles with a press release, when the company secures some more financing.
This press release also ran in Crain's Cleveland Business.
Posted by lumi at 5:13 AM
June 27, 2008
No-property-tax status was supposed to raise the price of the Vanderbilt Yard
Atlantic Yards Report
There's another obscured benefit for Forest City Ratner in the bid for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard. In its September 2005 report on Atlantic Yards, the city's Independent Budget Office (IBO) stated:
IBO’s estimate of new property tax revenue lost to the arena PILOT does not include a loss of property taxes for the MTA land that would be part of the arena building foot print. The city currently receives no tax payment from the MTA for the rail yard because the MTA, like other state entities, is exempt from local property tax. Under the MTA’s Request for Proposals, any developer acquiring the development rights to the site would probably enter into a long-term lease, leaving the MTA in place as the owner. Therefore, the property would likely remain off the city’s tax roll, resulting in no impact on the city budget. Indeed, the MTA has an incentive to make a deal that maintains the tax exemption in order to maximize the price it receives for the development rights.
(Emphasis added)That hardly happened. Forest City Ratner paid $100 million in cash, and values its total bid at $379.4 million, though that's questionable. Meanwhile, the developer expects tax breaks worth $800 million, as tax-exempt bonds are repaid by PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes).
It doesn't sound like the MTA maximized much.
NoLandGrab: Not true! They appear to have maximized the sweetness of the deal for Forest City Ratner. Meanwhile, taxpayers and transit riders can expect MTA service cuts — and fare hikes.
Posted by eric at 9:47 AM
June 26, 2008
Everyday Chatter
Jeremiah's Vanishing New York
I picked up this Forest City Ratner advertisement disguising itself as a magazine on a bench outside St. Mark's Church today. It came from the NY Post. One of the stories is called "Feeding the Need to Shop." Another refers to the Coney redesign as a "new day dawning at the shore." The gentrification of Flatbush is hailed "Old Nabes Take On New Life." Brooklynites, here lies your grim future:
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NoLandGrab: Judging from the looks of that "stacked shoe box" design, this must be the much-anticipated Summer 2008 edition of Brooklyn Tomorrow.
Posted by eric at 4:27 PM
June 25, 2008
Bronx Groups Demand a Voice in a Landmark’s Revival
The New York Times
by Terry Pristin
We're not sure exactly what tangible benefits will accrue to members of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance in the Bronx, but we're reasonably confident that they have lots of rallies and blockparties in their future.
Now community organizers in the area, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, are seeking a private contract with the Related Companies, the developer chosen by the city in April to transform the Kingsbridge Armory into a shopping mall with 575,000 square feet of retail space, including a department store, a multiscreen movie theater and restaurants.
...In recent years, a growing number of private pacts, known as community benefits agreements, or C.B.A.’s, have smoothed the way for developments around the country, including Related’s Grand Avenue project in downtown Los Angeles.
But only a few such agreements have been forged in New York. In 2005, the Bloomberg administration publicly applauded a private agreement between housing advocates and Forest City Ratner, the developer of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, but now it no longer supports the concept.
“When you do a C.B.A., the decision may be made in a vacuum, and that’s what we’re looking to avoid,” Seth W. Pinsky, president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, said in an interview last week. “We’re not opposed to benefits for the community, and we’re not opposed to community involvement. But we just think it should be part of the larger process.”
NoLandGrab: "The larger process?" How about any process? It's apparent that the Bloomberg Administration now recognizes that Atlantic Yards is the blueprint for how not to do large development projects in NYC.
Posted by eric at 9:20 AM
June 24, 2008
Ratner's "20 court decisions" claim requires proof
Atlantic Yards Report
Yesterday, Forest City Ratner CEO Bruce Ratner, upon the U.S. Supreme Court's announcement it would take the Atlantic Yards eminent domain appeal, said, "The opponents have now lost 20 court decisions relating to Atlantic Yards...." That was repeated without skepticism in the press, such as in the New York Times's CityRoom blog [and today's paper].
Is that true? Well, maybe they've lost 20 decisions if we count decisions on specific motions. But then we'd have to count motions that opponents have won. And we'd have to count the cases opponents have won. NoLandGrab's scorecard, while probably flawed, strikes me as more accurate than Ratner's claim, especially since Ratner has provided no list.
Until the developer provides a list of the 20 decisions won, the press shouldn't be quoting the claim without rebuttal. The facts are verifiable.
NoLandGrab: Um, Norman Oder challenges journalists to practice "journalism of verification," while he concludes that our own analysis is "probably flawed" without providing any facts? Oder may be overworked, but that doesn't mean he is "probably" overworked.
It is disturbing, though, that reporters don't question something as simple as a statistic. At least it makes the pr professionals' job so much easier!
Posted by lumi at 5:23 AM
June 20, 2008
Is criticism of Atlantic Center mall just 20/20 hindsight? (Nope)
Atlantic Yards Report
Here's our Snarky Friday synopsis of today's posting by Norman Oder:
Yesterday, amNY ranked Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Center Mall #6 on the paper's list of fugly-assed buildings the city could do without.
Atlantic Yards Cheerleader in Chief Marty Markowitz recently gave his pal Bruce a pass, because what clearly ranks as one of the worst malls ever, was built during the era where developers weren't ready to invest heavily in Brooklyn, because Brooklyn was... skeery.
Even Bruce famously said, "Here you’re in an urban area, you’re next to projects, you’ve got tough kids.”
In the end, he has no one to blame but himself.
Ultimately, however, even Bruce Ratner blames the bad design on himself, not inexorable external forces, as New York magazine's Kurt Andersen wrote in an 11/20/05 column:
Until now, most of Ratner’s buildings have ranged from the uninspired to the bad, like his shopping center across from the Atlantic Yards. Even he admits the Atlantic Center mall is “not up to snuff. Philip Johnson did a first design, but I made a decision not to use him. I have to blame myself. I’ve been talking for ten years about trying to use ‘design architects’ instead of ‘developer architects.'"
In other words, it was a bottom-line decision that could have gone another way.
Posted by lumi at 4:56 AM
Under Cover: Nice sore thumb
Downtown Express
Developer Bruce Ratner may still have mega-money problems but his Beekman St. condo tower is going up fast. After finally resuming construction from a hole in the ground two months ago, the building structure is now several stories high.
UnderCover ain’t seen nothing yet, a construction worker who appreciates the aesthetics of a sore thumb told us last week. “Once it hits 11 [floors], it’s going to go really fast,” he said. “It’s going to look nice -- it’s going to stick out like a sore thumb.”
Is Frank Gehry’s intricate design making it complicated to build? “That’s another thing,” the worker agreed.
Posted by lumi at 4:08 AM
June 18, 2008
Forest City in the News
The Journal News, Full disclosure needed on development plans
New Rochelle has already chosen Forest City Residential to head the city's controversial development plan, which (no surprises here) includes the threat of eminent domain.
In a letter to the editor, one resident questions the town's hell-bent quest for redevelopment, while current housing stock sits vacant.
The Journal News, New Rochelle council remains divided as key Echo Bay vote looms tonight
Some New Rochelle councilmembers still had questions before a vote to approve one aspect of the Echo Bay project, while other aspects remain unresolved:
The other Republican council members who have raised concerns, Louis Trangucci and Albert Tarantino, say they are uneasy about taking on debt while matters like the lease remain unresolved. They also say they want to know more about the projected benefits of the Echo Bay redevelopment, information that won't be available until next year when Forest City Residential is expected to submit a completed impact statement for the development.
Pacific Business News, Solar-power system part of Navy housing
A developer that manages thousands of homes on Oahu military bases launched a 107-kilowatt photovoltaic system Monday that will generate enough electricity to power 10 homes per month.
Forest City Military Communities' system at the Navy's Halsey Terrace neighborhood community center, which was built with 477 SunPower 225-watt solar panels affixed to the roof, will generate 13,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month.
...
Forest City received a technical assistance award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar America Showcase program to develop the Halsey Terrace photovoltaic system.Forest City Military Communities is rebuilding about half of a total 6,564 housing units in 34 neighborhoods on Oahu and Kauai through a public-private partnership with the Navy.
Rocky Mountain News, New Town Builders plans affordable units at Stapleton
Stapleton today unveiled its latest affordable for-sale homes for income-qualified families. New Town Builders has completed the 68-unit 29th Drive Row Homes and residents will begin to move in at the end of the month. "The response to the 29th Drive Row Homes has been very positive," Denise Gammon, senior vice president of residential development of Forest City Stapleton, said in a statement.
DevnerPost.com [Blog], Home being built to help fund education
Forest City donated the lot for a house being built to raise funds for "the Challenge Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income students attend college by funding their education at local middle and high prep schools. The foundation hopes to raise about $42,000 to sponsor six students in the program."
Posted by lumi at 4:59 AM
Reverend Al: Condemnation and Resurrection
This weekend, the Atlantic Yards story took an interesting detour when a NY Post article questioning Reverend Al Sharpton's fundraising strategy included developer Forest City Ratner. Here are two more responses, one criticizing Sharpton's tactics and the other offering a detailed rebuttal of the entire article.
Family Security Matters, Exclusive: Sharpton: More a Shakedown Artist than a Civil Rights Activist?
[I]t is his clear pattern of using protests, boycotts and media attacks to blackmail his targets into sudden racial sensitivity or generosity that is most bothersome.
Companies like PepsiCo, GM, Forest City Ratner, MGM Mirage, American Honda, Chrysler, Colgate Palmolive and Macy's made sudden contributions to Sharpton's National Action Network either as a response to a direct Sharpton threat or in response to such protests. Some of these companies even employed Sharpton briefly for a while as some sort of a diversity advisor.
At the very least, such conduct smells like street shakedowns where a tough guy promises to "protect" various businesses or even homes against things that "could happen." People donate to such shady causes because they understand the donation to be protection money and nothing else.
Rev. Al Sharpton has released a statement condemning the New York Post for publishing articles that accuse him of shaking down corporate CEOs through threats of boycotts.
...
[T]he Post, in its typical fashion, omitted facts that contradicted the article's shakedown premise. Most notably, Ms. Vincent did not include one example of when Reverend Sharpton and NAN spoke out critically against companies after they had contributed to NAN....
Fact 5. Forest City Ratner. Ms. Vincent misleadingly writes that, 4 years after Reverend Sharpton blasted Forest City Ratner for "low wages," he made a "dramatic flip flop" and supported them. Rather than stating the objective facts that Forest City's practices have changed dramatically, she resorts to using subjective quotes by Reverend Sharpton to defend the shift, which obviously could be interpreted as self serving, and therefore a weaker defense.
NoLandGrab: From our point of view, it is worth noting that Forest City Ratner has a pattern of financially supporting groups and individuals who might prove to be formidable adversaries.
Posted by lumi at 4:41 AM
June 17, 2008
Another potential snag for AY arena financing: foregone property tax may severely cap tax-exempt bonds
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder explores another probable arena-financing hurdle facing Forest City Ratner — it seems that, legally, Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) on arena debt cannot exceed what the equivalent property tax payments on the underlying land would amount to.
Extrapolating from the amount of bonds and the PILOT payments for the Yankees, a similar 6% ratio suggests annual PILOT payments on $800 million in tax-exempt Atlantic Yards arena bonds would be about $48 million.
In 1/7/08 testimony to the City Council Finance Committee, Theresa Devine of the Independent Budget Office stated that owners of Madison Square Garden, who benefit from a full property tax exemption, were saving $11 million in the current fiscal year.
That’s a lot less than $48 million.
In its September 2005 report on Atlantic Yards, the IBO estimated the value of the Atlantic Yards arena at $100 a square foot, compared to Madison Square Garden at $125/sf. Based on the $100 figure, the IBO had calculated the foregone property tax at the Atlantic Yards arena at only $3.85 million.
The value of Madison Square Garden, IBO’s George Sweeting told me in a recent email, is now calculated for tax purposes at $250/sf. So even if doubled to $200/sf, the foregone property tax for the AY arena would be less than $8 million a year--a reasonable ratio if the figure for Madison Square Garden is $11 million.
Sweeting noted that the agency’s 2005 analysis “was based loosely on the Department of Finance’s official market value for MSG at the time, discounting for differences in land value. It is probably true that neither the MSG value assigned by the city, nor the AY arena value estimated by IBO, reflect the actual cost somebody would pay to buy the land and build a new arena. We based our value on an assumption that whatever the Finance Department is doing when valuing MSG, they would do for AY.”
If so, there would have to be a lot more taxable bonds than currently contemplated.
NoLandGrab: The whole PILOT and bond situation presents Ratner and his government enablers with an interesting quandary. On the one hand, Ratner, the ESDC and the City need the assessment of the land to be as padded as possible, in order to maximize the bond cap. On the other hand, such a valuation would theoretically raise — significantly — the "just compensation" paid to property owners whose land would be taken via eminent domain.
Stay tuned to see how the interested parties try to play this one to their benefit — it ought to be entertaining.
Posted by eric at 8:39 PM
After Michael Ratner's support for Kucinich, blowback?
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder speculates how Michael Ratner, who is Bruce Ratner's brother and human rights advocate, might be experiencing some unintended consequences as a result of political contributions.
Michael Ratner tends to back Brooklyn politicians to gain their support for Atlantic Yards. Outside of Brooklyn, he seems to back candidates based on their ideology, such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Lately, this seems to have produced a kind of conflict as Kucinich is working against Atlantic Yards in trying to close an IRS loophole that Bruce Ratner had hoped to use in order to help finance the project.
Michael Ratner has a record of supporting progressives in New York City and elsewhere, just as he has a curious record of supporting undistinguished products of the Brooklyn machine (who also support Atlantic Yards), as I wrote in September 2006.
While Ratner's not talking, his Brooklyn political contributions seem guided not by ideology but by the interests of Forest City Ratner (FCR). Indeed, as federal filings show, while he generally lists his employer as the Center for Constitutional Rights, some list his affiliation as First New York Partners, a separate operating entity of Forest City responsible for providing property management and services to all Forest City buildings and their tenants. In other cases, he lists his address not as his Greenwich Village home, but 1 MetroTech, FCR's headquarters in Brooklyn.
Will he ask Kucinich for his money back?
Posted by steve at 5:30 AM
June 16, 2008
Sharpton to Ratner: money CAN buy you love
This weekend's Post cover story about Reverend Al's fundraising prowess and his Forest City flip-flop got airplay in the blogosphere this weekend.
Nets Daily, Sharpton Donations Latest Controversy for Ratner
In an investigative report on Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, the New York Post suggests that the civil rights leader changed his tune on Bruce Ratner after the Nets’ owner started making donations to NAN.... Sharpton denies a connection.
Gothamist, A Look at Sharpton Non-Profit's Funding
In the caste of FCR, Sharpton once decried how little workers were paid at the Atlantic Mall; now Sharpton believes FCR's Atlantic Yards is a great boon for the community.
Sharpton denies the shakedown charges, telling the Post, "That's the old shakedown theory that the anti-civil-rights forces have used against us forever. Why can't they come up with one company that says that? No one has criticized me." Instead
NoLandGrab: Ah the "old shakedown theory" — that makes sense, because Bruce Ratner would never play the race card to promote his $4 billion Atlantic Yards project.
Posted by lumi at 5:14 AM
June 15, 2008
REV. AL SOAKS UP BOYCOTT BUCKS
NY Post
ISABEL VINCENT and SUSAN EDELMAN
In a dramatic flip-flop, Sharpton in 2000 blasted New York developer Bruce Ratner for paying low wages to workers at his Atlantic Mall in Brooklyn."We will not allow you to enslave our communities, Mr. Ratner," Sharpton told a rally. "You must meet with us - you must come to terms with the poverty you are creating using public dollars."
By 2004, the developer's company, Forest City Ratner, had begun to fork over thousands of dollars to NAN. Sharpton now strongly supports Ratner's proposed Atlantic Yards project, which includes a new arena for the New Jersey Nets.
"Just because Pepsi and other companies had me on their board advising them didn't mean that I wasn't blasting them all the time," said Sharpton.
"Look at Forest City Ratner. I blasted them and they came up with one of the best community agreements for blacks and Latinos."
Posted by amy at 11:30 AM
June 13, 2008
Feds get Yonkers computer drives
The Journal News
By Len Maniace
In the latest twist in the investigation into the approval of Forest City Ratner's other highly controversial local megaproject, the feds have seized the computers of all seven Yonkers City Councilmembers.
The city has turned over the computer hard drives of all seven City Council members to federal investigators who are probing the council's handling of the 81-acre Ridge Hill development.
The hard drives were removed under a subpoena issued this year that had sought a variety of information, including council e-mails....
The article includes this good recap of events leading up to this latest subpoena:
The $630 million Ridge Hill development, now under construction along the New York State Thruway across from the Stew Leonard shopping center, faced opposition from community residents, a lawsuit from neighboring municipalities and difficulty winning approval from City Council.
Developers Forest City Ratner fought back, lobbying the City Council strongly. In June 2006, Council member Sandy Annabi, D-2nd District, dropped her opposition, providing the key fifth vote for the council supermajority needed to approve the project's zone change. Annabi switched her vote after the developer agreed to pay Yonkers an additional $10 million over three years.
The first set of subpoenas came in March 2007, seeking meeting agendas, tapes of meetings and voting records from 2004 until then as well as financial disclosure statements filed by then-city Republican Chairman Zehy Jereis.
The next subpoenas arrived in early February of this year. They ordered council members to testify before a federal grand jury in White Plains and sought information on increased water rates, higher fees for building and fire safety inspections, and the Longfellow project, a redevelopment plan involving two shuttered Yonkers schools.
More than a month ago, federal prosecutors subpoenaed financial disclosure forms and e-mails to and from Annabi and e-mails to and from council member Patricia McDow, D-1st District. They also issued a grand jury subpoena to Assemblyman Michael Spano, D-Yonkers.
Posted by lumi at 4:48 AM
Forest City in the News
New Lenox Patriot, Economic slowdown delays NL mall
Forest City is tapping the breaks on a mall in Illinois:
Despite a delay in one of its major mall projects, Mayor Tim Baldermann said New Lenox is still in an advantageous position and both that project and the other mall are still moving forward.
"We've been in constant contact with them," Baldermann said of the village's communication with Forest City Enterprises Inc., developers of the Birches of New Lenox. "It's not anything that we're concerned with."
...
Baldermann said Forest City hasn't had any concerns, but retailers planning to set up shop in the center are wary given the current economic downturn.
The Real Deal, Harlem big-box retail store to open October '09
Bruce Ratner brings you more big-box retail:
East River Plaza, a former dormant wire factory in East Harlem, will be opened as a big-box retail complex in October 2009, 15 years after developer David Blumenthal purchased the site. The property, which runs from 116th to 119th street along Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, will cater to stores like Costco and Wal-Mart. Home Depot and Target have already signed on, though Home Depot might sublet it space as it trims its expansion because of the weak economy.... Blumenthal is developing the site with Forest City Ratner.
wkyc.com, Making The Grade: Helping Our Kids Achieve
"Channel 3 has once again teamed up with Voices for Children of Greater Cleveland, KidsOhio.org, The Center for Families and Children, Invest in Children, Chuck and Ilana Horowitz Ratner and Forest City Enterprises to bring NE Ohio several important local community events and the third in a series of compelling local specials Making The Grade: Helping Our Kids Achieve," said WKYC President and General Manager Brooke Spectorsky.
"Our children and their successes are vital to the growth and future of our community," added Horowitz Ratner.
mffais.com [MFFAIS - Mutual Fund Facts About Individual Stocks], Forest City Enterprises Inc (FCYA.BE) dumped by Macquarie Group Ltd
Macquarie Group Ltd completely dumped all -11,305 shares they owned of Forest City Enterprises Inc (FCYA.BE) as shown by filings made public on 2008-06-11.
The stock is currently owned by 174 funds/institutions with a total activity score of 0.08. With 44.97 % of owning funds reported recently buying shares, 15.38 % maintaining existing share level and 39.64 % selling shares. Full details for Forest City Enterprises Inc (FCYA.BE) available at http://www.mffais.com/fcya.be.html.
GlobeSt.com, $719M Funds Affordable Creation, Preservation
At least these subsidies will fund housing instead of a hoops emporium.
The largest Brooklyn financing is for 80 DeKalb Ave, an 80/20 project in the Fort Greene neighborhood near downtown Brooklyn, which will receive $137 million in financing for a 34-story building with 365 units, of which 73 will be reserved for low-income tenants. The borrower will be FC 80 DeKalb Associates LLC, whose principals include Bruce Ratner, chairman of Forest City Ratner Cos.
Posted by lumi at 4:12 AM
June 12, 2008
As Cranes Fall and People Die
Economic Development for Whom?
CounterPunch.org
by Judith Levine
In an essay decrying the conventional wisdom that in a construction boom, accidents will happen, Brooklyn author Judith Levine fingers a ubiquitous bogeyman.
Developers—like Forest City Ratner, preparing for Brooklyn Atlantic Yards—demolish affordable housing to build “sub-market-rate” housing, which is unaffordable to most New Yorkers. Meanwhile, the City announces that budget cuts will force 15% rent rises in public housing and the closing of community centers and programs.
...Perhaps City Hall has always been a wholly owned subsidiary of the equivalent of Forest City Ratner. Perhaps there’s never been a time when New Yorkers didn’t wake up to the sound of jackhammers, when life here was not noisy, crowded, and chaotic. When workers did not fall to their deaths from skyscrapers and cranes.
But the question is always the same: who benefits?
The job of public officials is to ensure that the answer is the public—not just developers, but the rest of us.
NoLandGrab: Well, we know Bruce Ratner and his cronies benefit. The check for everyone else is in the mail.
Posted by eric at 2:33 PM
June 11, 2008
Square Feet: Squeezing Big-Box Retailing Into Small City Spaces
The New York Times
by Terry Pristin
Blumenfeld [Development Group] is developing East River Plaza with Forest City Ratner, which was also the partner of The New York Times Company in its headquarters building on Eighth Avenue.
Home Depot has been part of the East River Plaza project for about a decade. Two years ago, the retailer signed a 30-year lease for 110,000 square feet of space. But like many national retailers, Home Depot is trimming its expansion plans as a result of the weak economy, and the company is talking to two warehouse clubs — Costco and BJ’s — about subletting its space, Mr. Blumenfeld said. A Home Depot spokeswoman said the company is “re-evaluating” the site.
As it happens, Costco had counted on becoming one of the anchor stores at East River Plaza, but instead the developers cut a deal with Target in 2006, leading Jeffrey H. Brotman, Costco’s chairman, to complain publicly about being shunted aside.
NoLandGrab: OK, this story provides us with a perfect opportunity to do an Atlantic Yards hypocrisy check.
Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) had a deal with Costco to be one of two anchor tenants at East River Plaza. But when Target expressed interest in 2006, FCRC booted Costco for the bullseye-logoed retailer, which happens to be the main tenant of FCR's Atlantic Terminal mall.
Then in March of this year, Home Depot, the other anchor tenant, announced that it was rethinking its commitment, due to the double-whammy of a slowing economy and the global credit crunch. But Costco-kicker-outter FCRC got all legal on Home Depot; FCRC VP Loren Riegelhaupt told Crain's NY Business, "we have a lease with them, and we expect them to live up to that.” Yup, they're all about honoring commitments.
Speaking of honoring commitments, Forest City Ratner lobbyist Richard Lipsky is best known for heading the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, which purports to fight "the danger presented by big box stores. These stores... pose a dire threat to all of the city’s neighborhood businesses and the communities they serve." Lipsky also represents West Harlem businessman Nick Sprayregen, whose properties face the threat of eminent domain for Columbia University's expansion plan. But Lipsky apparently loves money more than he hates eminent domain, since he's happy to do Bruce Ratner's bidding on Atlantic Yards.
Posted by eric at 5:23 PM
Forest City in the News
The Express Times, Decline of Summit a mixed blessing
Forest City walks away from a project in Bethlehem Township.
It was envisioned to be a new center for the township with more than 1 million square feet of retail space and hundreds of homes for various income levels.
Now after six years and more than $20 million in planning costs later, the Summit Lehigh Valley project at Route 33 and Freemansburg Avenue is no more.
Forest City hoped to continue pursuing the project, but its option to purchase the land from owner Elaine Emrick expired and it was unable to secure an extension, said Jeff Linton, vice president of corporate communication for Forest City. Emrick did not return a call for comment Friday.
The project stalled because of the housing market conditions, a slowdown in the retail industry and delays in the public infrastructure process, Linton said. Forest City and other nearby developers hit a snag over sewer service before the township and the city of Bethlehem reached an agreement last year.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Forest City's loss widens in first quarter
A $21.5 million write off for the project in Bethlehem Township and the increased carrying costs of the money-sucking New Jersey Nets put a big dent in the Forest City balance sheet;:
A dropped property deal and continued losses on the New Jersey Nets basketball teamed dragged down Forest City Enterprises during the first quarter.
The mega-developer, based in downtown Cleveland, reported earnings after the market closed Thursday. The good news: Revenues jumped 14.6 percent, compared with the same quarter a year before. The bad: Losses widened to $40.3 million -- 39 cents a share -- during the three months that ended April 30. That compares to a $17.2 million loss, or 17 cents a share, during the first quarter of 2007.
It's not unusual for Forest City, which buys, sells and develops property, to see wild swings in its quarterly earnings. A significant property sale can boost profits, while -- in the case of the recent quarter -- abandoned development plans can mean big losses.
...
"We prudently abandoned the project and have written off the related costs," Charles Ratner, Forest City's president and chief executive, said in a news release. "We are well aware of the risks inherent in the real estate development business, even as we continue to seek new opportunities."Forest City also lost money on its 22 percent ownership stake in the Nets, for whom the developer plans a new arena at its controversial Atlantic Yards development in New York City. The team's total money losses did not change significantly from the beginning of 2007 to early 2008, but Forest City shouldered a greater portion of those losses during the recent quarter, said Michael Lonsway, vice president of strategy and investment.
City Limits, IN FAR ROCKAWAY, PRETTY BEACH MEETS HOUSING BUST
An article about the tortured history of development in the Rockaways contains this bit about a past Forest City Ratner proposal:
To revive the local economy, community and city officials tried for decades to lure private developers to the Arverne Urban Renewal Area, which was under the authority of HPD. Two major proposals were forwarded in the 1980s and 90s: first a Forest City Ratner project to build 10,000 condo units on the beach collapsed under its own scale; then a Toronto-based developer planned a massive sports and entertainment complex, Destination Technodome, that would have created thousands of jobs but was scuttled because of poor transit options. Both plans came in an era of stagnant real estate development across the city, when developers seemed to abandon lots more frequently than develop on them.
Columbus Dispatch, Conventional decisions
Forest City Enterprises provides a cautionary tale for an article comparing Columbus, OH's convention center amenities to other cities:
On the other hand, Pittsburgh and Columbus both lack enough full-service hotel rooms adjacent to the convention center. Plans in Pittsburgh for a hotel attached to the convention center have been stalled for several years as the interested developer, Cleveland-based Forest City, envisions something smaller than the 1,000-room hotel VisitPittsburgh wants there.
Posted by lumi at 3:44 AM
June 7, 2008
Was that FCE's Chuck Ratner at the "Brooklyn Day" rally?
Atlantic Yards Report
Though Forest City Ratner head Bruce Ratner was nowhere in evidence at the "Brooklyn Day" rally at Borough Hall yesterday, his cousin Chuck Ratner--or someone who looks very much like him--was in attendance. Chuck Ratner is the president and CEO of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises (FCE), parent of Forest City Ratner.He's notable for saying that "we still need more" subsidies and offering dubious promises about the AY timetable. Was he in Brooklyn to lobby local officials, to take the measure of AY supporters and opponents, or simply to absorb the spirit of a "fun day,"? In the photo, at least, he looks pensive.
Posted by amy at 8:50 AM
June 6, 2008
"Fun day"? At FCR’s “Brooklyn Day” rally, déjà vu and defensiveness
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder has the play-by-play of yesterday's Forest City Ratner-sponsored "Brooklyn Day" rally, and it seems the playbook has not been updated.
If you listened to the arguments for Atlantic Yards offered at the Forest City Ratner-sponsored “Brooklyn Day” rally yesterday at Borough Hall, they sounded suspiciously like those aired at rallies in 2004, or the public meetings in 2006. Jobs, housing, and hoops. The half-century-old loss of the Dodgers. The failure of “opponents” to step up.
The difference in 2008, with the project at this moment stalled, was a palpable air of defensiveness, calls for “our share” and “a piece of the pie,” even as developer Forest City Ratner, behind the scenes, seeks more subsidies.
The edge in Borough President Marty Markowitz’s voice was undeniable, as he and others flailed the opposition for delaying the project, but offering no more insight other than “build it now.” They mentioned nothing about the credit crisis, the limited pool of tax-exempt bonds, the state’s extended deadline for construction, and the developer’s subsidy request.
Though speakers like ACORN New York head Bertha Lewis and Carpenters Union Local 926 President Sal Zarzana at times were able to whip up the crowd, Brooklyn was just not very much in the house.
NoLandGrab: While several speakers cited the need to feed families and to create affordable housing as reasons to "build it now," no one explained how sinking nearly $1 billion into a basketball arena was a good use of a shrinking pool of tax revenues.
Posted by eric at 10:22 AM
ATLANTIC 'RALLY' YARDS
NY Post
by Rich Calder
The regular Post headline writers must be on vacation.
Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner certainly knows how to throw a party. The man who wants to bring the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn spared no expense yesterday in organizing a gala rally on the steps of Borough Hall to garner support for his $4 billion project, which includes an NBA arena, housing and office space.
More than 3,500 people turned out for the event.
Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for anti-Atlantic Yards group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, said the rally stunk of "desperation" and was likely done to get more subsidies.
Posted by eric at 10:19 AM
Ratner cooks up rally for Brooklyn project
NY Daily News
by Brooke Naylor, Ayala Falk and Melissa Grace
Scores of people turned out to support the controversial Atlantic Yards project on Thursday at a rally paid for by the developer.
As part of Brooklyn Day celebrations, Forest City Ratner handed out free hot dogs and T-shirts at Columbus Park near Borough Hall. The developer's $4.2 billion project in downtown Brooklyn includes offices, apartments and a basketball arena for the Nets.
"This is Brooklyn's future," Borough President Marty Markowitz said from the stage. "Nobody is going to hold it back, nobody. We deserve it."
The developer said 3,000 attended the rally, held on a day city public schools were closed.
NoLandGrab: Those kids look like they'd rather be in school than listening to speeches by the likes of Marty Markowitz.
Posted by eric at 9:21 AM
June 5, 2008
Rally Seeks to Jump Start Atlantic Yards Project
WNYC Radio
by Matthew Schuerman
An estimated 3,500 people turned out for a rally in support of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. Many of them were union construction workers who took time off nearby jobs. They said they felt the project, which will be union-built, was being threatened by local elected officials who are having second thoughts about a project that has already got all of its approvals. Anthony Williamson represents general construction laborers.
WILLIAMSON: And we're sending a message to people opposed to this, including political leaders who oppose this, that in this hard time, people need to have, you know, people need to put food on the table. People need to give their kids a decent education.
REPORTER: The developer, Forest City Ratner, says the company held the rally in order to celebrate Brooklyn Day, a traditional public school holiday. A spokesman, Loren Riegelhaupt, said five thousand sandwiches, fifteen hundred hot dogs and three thousand t-shirts were given away for free.
NoLandGrab: Well, not exactly free, since the hundreds of millions in public subsidies probably helped offset the cost of the swag.
Posted by eric at 11:04 PM
Does an unreleased land appraisal hide a sweetheart deal for Forest City Ratner?
Atlantic Yards Report
OK, we did Norman Oder a disservice in the previous post by comparing him to a slacker like Sherlock Holmes. Though foiled in his FOIL request to New York City's Economic Development Corporation for details of its appraisal of the land on which the arena would be built, Oder has pieced together a compelling case that Forest City Ratner may be getting yet another government-enabled sweetheart deal.
...the appraisal may well have low-balled the true value of the land, according to information shared with me by a real estate professional, and let Forest City Ratner get away with paying less than the property is worth under the ESDC's zoning override.
NYC EDC’s unwillingness to release the appraisal also rests on dubious logic, such as the claim that the developer is negotiating with other property owners in the Atlantic Yards footprint. Some of the agency’s other justifications for denying my FOIL and not releasing the appraisal are questionable, as I’ll describe below.
This analysis contains a certain amount of speculation, of course, but it relies on reasonable suspicion. We won't know if Forest City Ratner got a sweetheart deal until NYC EDC releases the appraisal publicly.
NoLandGrab: Proponents of Atlantic Yards have repeatedly claimed that owners who sold their properties to Ratner made out handsomely. That may be true, in relation to the prices those owners paid, but it's almost certainly not true when the state's zoning override is factored in, allowing Ratner to build something much bigger.
Posted by eric at 9:27 AM
Building 1 gets a Barclays logo
Atlantic Yards Report
The sharp-eyed Norman Oder (picture a blogging Sherlock Holmes with a magnifying glass) notices a curious detail in Forest City Ratner's Brooklyn Day flyer.
Note the advertising signage (highlighted) on the flagship Atlantic Yards tower. It did not appear in Frank Gehry's new renderings released last month....
Posted by eric at 8:59 AM
June 4, 2008
Forest City in the News
Tuesday was community day at Forest City Enterprises. To celebrate community day in Brooklyn, demolition continued in the footprint of the company's Atlantic Yards project in Prospect Heights.
KITV.com, Company Gives Local Schools Maintenance Help
HONOLULU -- A company that builds and manages residential properties on Hawaii's military bases went to work for local schools Tuesday.
Two-dozen employees of the company Forest City Military Communities painted the fence at Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary School.
It is part of the company's fourth annual Community Day, where workers pitch in to do needed repairs and maintenance.
New Mexico Business Weekly, Mesa del Sol workers plan events for PB&J
Employees of the Mesa del Sol master-planned, mixed-use community south of Albuquerque will spend the day June 3, building a garden and putting on a carnival at the Peanut Butter and Jelly Therapeutic Preschool.
One day each year, Mesa del Sol developer Forest City Enterprises holds its Community Day, encouraging employees to spend their day doing something good in the community. This year, employees chose to focus their efforts on the preschool, known as PB&J, which opened in 1972 and is at 1101 Lopez Rd. SW in Albuquerque's South Valley. The carnival is for children who attend the school and their families.
Posted by lumi at 4:13 AM
June 3, 2008
At Borough Hall on Thursday, another FCR-organized AY rally
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder plumbs the motivations behind Forest City Ratner's not-so-spontaneous "Brooklyn Day" extravaganza.
First, Forest City Ratner quietly orchestrated a counter-protest in response to the "Time Out" rally on May 3. Now the developer is offering an Atlantic Yards rally on Thursday, complete with free lunch, and drawing on the combined efforts of construction trade unions and community organizations, notably those associated with the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).
Despite the fig leaf of a "Brooklyn Day" celebrating the borough, the rally suggests the developer's worried that the project, is not a "done deal." (Given the once-a-month schedule, should we expect another rally during the first week of July?)
It'll be interesting if we hear are any specifics regarding the developer's plans--when exactly might the project move forward, given the lack of arena bonds and housing bonds or an anchor tenant for Building 1? Will those lured to the rally be simply used as props for a photo op? Will they be cited in legal papers aiming to clear the three extant lawsuits? Will they be used to help leverage more subsidies?
The rally poster suggests that the developer is de-emphasizing the promises of affordable housing--after all, the developer has 12+ years to build Phase 1, and no deadline for Phase 2--and returning to the old mantra of basketball. After all, the basketball motif dominates the poster and, at the top, "The Nets moving to Brooklyn!" appears in larger type than "support the Atlantic Yards Project." Can the iconographic power of the flag and the Brooklyn Bridge nudge the stalled project forward?
What does Delia Hunley-Adossa do when she's not monitoring the project's environmental impacts?
Hunley-Adossa (with megaphone, at the May 3 rally), heads a group called the Brooklyn Endeavor Experience (BEE), which has a Potemkin role in monitoring AY environmental assurances, given that the developer is in compliance by following the state-mandated process. Like five of the eight CBA signatories, the BEE had no track record in its assigned CBA role. There's no evidence of external fundraising, so, as with several other CBA signatories, BEE is likely funded by the developer. In other words, CBA signatories are funded by Forest City Ratner to generate public and political support for the project.
The lack of actual environmental monitoring leaves more time to organize rallies; Hunley-Adossa's e-mail message said she'd "make arrangements to transport large groups." It also referred to a (student?) organization, not known to me, apparently called "Help 2":
All HELP 2 participants and parents are to call Dee upon receipt...this is a day that we want our members to participate and volunteer their services.
Posted by eric at 9:57 AM
Brooklyn Day!
On December 10th, 2003, Atlantic Yards was rolled out at Brooklyn Borough Hall as a done deal, with the apparent support of nearly every power-brokering politician in Brooklyn, New York City, and Albany.
Why then, would Forest City Ratner need to throw itself a rally on June 5th, 2008 to "support the Atlantic Yards Project and The Nets moving to Brooklyn!"? Haven't they done this before?
We can only surmise that Ratner's marquee mega-project is truly on the ropes, what with the American flag and Brooklyn Bridge imagery included on the flyer and the call to all Brooklyn building trades to abandon their work sites to come to the desperate PR event "rally." An email sent by Delia Hunley-Adossa yesterday aimed at drumming up bodies for the event repeatedly used all caps to emphasize all the FREE stuff attendees will receive.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and Atlantic Yards Report have lengthy analyses of the materials and the motivations behind the "rally." Thanks, guys, for saving us the trouble.
Posted by eric at 9:01 AM
June 2, 2008
Forest City in the News
Crain's Cleveland Business, Forest City sells 80% stake in Network Parking
L&R Group, a Los Angeles-based parking lot operator, has acquired Forest City Enterprises Inc.’s 80% interest in Network Parking of Cleveland for an undisclosed amount.
L&R also inked a long-term agreement to become Forest City’s parking provider nationally with the exception of its New York City properties.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Eastern Henrico shopping center on track to open in early October
Thanks to Forest City Enterprises and creative bond financing, "The times when residents from eastern Henrico County had to drive out of the area to shop at a Circuit City or eat at Red Lobster are nearly over."
TMC.net, Key downtown Fresno project in works: A lot is riding on housing-retail plan near Selland.
City officials are counting on its housing, convention facilities, hotel rooms and entertainment to create a slice of what downtown has been missing for nearly a half-century -- life around the clock.
...
City officials in the past four years have touted huge projects in or near the city's core. But Forest City Enterprises' South Stadium project still is waiting to turn its first shovelful of dirt, and billionaire developer Donald Trump's effort to buy the bankrupt Running Horse golf and residential project in southwest Fresno fizzled.
NoLandGrab: Because of the threat of the use of eminent domain, the Forest City Enterprises Fresno project is on property rights activists' watch list.
Chicago Business, Mega-malls stalled
Four of five massive shopping centers proposed for Will County are delaying their openings as retailers halt expansion plans in a slowing economy.
...
Will County's population rocketed to more than 650,000 from 500,000 at the beginning of this decade. The epicenter of the retail rush has been New Lenox, where the recently completed extension of Interstate 355 attracted two national developers, each proposing to build malls with more than 1 million square feet of retail space.Collectively, the two projects, one by Forest City Enterprises Inc. and the other by Zaremba Group LLC, both of Cleveland, are forecast to generate as much as $6 million a year in sales tax revenue for the village, New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann says. ...
The head of Forest City's Chicago office, Jerry Ferstman, says his firm is still committed to its New Lenox plan. "We're going forward with the project," he says. "With everything that's been going on with the economy and the credit crunch, it's gotten delayed a year."
The Morning Call, St. Luke's expansion to turn 500 acres into green giant
Plans have been scrapped for Forest City's proposed mall in Bethlehem Township.
St. Luke's Hospital announced Friday it would more than double the size of its proposed complex in Bethlehem Township and work with General Electric to create the world's first so-called ''ecomagination'' health care campus.
Exactly what St. Luke's plans to do with the new 300 acres, just east of nearly 200 acres it already owns at Route 33 and Freemansburg Avenue, remains unclear.
But it is clear The Summit Lehigh Valley lifestyle mall, the project formerly pitched for the property St. Luke's is buying, won't move forward as planned, township officials said. The mall developer, Forest City Enterprises, declined to comment.
Posted by lumi at 4:08 AM
May 30, 2008
Q4 2007 Forest City Enterprises, Inc. Earnings Conference Call - Final
InsuranceNewsNet.com
InsuranceNewsNet has the entire transcript of Forest City Enterprises's 4th Quarter 2007 earnings call posted on its web site.
Use the search function to dig up references to Atlantic Yards, including the company's latest favorite lie: that it's 18-0 in Atlantic Yards-related legal decisions.
JOANNE MINIERI, PRESIDENT, FOREST CITY RATNER COMPANIES: Thanks, Chuck. We and our partners have been receiving favorable court decisions and now have won 18 separate rulings on the Atlantic yards project. There have been no adverse decisions.
NoLandGrab: We wonder in what other ways FCE might be misleading investors.
Posted by eric at 2:17 PM
May 29, 2008
Financing Woes Could Doom Lower Manhattan Agency
The NY Sun
By Peter Kiefer
The latest installment in the continuing saga of redevelopment of Lower Manhattan mentions developer Bruce Ratner's Frank Gehry-designed Beekman St. tower, which will finally have its design unveiling tomorrow.
The agency responsible for overseeing more than $20 billion of construction in Lower Manhattan is in danger of being disbanded because financing from the state, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has not been forthcoming, according to several sources.
The hybrid city and state agency known as the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center is in charge of coordinating the development of the World Trade Center site, including plans for a new PATH Station, the MTA's Fulton Transit Center, and the construction of developer Bruce Ratner's 75-story Beekman Tower, among others.
The agency is facing a budget shortfall of about $9 million, according to officials from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which controls the Command Center. The Port Authority owes about $5.2 million and the MTA owes $3.8 million. Both entities are controlled by Governor Paterson.
Posted by lumi at 4:37 AM
May 28, 2008
Beekman Tower
Forest City to Unveil Frank Gehry's First Manhattan Apartment Tower
Even though Bruce Ratner's Frank Gehry-designed Beekman St. tower has already broken ground, secured massive subsidies and figures in a deal with State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to provide much-needed classroom space, the public has never actually had a peek at what this tower would look like.
In an effort to gin up publicity for Frank Gehry's first Manhattan residential cloud-buster, the so-called Beekman Tower, developer Forest City Ratner will unveil the design in a ceremony on Friday afternoon.
The development will be Mr. Gehry's second in Manhattan, following his wildly succesful design for the IAC headquarters on 11th Avenue.
The Beekman Tower is slated to rise 76 stories between Spruce and Beekman streets, with 903 market-rate rental apartments inside.
The 1.1 million-square-foot building will also house a public school and an ambulatory care center for New York Downtown Hospital.
Posted by lumi at 5:00 AM
May 27, 2008
Condo sales slumping, cities offer incentives
AP, via WTOL11 (Cleveland)
Slumping sales are forcing Cleveland area condo developers to offer free washers, dryers and even cars to lure buyers.
...
Forest City Enterprises recently re-launched condo sales with a 5 percent discount, plus a free washer and dryer. The empty condos hurt the city's tax base and drive down property values.
NoLandGrab: What will be the result of Forest City Enterprises's build-it-and-they-will-come business plan in Brooklyn?
Posted by lumi at 5:04 AM
May 23, 2008
Jeffries says Assembly should hold AY hearing; FCR instead offers breakfast update
Atlantic Yards Report
Hakeem Jeffries continues to talk tougher regarding Atlantic Yards.
While the State Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions is holding a hearing today on the progress of development projects on Manhattan's West Side, there's a strong argument for a hearing to assess the status of the Atlantic Yards project as well.
Whether that hearing, including representatives of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and developer Forest City Ratner, will get scheduled is another question. Assembly leadership--apparently Speaker Sheldon Silver--has so far balked, according to Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries.
Joint committee hearing
Jeffries, who represents Prospect Heights and the AY footprint, is a member of the Corporations committee. He said last night that he and two neighboring legislators--Assemblywoman Joan Millman, who chairs the Oversight, Analysis and Investigation committee, and Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who chairs the Cities committee--want to hold a joint hearing of their committees regarding Atlantic Yards, given the uncertainty regarding the project.
"I'd like to get all of them, ESDC and the developer, on the record, under oath," Jeffries said at a meeting of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council at P.S. 9 on Underhill Avenue. (Among the questions worth asking: how exactly were the generous timetables for the project determined?)
"There's been some resistance," Jeffries said. "The developer has offered to meet with legislators at a legislative breakfast. I think there's been enough back-room conversation."
He said hoped a hearing could sort out plans regarding eminent domain, the financing of the arena, the commitment to build affordable housing, and any negotiations to sell the Nets to an ownership group that would have them play in Newark's Prudential Center instead.
NoLandGrab: Jim Brennan also told a meeting of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats last night that he intends to introduce legislation in the Assembly that would require Atlantic Yards to go through a fast-tracked City ULURP process.
Posted by eric at 9:34 AM
Marine Park Students Get Special Reading Motivation
Canarsie Courier
City Councilman Lew Fidler joined former New Jersey Nets star Albert King last week to show local youth the importance of reading in an event coordinated by Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC). Fidler and King read to dozens of students at P.S. 207...
Posted by lumi at 5:09 AM