No Land Grab

Forest City Enterprises Press Release

Posted by eric at 11:04 AM

September 7, 2011

Liberty Bonds, 9/11, and Forest City Ratner: the first subsidy for a commercial tower (the only one in Brooklyn) and the largest subsidy for a residential tower

Atlantic Yards Report

While Forest City Ratner was not the largest beneficiary of post-9/11 federal recovery funds, it was among the savviest, gaining the first triple tax-exempt bonds for commercial projects, the Bank of New York Tower at Atlantic Terminal, which was the only project outside of Manhattan.

Beyond that, FCR garnered the single largest share of the relatively small amount of tax-exempt bonds designed for housing, aiding construction of the Beekman Tower (aka 8 Spruce Street aka New York by Gehry) in Lower Manhattan.

Thus, in gaining nearly $300 million in tax-exempt (federal, state, city) bonds, the developer saved tens of millions of dollars by paying a lower interest rate. It's more evidence for scholar/writer Fred Siegel's characterization of Bruce Ratner in the 11/30/05 Cleveland Plain Dealer: "He's the master of subsidy."

Yesterday, in a New York Post op-ed headlined Liberty misspent: Political use of rebuild bonds, Nicole Gelinas of the free-market Manhattan Institute suggested that, given that so much of the aid, including up to $8 billion in Liberty Bonds for real estate, went outside of Ground Zero, "New York squandered time and money doling out favors."

Beyond Gelinas's argument, there's evidence, described below, that the Bank of New York is not now meeting the requirements for job retention that justified another chunk of subsidies it gained.

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Posted by eric at 11:24 AM

September 5, 2011

Today's West Indian American Carnival parade, and a prediction regarding 2012 sponsors

Atlantic Yards Report

The West Indian American Carnival parade, New York City's largest public event, occurs today in Brooklyn, beginning at 11 am along Eastern Parkway at Utica Avenue, moving west until it ends two miles later at the Brooklyn Museum, with crowds dispersing west to Grand Army Plaza.

The latter's a mile or so east of the Atlantic Avenue transit hub and Barclays Center construction site.

It's an event for local political and civic leaders and organizations to attend--who can forget Borough President Marty Markowitz's annual appearances, not in carnival get-up, but wearing a tropical shirt?

The website for the West Indian American Carnival Association lists several sponsors:

The list does not include Forest City Ratner, the Nets, nor Barclays. I'd bet that, in 2012, when the arena is opening, one or more of those three will be among the sponsors.

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NoLandGrab: Walmart is playing the Forest City/Nets/Barlcays role in the 2011 edition.

Posted by eric at 9:37 AM

September 1, 2011

Who got the Liberty Bonds?

The Torch
by Nicole Gelinas

The journalist and free-marketeer reminds us that Bruce Ratner got a chunk of taxpayer money to rebuild that portion of Fort Greene damaged in the 9/11 attacks.

The city’s independent budget office (IBO) has released a report on New York’s post-9/11 disaster and recovery spending. So who got the Liberty Bond money?

As part of its $20.5 billion aid package, remember, Washington gave the city $1.2 billion to support $8 billion worth of “Liberty Bonds” — bonds that private companies could issue for real-estate development projects. No level of government (federal, state, or local) guaranteed the bonds’ repayment, but the bonds are exempt from federal, state, and local taxes, meaning that investors demand a lower interest rate on them.

Of the $6.4 billion in Liberty Bonds issued since 2003, only $3.8 billion – 59 percent — went to build projects at the World Trade Center site. WTC developer Larry Silverstein got about $3.1 billion, and the Port Authority took (or will take) $701.6 million for itself.

Who got the rest? Goldman Sachs got $1.7 billion for its downtown tower. The Dursts got $650 million for the Bank of America building (in Midtown). A Forest City (that’s Bruce Ratner of Atlantic Yards) office-tower project for BONY Mellon in Brooklyn got $90.8 million.

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Posted by eric at 9:28 PM

August 30, 2011

Bollard backtrack! MTA reverses course on Atlantic Terminal security sarcophagi

The Brooklyn Paper
by Daniel Bush

It's getting increasingly difficult to keep track of the bollards around here. The Barclays Center, which the NYPD in 2007 said wouldn't require bollards, is going to get more than 200 of them. And now, less than two years after NoLandGrab broke the story of the Atlantic Terminal's massive, tomb-like bollards, the MTA says it's going to downsize them.

The MTA has agreed to tear out the massive granite barricades ringing the Long Island Rail Road’s Atlantic Terminal, finally admitting that the concrete coffins at the borough’s largest transit hub were excessive and ugly.

Starting in February, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will rip out the 14 stone sarcophagi and replace them with a series of short metal bollards at the entrance to the $106-million Atlantic Terminal, which opened to immediate criticism in January, 2010.

Actually, they pre-opened to our criticism on December 7, 2009, to be precise.

MTA spokesman Sal Arena acknowledged that the stunning reversal was a response to outcry over the massive security perimeter.

“The new, smaller bollards are less intrusive and more acceptable to the community,” Arena said.

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NoLandGrab: And in a landmark deal, Barclays has purchased the naming rights, and the MTA spokesman will now be known as Sal Barclays.

Photo: Barry Shifrin/The Brooklyn Paper

Posted by eric at 10:17 AM

Fort Greene thieves love iPhones

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

And they love Bruce Ratner's malls, too.

Stroller swipe

A thief snagged a wallet from a 41-year-old woman getting last-minute Hurricane Irene provisions from the Atlantic Center Pathmark on Aug. 26.

The woman had left her wallet atop her baby stroller at 8:30 pm when the thief walked by and grabbed it.

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Posted by eric at 10:13 AM

August 29, 2011

Storm mostly spares New York City; had winds been worse, unsecured potential projectiles at Atlantic Yards site could have posed dangers

Atlantic Yards Report

Anyone familiar with Bruce Ratner's record of "securing" construction sites won't be surprised that Atlantic Yards was a hurricane accident waiting to happen.

As the New York Times headline put it, Storm Damage Largely Spares New York, which includes the Atlantic Yards site.

NetsDaily reported:

Barry Baum, senior vice-president for communications at The Barclays Center reports the arena "had no structural damage or damage to equipment. There's water, but it is being pumped out. Everything held up very well." Critics had questioned whether equipment had been secured.

That's a rather pat dismissal (though par for the NetsDaily course). After all, the fact of no damage does not mean that equipment was secured.

As noted yesterday, there were signs of inadequate preparation--materials and equipment left uncovered at the site, despite instructions from the Department of Buildings.

Additional photos

And, according to the file below contributed by a reader, there were several instances of unsecured potential projectiles, including loose lumber. Also note overturned toilets and some collected trash that likely exacerbates the rat problem.

Note that the file is hardly comprehensive; the before-and-after photos focus on the railyard and the site perimeter, not the interior of the arena site, where there were more materials and equipment.

Click thru for pictures, including one of the "Outhouse of Flying Daggers."

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Posted by eric at 9:24 AM

August 26, 2011

The New York Times Building to Host Gallery of Reflection for Sept. 11

Press Release via Reuters

Those patriots at Forest City Ratner, who help themselves — Liberally, of course — to hundreds of millions in public subsidies, are wrapping themselves in the mantle of 9/11.

The New York Times Building will host 9/11 Remembered: A Gallery of Reflection, an exhibit to mark the 10th anniversary of the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The gallery will be on view in the lobby of the Times Building and open to the public from Thursday, Sept. 8, through Monday, Sept. 12, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

9/11 Remembered will be a reflection on Sept. 11, 2001 and the past 10 years, and a look toward the future, told through still and video images curated from The New York Times archive.
...

9/11 Remembered is presented by The New York Times and Forest City Ratner Companies. Additional information about the exhibit can be found at www.NYTGalleryofReflection.com.

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Posted by eric at 10:52 AM

August 25, 2011

The Week in Crime: Police Urge Extra Vigilance

The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill]
by Liza Eckert

The local police are warning that lately, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill are like Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls — you could be a crime victim at any moment.

A spokesman for the 88th Precinct also asked us to alert residents to a couple of worrying crime trends. A spike in robberies, including several involving iPhones, prompted police to ask residents to be extra careful.

“Especially after dark, we’d like to ask them to refrain from using their expensive electronic items in public,” said a spokesman for the 88th Precinct.
...

Larceny at Marshall’s

-A 37-year-old woman set her bag down next to her stroller in Marshall’s on Atlantic Avenue around 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 15 while she walked away to look at some clothes. When she returned, the bag, containing passports, Medicaid cards, money orders and social security cards, was gone.

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Posted by eric at 6:14 PM

August 17, 2011

FOREST CITY RATNER PRESS RELEASE: Basking in the glow of the nearing 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks

Some people have no shame.

Frank Gehry's Lower Manhattan Skyscraper Is A Shining Symbol of Renewal and Residential Renaissance Over the Past Decade

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A symbol of Lower Manhattan's resurgence over the past decade as a vibrant residential, commercial and cultural neighborhood, the shining New York by Gehry at Eight Spruce Street (NewYorkbyGehry.com) is lauded by architecture critics worldwide. With stainless steel cladding curving like draped fabric, it's an inspired addition to the Manhattan skyline.

"I designed a building I would want to live in as a New Yorker," said renowned architect Frank Gehry. "You could say this is my love letter to New York City. I'm thrilled we were able to do it in Lower Manhattan, which allowed me to be part of something so meaningful -- to stand with this building's neighbors, the residents and businesses of this neighborhood. We worked together over the past seven years to create a new icon for Lower Manhattan."
...

Bruce C. Ratner, Chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, said, "Lower Manhattan has shown its resilience, and we are so proud to be part of its residential growth and renewal. It's been extremely fulfilling to collaborate with Frank Gehry to realize his stunning design and to work with the Bloomberg Administration and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to create a new five-story, 100,000-square-foot public school -- much-needed by local families."

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NoLandGrab: We're a little surprised they didn't Photoshop in the faint outline of the Twin Towers in the photograph and hang a big American flag off of Gehry's "love letter."

Posted by eric at 10:40 AM

August 16, 2011

Another crime in Fort Greene Park

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

Pocketbooks aren't the only thing not being protected by Target's Pocketbook Protectors — hang on to your lingerie!

Target swipe

A thief snagged the mother lode during a visit to the Flatbush Avenue Target on Aug. 10: a woman’s bag containing a laptop computer, ipod, cellphone and credit cards.

The 30-year-old victim left her bag unattended in a shopping cart as she perused the aisles at 7:02 pm. When she returned two minutes later, her bag was gone.

Bra bilker

A thief swiped more than $1,600 worth of “Dream Angel” bras at the Victoria Secret inside the crime-ridden Atlantic Terminal mall on Flatbush Avenue on Aug. 13.

The unidentified goon pulled the uplifting undergarments — which cost between $45 and $58 apiece — from store shelves at 1:20 pm, putting them in a Target bag. He then scurried out a back door before anyone knew what had happened.

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Posted by eric at 9:53 AM

August 13, 2011

The Week in Crime: Violent Fights Across Neighborhood

The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill]
by Lisha Arino

It appears that Target's Pocketbook Protectors have once again failed to protect shoppers' pocketbooks.

Other Stolen Wallets and Purses

-A 32-year-old woman reported on Aug. 4 that someone stole her purse, police said. The woman said that it was taken from her on July 31 at about 7:30 p.m. while she was in the Atlantic Terminal Mall Target, police said. She placed her bag on a shelf to look through some items, but when she returned, the purse was missing, the woman told police. She also lost her Nokia cell phone, chains, Citibank card, credit cards and a university ID card, police said. The victim called her cell phone and spoke to a female on the other line who agreed to return the phone for a reward, but the victim told police that the woman did not follow through.

You can't expect much help from the police, however, when other mall patrons are biting them.

Resisting Arrest at Atlantic Terminal

-Two women were fighting at Atlantic Terminal on Aug. 2 at 5:25 p.m., police said, when an officer stepped in and tried to cool down the fight and arrest one of the woman, police said. She resisted arrest by flailing her arms, kicking, and biting the officer on the right arm, police said. She also yelled, “Get your hands off of me,” police said.

Latasha S. Lee, 18, was arrested at the station at 5:39 p.m., police said. She has been charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, harassment in the second degree and assault in the second and third degrees, according to the Kings County District Attorney’s office.

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Posted by eric at 9:40 AM

August 11, 2011

Metro Tech BID takeover now complete

The Broolyn Blog [NYPost.com]
by Rich Calder

Just what Brooklynites have been clamoring for — more power consolidated in the greedy hands of Bruce Ratner.

It’s official! The public-private Downtown Brooklyn Partnership beginning August 15 will seize control the Metro Tech Business Improvement District.
...

The Partnership, a development corporation created by Bloomberg to spur economic development in Downtown Brooklyn, will now manage the BID’s operations -- and its $2.6 million yearly budget raised through a neighborhood property tax -- ending more than two years of bickering by BID board members split over the plan.

A faction, including Aviles and top BID brass, had fought the Partnership plan despite pressure from City Hall and developer Forest City Ratner, which built Metro Tech’s office complex in the 1980s.

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Posted by eric at 9:44 AM

August 10, 2011

As Investors, Chinese Turn to New York

The New York Times
by Kirk Semple

Leave it to The Times to completely gloss over the controversial nature of its development partner's EB-5 investment program.

Chinese banks have poured more than $1 billion into real estate loans in New York City in the past year. Investors from China are snapping up luxury apartments and planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on commercial and residential projects like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. Chinese companies have signed major leases at the Empire State Building and at 1 World Trade Center, which is the centerpiece of the rebuilding at ground zero.
...

Chinese money is also poised to flow into the city through a federal program that offers the possibility of permanent residency to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in certain development projects.

Under this program, known as EB-5, Forest City Ratner Companies has arranged for $249 million in loans from Chinese investors for residential and office towers at Atlantic Yards, the commercial and residential project in Brooklyn that includes a new stadium for the New Jersey Nets.

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NoLandGrab: That's it, the full extent of The Times's coverage of EB-5 investments in Atlantic Yards.

Posted by eric at 10:00 PM

August 4, 2011

A partial loophole in Forest City Ratner's plan to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor for the CBA, but the developer still hasn't fulfilled its obligation (and backers are quiet)

Atlantic Yards Report

I should revise my analysis of Forest City Ratner's obligations under the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor (ICM).

I wrote 11/29/10 that Forest City Ratner lied about CBA, claiming it went into effect only when the arena broke ground, and avoided hiring an ICM. I stand by that overall critique. The CBA went into effect shortly after it was signed in June 2005.

However, in terms of hiring an ICM, a footnote in an RFP (Request for Proposals) gave the developer slack until shortly before the groundbreaking, thus contradicting the language (likely) and spirit (clearly) of the CBA.

Even with that slack, however, Forest City Ratner has evaded its obligation, leading to regular situations, as I've described, in which the developer publicly self-reports on compliance with the CBA.

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Related coverage...

Atlantic Yards Report, Beyond the over-hyped CBA: Bloomberg announces new plan to address jobs and training for young black and Latino men; response includes a good measure of skepticism (too little, too late?)

Once upon a time, Atlantic Yards and its Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) was portrayed as solving a decent chunk of social problems in Brooklyn. Actually, that was pretty recent; then-Governor David Paterson, at the March 2010 arena groundbreaking, declared, “As the buildings rise on Atlantic Yards, the joblessness rate will fall here in Brooklyn.”

Maybe a somewhat comprehensive strategy is necessary.

A front-page article in today's New York Times, Bloomberg to Use Own Funds in Plan to Aid Minority Youth (or in print "City Campaign Seeks to Lift Young Black and Latino Men"), reports:

The administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in a blunt acknowledgment that thousands of young black and Latino men are cut off from New York’s civic, educational and economic life, plans to spend nearly $130 million on far-reaching measures to improve their circumstances.

The program, the most ambitious policy push of Mr. Bloomberg’s third term, would overhaul how the government interacts with a population of about 315,000 New Yorkers who are disproportionately undereducated, incarcerated and unemployed.

Posted by eric at 11:22 AM

August 3, 2011

Thief loots car — then asks victim to call the cops

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

Looks like Bruce Ratner needs to employ some Parking Lot Protectors in addition to Target's Pocketbook Protectors.

Mall menaces

At least two crimes took place at the Atlantic Center Mall last week. Here’s what happened:

• A thug busted his way into a 2011 Toyota in the parking lot on July 27, taking a laptop computer he found inside.

The owner of the car parked his vehicle inside the Atlantic Avenue lot at 4:05 pm. When he returned nearly two hours later, he learned that someone had smashed his side window and removed a bag holding his computer.

• A 22-year-old man was arrested on July 25 after he tried to buy more than $9,000 in electronics — including five iPads — from the Best Buy inside the Atlantic Center Mall with a fraudulent credit card.

The man was arrested as soon as an employee learned that the credit card he had been reported stolen.

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Posted by eric at 8:47 AM

August 1, 2011

The Week in Crime: Wheelchair Stolen and Daylight Robberies

The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill]
by Susan Rohwer

Maybe Best Buy and Old Navy can borrow a couple Pocketbook Protectors from Target — though they haven't had much success in protecting pocketbooks there, either.

Atlantic Terminal Thefts

• A total of $2,000 was stolen from the cash registers at Best Buy on Atlantic Avenue between June 4 and July 18, said police. Brandon Stafford, 25, has been arrested and charged with petit larceny in connection with the thefts at Best Buy, said police. Mr. Stafford was arrested at the store on July 19 at 10:25 p.m., according to the police report, which did not say whether Mr. Stafford is an employee at Best Buy.

• A man tried to walk out of the Old Navy on Atlantic Avenue with $1,016 worth of merchandise that he had not paid for on July 20, police said. That day at 2 p.m. Gabriel Garcia, 41, was arrested at the store and charged with petit larceny, according to the New York State Unified Court System website.

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Posted by eric at 1:55 PM

Down the rabbit hole: federal agency says immigrant investors in EB-5 program can get credit for all the jobs created or saved; critic suggests most EB-5 investments "are of much lower quality"

Atlantic Yards Report

I'm still waiting for more media outlets to latch on to the absurdity of the federal EB-5 program, which is exploding as immigrants seeking to buy their way into the country hook up with entrepreneurs who devise plans that aim to meet the letter, if not the spirit, of a vaguely defined law.

Remember, the $500,000 from each immigrant investor, which gains green cards for the investor and his/her family, is supposed to generate ten jobs.

In the case of Atlantic Yards, no new jobs would be created, but Forest City Ratner's raising $249 million from 498 investors who've been told, misleadingly, that they're investing in an arena.

Most people, learning that wealthy foreigners can buy their way into the country, are taken aback that the program even exists. I focus on whether the letter and spirit of the law are being followed, and whether there's sufficient oversight.

And, as noted below, critic David North suggests that most EB-5 investments are of lower quality than other deals on the open market, which makes sense, since the lure is not financial return but green cards.

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Posted by eric at 10:14 AM

July 28, 2011

Did Forest City Ratner try to avert yesterday's rally? There were hints, plus an FCR associate shadowing the protest

Atlantic Yards Report

Did Forest City Ratner or others try to stop yesterday's protest, led by People for Political and Economic Empowerment (P.P.E.E.)?

P.P.E.E. president Martin Allen, in the interviews below, hinted as such, though he wouldn't name names. He said they wanted to avert the protest, and call him in for a negotiation.

He said he wanted a public negotiation, with promises for local jobs and hiring fulfilled as promised. If such another project arose, I asked what he'd do differently? Get it in writing, he said.

But Forest City did sign a Community Benefits Agreement, so the devil's in the details.

Shadowing the protest

At one point, the woman pictured at [right], along with an associate walked along, observing the protest.

One of the protesters identified her to me as Yvette, the daughter of Darryl Greene, the controversial minority hiring/contracting consultant who was so toxic, because of his criminal record, that his role in one firm's Aqueduct "racino" bid led to the demise of that bid.

Greene's firm, The Darman Group, has long worked for Forest City Ratner and was supposed to help the firm hire an Independent Compliance Monitor to report on the Community Benefits Agreement.

A records search indicates that Darryl Greene has a relative named Yvette Dennis.

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Posted by eric at 11:44 AM

The Ratner response to yesterday's protest: there are 543 workers, 217 from Brooklyn (really?); one report asks, Where's the ICM?

Atlantic Yards Report

Yesterday, Forest City Ratner claimed in the Daily News that there were 543 workers on the Barclays Center construction site, and that 217 of them live in Brooklyn. Norman Oder thinks not.

I question those statistics.

Keep in mind that, at the 7/14/11 Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting, Forest City reported 430 workers on site. Even if that number has increased, keep in mind last month a more independent source--the consultant to the arena bond trustee--reported 320 workers--while in May Forest City had reported 500.

As for the number of Brooklyn workers, aid Forest City Ratner executive MaryAnne Gilmartin, stated, verbatim. "[S]ince construction began approximately 180 Brooklyn residents have been working on site."

(Emphasis added)

Cumulative totals are not the same as current statistics.

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Posted by eric at 11:31 AM

July 26, 2011

Fitch downgrades pool of loans led by Metrotech Center building

The Real Deal
by David Jones

Fitch Ratings downgraded a $6.6 million class of commercial real estate loans led by 10 Metrotech Center, a seven-story office building owned by Forest City Ratner in Downtown Brooklyn.

Fitch downgraded one class of COMM Mortgage Trust 2005-FL-10, saying 42 percent of the pool is expected to default due a 10 percent overall decline in cash flow compared with the last update.

The 359,000 square foot property, located at 625 Fulton Street in Brooklyn, is faced with an expiring lease with the Internal Revenue Service, which occupies nearly 88 percent of the building. The loan represents 7.4 percent of the pool balance.

The lease is scheduled to expire in February 2012, though the General Services Administration has announced plans to extend the IRS lease for at least six months. The loan is currently in special servicing and has been listed as distressed since early 2010.

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Posted by eric at 1:01 PM

July 18, 2011

Unwilling Partners?

Some merchants angry at growth of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

City Hall News
by Stephen Witt

A nonprofit created by the Bloomberg administration to redevelop downtown Brooklyn is poised to take over an older group that has served a section of the area for years—sparking fears that large developers will have a greater voice there than small businesses.

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a local development organization formed five years ago by then Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, soon expects to operate the MetroTech Business Improvement District, just as it operates two other nearby BIDs.
...

But merchants note there is only one shopkeeper on the partnership’s board—Bridge Street Cleaners and Tailors owner Victoria Aviles—and say the partnership’s loyalty remains with developers like Bruce Ratner and Joshua Muss, who sit on its board and pay $450,000 in contributions.

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NoLandGrab: Former Courier-Life reporter Stephen Witt, in a refreshing departure from his past Atlantic Yards coverage, plays it straight for a change.

Posted by eric at 9:36 AM

July 15, 2011

Josh Mandel, (R-OH) U.S. senate candidate not so *golden*

Unified Patriots

Apparently, political candidates in Ohio taking campaign contributions from Ratners is a no-no for Tea Partiers, 'cause where there're Ratners, there's ACORN. In fact, it's as bad as clapping one's hands for Al Gore. If they only knew the half of Forest City's subsidy-grubbing ways.

Angel-faced and attractive Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel has an impressive resume as far as accomplishments in the political arena. At least on the surface. But I’ve discovered Mandel has a lot of skeletons in his closet.
...

Although I can’t confirm by a marriage certificate, I’ve been told by various sources that Mandel is married to a Ratner. If this is indeed correct it would certainly explain his amazing fundraising and the huge enterprise that must be behind this 33 year old gentleman. Albert Ratner, one of the patriarchs of Forest City Ratner did indeed donate $17,000 to Mandel in 2008.

The ties to the Ratners and Mandels also run deep. The Mandels are wealthy and into the casino business.

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NoLandGrab: Hey, Tea Partiers, did you know the Ratners prefer to gamble with the taxpayers' money?

Posted by eric at 10:36 AM

July 13, 2011

Vicious teens attack another in Underwood Park

The Brooklyn Paper
by Alex Rush

How are Target's Pocketbook Protectors supposed to protect your pocketbook if they can't even protect their own?

Target take

Someone swiped a Flatbush Avenue Target employee’s purse on July 2.

The victim told cops that she was working at the Atlantic Terminal Mall store, which is near Hanson Place, at around 9 am when she absentmindedly left her silver bag on a desk. The purse, which contained cash, cards and makeup, was gone when she returned nine hours later to retrieve it.

Secret steal

Cops arrested a 14-year-old girl for stealing two pricey T-shirts and a bag from the Atlantic Terminal Mall Victoria’s Secret on July 8.

Cops say that the young victim stole the items from the store, which is on Flatbush Avenue near Hanson Place, at around 3:30 pm. Police collared her the same day.

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Posted by eric at 11:34 AM

July 11, 2011

Forest City Ratner's deceptive memo opposing new ESDC subsidiary to oversee Atlantic Yards inadvertently makes strong argument for more transparency, passage of governance bill

Atlantic Yards Report

Forest City Ratner has issued a self-serving and misleading Memorandum in Opposition to a pending bill that would allow a state subsidiary to oversee Atlantic Yards.

A subsidiary, argues Forest City, would delay public benefits. Rather, the document suggests it would do more to delay private profits.

The memo, with numerous half-truths and deceptions, ultimately makes a huge argument for such a subsidiary. However weak a subsidiary, it at least could create more oversight and transparency regarding the project, and help right a balance of power that tilts toward the developer.

The memorandum, embedded below, was made available on the BrooklynSpeaks web site this weekend. As BrooklynSpeaks explains, FCR's praise for current oversight is rather myopic:

FCRC extolls [sic] the existing project oversight being provided by the ESDC, ignoring a New York Supreme Court Justice’s characterization of the agency’s review of the 2009 plan as having “lacked the candor that the public was entitled to expect, particularly in light of the scale of the Project and its impact on the community.”

The bill, which has passed the Assembly, died at the end of the legislative session in June, but should get another look in the state Senate this summer. At that time, not just the developer but the ESDC itself should be asked to defend the memo's claims.

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Related coverage...

BrooklynSpeaks, Forest City Ratner lobbies unsuccessfully against reform of Atlantic Yards oversight

As Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries bill to reform oversight of the Atlantic Yards project was on its way to the floor of the New York State Assembly, developer Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) lobbied legislators to vote against the bill by, among other things, circulating a “Memorandum in Opposition.”

The arguments in FCRC’s memo are sometimes inaccurate, misleading and outrageous, but unfortunately not surprising. The developer continues to represent itself as a concerned corporate citizen, blaming the community for delays FCRC itself extracted from the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) as concessions during the renegotiation of the 2009 Modified General Project Plan.

Posted by eric at 12:50 PM

Tri-State briefs: Long-delayed Ratner project opening soon in Yonkers

The Real Deal

One of the condo buildings at Forest City Ratner's long-delayed, mixed-use mega-project in Yonkers will soon be opening.

The $660 million project -- which sits on 81 acres along the New York State Thruway and has been dubbed Ridge Hill Village -- will include 1,000 rental and condo units. It will also include 1.2 million square feet of retail, 160,000 square feet of offices and possibly a hotel.

According to published reports, once complete, the project -- which faced community opposition and legal hurdles -- is expected to generate almost $24 million in annual tax revenue for the financially troubled city of Yonkers. It is also expected to generate $8.6 million in county taxes and $29.3 million in state taxes.

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NoLandGrab: "Is expected by" whom? We expect that it will be a bust for Yonkers, but a boon for Forest City.

Posted by eric at 12:22 PM

July 8, 2011

The Week in Crime: Officer Assaulted With Frying Pan After Knife Attack

The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill]
by Kyle Thomas McGovern

Where was the Pocketbook Protector?

Wallet Stolen At Target

-A 29-year-old woman was shopping in the swimsuit section of the Flatbush Avenue Target at 2:10 p.m. on June 29, when she noticed that her purse was unlatched and her wallet was missing, police said. The woman told Target security, who said they have video footage of a woman stealing the wallet, police said. In addition to the American Apparel wallet, a Capital One credit card, Chase bank card, Wachovia bank card and New York State driver’s license were reported stolen, police said. The woman canceled all of her credit cards, police said.

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Posted by eric at 1:55 PM

July 6, 2011

Forest City sells 49% stake in two New York rental buildings, Beekman and 80 DeKalb, at apparent discount to raise cash

Atlantic Yards Report

Like New York, it seems "Forest City Ratner is open for business." But maybe the line should be "everything must go — no reasonable offer will be refused!"

To lower debt payments, Forest City Enterprises is selling nearly half of two New York rental properties developed by subordinate Forest City Ratner, keeping 51% ownership. Similarly, the company sold nearly half of New York area retail properties in March to raise cash.

The press release at bottom, which is distilled in The Real Deal, Forest City restructures financing at 8 Spruce, DKLB BKLN, provides the developer's preferred angle:

Forest City Enterprises and National Real Estate Advisors [NREA] announced agreements to restructure the financing at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry-designed 76-story rental tower in Lower Manhattan and at DKLB BKLN the luxury tower in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, saving the companies hundreds of millions of dollars in debt payments.

Crain's Cleveland Business also distilled the press release.

But there's a trade-off: while Forest City may save hundreds of millions in debt, it sold stakes in both buildings for what seem to be discounts. (I suspect I'm missing some elements of the financial deal, but the raw math is still worth a look.)

In the press release, Forest City CEO David LaRue hinted that times are still tough: "Finally, by extending the bank credit facilities, it allows additional time for economic conditions and rents to further improve before refinancing is necessary."

article

Related coverage...

The Real Deal, Forest City restructures financing at 8 Spruce, DKLB BKLN

Forest City Enterprises and National Real Estate Advisors announced agreements to restructure the financing at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry-designed 76-story rental tower in Lower Manhattan and at DKLB BKLN the luxury tower in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, saving the companies hundreds of millions of dollars in debt payments.

The development is key for Forest City, the parent firm of Forest City Ratner, as this $876 million rental tower, formerly known as the Beekman, was under pressure to bring in enough renters to become profitable in a market that is just getting its sea legs.

Crain's Cleveland Business, Forest City Enterprises, National Real Estate Advisors recapitalize two N.Y. apartments

Posted by eric at 11:30 AM

Frank Gehry: Dizzy heights

The Guardian
by Jonathan Glancey

This sappy lovefest with the ill-fated Atlantic Yards starchitect, whose Forest City-built 8 Spruce Street was apparently inspired by "Michelangelo and Bernini," includes the best rationalization for construction-budget cost-cutting ever.

I'm getting tearful," says Frank Gehry when I ask him how he feels about finally making his mark on the Manhattan skyline. "My father grew up in Hell's Kitchen, 10th Avenue, on the city's West Side." Irving Goldberg was one of nine children in a very poor immigrant family; his son changed his name in the early 1950s. "He started work at 11," says Gehry. "He had a hard life. I'd like to share 8 Spruce Street with him. Hey, Pa! I got to build a skyscraper right by the Woolworth Building. That's me, Dad. Up there!"

Gehry's previous tribute to his dad was disavowing his surname.

"Originally, I wanted to have the folds going all the way around," Gehry explains. "But the marketing folk said that 15% of people didn't want apartments with wrinkles. So that's why there's a straight side. But, then, they started to rent out the wrinkly apartments, and asked for more of them. By then I'd begun to like the straight side. The models we made showing the tower completely wrinkly just didn't look tough enough for New York."

article

Posted by eric at 11:15 AM

Brooklyn Museum Charges Ahead With New Trustees, Despite Troubles

NY Observer
by Dan Duray

The transition remains fraught with uncertainty as Mr. Lehman moves forward with new sources of funding and new partnerships. One of the new trustees is a law professor with a background as a corporate lawyer, another is Williamsburg-based artist Fred Tomaselli, whose retrospective exhibition appeared at the museum last year, and yet another is general counsel for Forest City Ratner Companies. (The museum is close with Bruce Ratner and was criticized for honoring him at a 2008 gala that featured a performance by Kanye West.)

One thing is certain: all eyes are on Mr. Lehman, whose tenacity will be tested by his ability to save what appears to be an ailing institution.

article

NoLandGrab: Maybe Bruce can build a skyscraper atop the building, and the museum can collect the crumbs.

Posted by eric at 10:39 AM

July 5, 2011

Construction Update: Forest City and contractor Hunt are "considering" helping more with rat abatement

Atlantic Yards Report

From the two-week Construction Update (embedded below), dated 7/4/11, prepared by Forest City Ratner and distributed by the Empire State Development Corporation:

Hunt [Construction] and FCRC have reviewed and are considering actions to supplement the site and adjacent neighborhood’s rodent protection activities. Hunt has more than 225 rodent bait stations within the area work site and Block 1129 that are being monitored and maintained.

The issue, however, is the "rat tsunami" outside the project site. The developer has been pressured to do more and previously said it was considering doing so. Given that rat sightings proliferate, as I've been told, residents seek a solution sooner rather than later.

article

Posted by eric at 11:12 PM

July 1, 2011

Brooklyn Museum Names Fred Tomaselli and Two Others as New Trustees

ARTINFO

A week after announcing that it was replacing its board president with investment banker John Tamagni, the struggling Brooklyn Museum has named three new trustees: Fred Tomaselli, a known Brooklyn-booster and the first artist “in recent times” to sit on the museum’s board, along with New York Law School associate professor Tamara Belinfanti and Forest City Ratner executive VP and general counsel David Berliner. (It might be noted that Forest City Ratner, the high-profile development firm, is best known in Brooklyn for its not-exactly-fan-favorite Atlantic Yards project.) Let’s hope these three can inject some life into the wayward institution.

link

Related coverage...

NY Observer, Brooklyn Museum Announces New Trustees Amid Money Troubles

The three trustees will be grappling with some financial difficulties–a recent planned show of graffiti art, which was to have courted the sort of controversy the Museum has historically enjoyed (they do have Judy Chicago in the permanent collection!) was scuttled, reportedly due either to financial cutbacks or the potential loss of city money the museum could not afford to lose.

NoLandGrab: Want some more irony? It's highly likely that the museum cursed itself by honoring Bruce Ratner at its annual gala in 2008.

Posted by eric at 10:47 AM

BAM and Barclays Center Strike Up Arts Partnership

WNYC
by Julia Furlan

Since The Times reported it, it must be news.

Grande jetés and encores may join the jabs and jump shots at Downtown Brooklyn's Barclays Center. The developers of the 18,000-seat arena announced on Thursday that they are looking around the corner to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) for arts programming.

article

Related coverage...

NY Observer, Bruce Ratner, Arch-Ironist

The Observer's Matt Chaban sees through the irony.

“I always like to put things that are a little bit ironic together. So here you have a place like BAM, which is a great contemporary-arts cultural institution, and then you have an arena, which, people think about sports and circus and so on. And then you put them together, and then I think you’ve got something special.”

Indeed, Mr. Ratner has been a master of irony through decades of development:

• He had a rapidly gentrifying stretch of Brooklyn declared blighted, and then condemned.
• He has acquired a taste for hip-hop.
• He gets the light touch from the newspaper of record whose headquarters he built.
• He lives in Manhattan.
• He hired, then fired, Frank Gehry from the Atlantic Yards project after a lifetime of developing blasé buildings.
• Ratner’s rats.

(If these are not exactly ironic, well, neither is a cultural institution putting on shows in a sports arena, either.)

CBS New York, Nets’ Barclays Center Announces Partnership With Brooklyn Academy Of Music

“From concerts to family shows, from college sports to boxing, and, of course, to Nets basketball, we have already confirmed more than 150 events per year and we fully expect to host more than 200 events annually,” said Nets CEO Brett Yormark. “It makes great strategic sense to align with our neighbor, BAM, and continue to bring the best of everything to Brooklyn.”

AP via Washington Examiner, NYC's new Nets arena announces arts partnership

BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins said the partnership will give BAM the opportunity to work on a giant canvas.

NoLandGrab: Almost like building a neighborhood practically from scratch.

Posted by eric at 10:23 AM

June 28, 2011

Gunpoint mugging near Fort Greene Park

The Brooklyn Paper
by Alex Rush

Mall rat

Someone stole $9,000 were of jewelry from an Atlantic Terminal Mall kiosk on June 25.

Cops say that there are mall security videos showing the thief breaking the lock on the kiosk, near Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, at around 9 pm to steal the goods.

article

NoLandGrab: In some quarters, that's called helping oneself to a subsidy.

Posted by eric at 10:42 AM

FCR's Gilmartin makes the Crain's list of NYC's Most Powerful Women, along with Tighe, Wylde, Burden

Atlantic Yards Report

Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards point person, as well as some key supporters, make Crain's New York Business's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in New York 2011.

article

Posted by eric at 10:37 AM

A foolish proposition

Queens Crapper

From Backyard and Beyond:

The marsh itself was mosquito-free. And tranquil-looking… but don’t let looks deceive you. Salt-marshes are one of the most productive of ecosystems, nursing fish and many invertebrates, filtering water and absorbing storm surges, pumping blessed oxygen into the air, providing food for everything from bacteria to mammals.

Green with two species of spartina, ringed by phragmites, studded with the keystone ribbed mussels, soft and hard shell clams, mud snails, fiddler crabs, and plentiful little fish in the rising tide. Is this Brooklyn? Yes, it is. A Forever Wild remnant of the salt-marshes that once ringed Jamaica Bay and much of the city. (JFK, LGA, EWR and TEB were all built on salt marshes). But “Forever Wild,” a Parks Department designation without much legal pull, doesn’t mean all that much unless we fight for it.

The EDC wants to give part of this land to Bruce Ratner so he can build a strip mall and large parking lot. The attitude is: "Who needs nature? This is NYC, damn it!"

link

Photo: Backyard and Beyond

Posted by eric at 10:15 AM

June 27, 2011

Most Powerful Women in New York 2011

Crain's NY Business
by Theresa Agovino

#35. MaryAnne Gilmartin
Executive Vice President
Forest City Ratner Cos.

A fellowship at a city economic development agency provided the springboard for Ms. Gilmartin’s career, which has changed the texture and skyline of New York City.

The 47-year-old Queens native has worked at Forest City for nearly 17 years and developed properties totaling more than 5 million square feet, including The New York Times’ headquarters and the new Frank Gehry-designed residential tower downtown.

Her toughest assignment has been overseeing the controversial $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project. In a testament to her savvy negotiating skills, Forest City officially broke ground on the project last year, and its focal point, the Barclays Center, will open in fall 2012.

link

NoLandGrab: OK, now we're curious. What did Gilmartin's "savvy negotiating skills" have to do with the groundbreaking? All this time, we thought it was a testament to Mikhail Prokhorov's savvy oligarching skills.

Photo: Forest City Ratner

Posted by eric at 6:54 PM

June 23, 2011

Accident injures two and damages cars at Atlantic Yards

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

A drill accident at the eastern end of the biggest construction project in Brooklyn’s history sent egg-sized chunks of packed dirt and small stones raining down on unsuspecting pedestrians and commuters at the corner of Vanderbilt and Atlantic avenues on June 21 — leaving two injuries and more than seven damaged cars.

Witnesses said they heard an explosion at around 10:30 am as a hydraulic drill malfunctioned, sending dirt and rocks flying into the air.

“I heard this loud sound, but I didn’t know where it was coming from,” said motorist Yahya Alshemi, who was caught under a wave of mud pies. “Then rocks and dirt started falling all over my car.”

Chunks of dirt blanketed Alshemi’s car for nearly two minutes. One hunk slammed his windshield, causing it to spider web.
...

Two people suffered light injuries, officials said. One person was sent to a local hospital with a slight head wound. The other was treated at the scene — the former BP station at the corner of Atlantic and Vanderbilt avenues.

The pile driving at the site is expected to continue for two months as part of developer Forest City Ratner’s infrastructure work on the Long Island Rail Road’s Vanderbilt Yards. The company — which is currently building the Barclays Center to house the Brooklyn-bound Nets — did not return calls.

article

Posted by eric at 10:47 AM

Ratner is victim of inside job heist!

The Brooklyn Paper
by Kate Briquelet

Corruption breeds corruption, apparently.

Crooked monitors

A corrupt security guard stole a heap of computer equipment from an office in the Bruce Ratner-owned Metrotech Center on May 17.

An employee at 3 Metrotech Center, near Duffield Street and Myrtle Promenade, told police that she caught the shady night watchman on camera removing dozens of flat-screen monitors and computer towers in bags.

She said that the guard moved 22 monitors and 14 computers to another spot in the office. He returned after work in plain clothes and dragged out the loot.

Police arrested a 52-year-old suspect a month later.

article

Posted by eric at 10:42 AM

June 22, 2011

Less than meets the eye: decoding Forest City's announcement of new MetroTech leases

Atlantic Yards Report

Norman Oder takes a closer look at a recent Forest City Ratner announcement of MetroTech leasing activity, and doesn't believe the hype.

In other words, the 365,000 square feet taken at Two MetroTech--thanks significantly to government tenants--does not quite make up for the departure of SIAC/NYSE, which, according to Crain's, lost 387,000 square feet.

Yes, the 22,000 square feet remaining to lease is relatively small, but, at least according to that January 2011 Crain's report, J.P. Morgan Chase left about 352,000 square feet at 4 MetroTech. No wonder Forest City Ratner was trying to recruit Panasonic.

At One Pierrepont Plaza, Morgan Stanley is set to renew less than half the space it leases, leaving a gap of 250,000 square feet.

It still does not bode well for the office space planned for the Atlantic Yards site.

article

Posted by eric at 1:10 PM

June 21, 2011

More Four Sparrow Marsh Documentation

Save Ridgewood Reservoir

Here's an item about Bruce Ratner's wetlands-destroying, WalMart-building plan for Mill Basin marshland.

Two justifications that the parks department has been using to justify destroying part of an important wetland that is owned by the city are:

• Four Sparrow Marsh is not parkland
• The acreage that they want to give to developers is not part of Four Sparrow Marsh

Fortunately there is plenty of public documentation that contradicts their public statements. Below is a list of links to New York City Department of Parks and Recreation webpages and downloads with information relevant to Four Sparrow Marsh. The list also includes a few links from other city agencies. If the any of those links mysteriously disappear, let us know as we've saved all the downloads and created PDF files of the webpages...

link

Posted by eric at 9:38 AM

June 19, 2011

NY Daily News down the memory hole: real estate piece buffing Ridge Hill neglects to mention the legal troubles

Atlantic Yards Report

The New York Daily News offers some friendly copy on Forest City Ratner's Ridge Hill project in Westchester, under the headline City on the Hill: "New Urbanism" in Yonkers:

When people think of groundbreaking real estate projects that could change the way we live as New Yorkers, they don’t usually think of Yonkers. Until now.

Just 22 minutes up the New York State Thruway from the upper East and upper West Sides, an 84-acre project that defines what developers, architects and city planners call “new urbanism” is on its way to completion. Called Ridge Hill, this 1.2 million square-foot retail and residential complex from Forest City Ratner, the developer of the Atlantic Yards and the Nets Arena in Brooklyn, is seeing full-throttle construction, leasing and home-buying.

The project has the New York area’s first outdoor mall, with a multiplex cinema, its own Main St. and a water, light and fire show straight out of Las Vegas. There’s a Whole Foods, Lord & Taylor, L.L. Bean, medical building, and four-phase residential component, where one-bedrooms start at $325,000. The development sits on a ridge (hence the name) overlooking the countryside, and it’s less than eight minutes from the nearest train station. The goal is to have a living experience where residents don’t need cars and can walk to restaurants, stores and medical facilities.

Missing the back story

And how did it come about?

More than a decade ago, the politicians in Yonkers asked to buy the land from New York State. After the state agreed to let the city pursue a deal, a request for proposals was issued to developers. According to Mayor Phillip A. Amicone, the Forest City vision was much more compelling and innovative than others.

“They really delivered something that no one has,” says Amicone, who estimates Yonkers will earn $20 million to $25 million in taxes when Ridge Hill is fully operational.

Um, there's just a wee bit missing here, like an oddly changed vote on the City Council, an indictment (which spared Forest City Ratner, despite its entanglement), and a pending trial.

link

Posted by steve at 3:27 PM

June 17, 2011

Sovereign Immunity, Reconfiguration of Brooklyn’s Traffic And The Peculiar Verisimilitude of Government Functions When Forest City Ratner Takes Over

Noticing New York

Here's an excellent Michael D.D. White piece on the abdication of the public role to Forest City Ratner and its consultants.

After I thought about seeing Sam Schwartz’s presentation at Borough Hall the other night it struck me that I had seen something very odd. Yes, the presentation was in the stately courtroom of Borough Hall, the carved woodwork, towering pillars and ornate ceiling conveyed the sense of governmental formality, but here was a man, a consultant hired by and working for a private developer, describing how, as a result of that developer’s project, traffic, was going to be rerouted by him all around the busiest most populous areas of the borough.

While flash animated videos showed the multitudinous streets involved (or at least those to which Mr. Schwartz was extending his formal consideration), Mr. Schwartz casually explained about the little blue stand-ins for real vehicles scooting around in the videos “did not represent the real volume of traffic flow” (which would in real life be considerably heavier) and were there only to demonstrate the sets of theoretical turn off choices drivers would have at specific streets and avenues. Perhaps, by the same token, it should be pointed out that, appearances aside, Mr. Schwartz, standing in Borough Hall showing how so much of the borough’s traffic would be reconfigured (without actually simulating the real volume of traffic flow), did not represent a real public official.

The Private Sector Without Sovereign Immunity

So this is what I am wondering: Although Forest City Ratner and Sam Schwartz as its engineering consultant may seem a lot like the government performing a government function, that is not what they are. Forest City Ratner and Sam Schwartz are private sector entities and however much they have intruded themselves into an assumption of what we would expect would be a government process they are no more actual government officials than a privately hired mall security guard.

So the question is: Can they be liable for their negligence if they do damage in this vastly extensive and impactful reorganization of the borough affecting so many neighbors? As sovereign immunity should not apparently apply to their actions, can these private entities be sued in court if the effect that the new arena and traffic patterns have is to slow response times for the police and fire departments resulting in deaths, physical injuries and property loss when their arrival is consequently delayed?

article

Related coverage...

Atlantic Yards Report, Noticing New York on how it looks like Forest City Ratner and consultant Sam Schwartz are performing government functions

Michael D. D. White, in his Noticing New York blog, reflects on the real strangeness of the Forest City Ratner/Empire State Development Corporation session on traffic June 14, given that a private consultant hired by a private developer was explaining--at times not all too well--how public streets would be managed.
...

What if they're sued? White suggests:

If they are, it is probable that they would claim that, despite evidence to the contrary, they actually took no actions, that all the actions were taken by exclusively public agencies immune through sovereign immunity.

Posted by eric at 10:28 AM

NYC Unions Agree to 20% Wage Cut On Manhattan Residential Project

Local 157 blogspot
by Carolina Worrell

Key unions in New York City, including laborers and structural trades, agreed to a 20% wage cut yesterday, June 15 for work on Gotham West, a residential development on Manhattan’s West Side that will consist of four buildings and about 1,240 residential units, according to a recent article in Crain’s New York Business.
...

Following Gotham’s lead, developer Forest City Ratner Cos. has submitted an application for a labor agreement to build a residential tower, part of the first phase of its mixed-use Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.
...

A Forest City spokesperson said it is “too premature” to say why the company applied for the agreement.

article

NoLandGrab: We'll take a wild guess that they applied for the agreement because they can't afford to build otherwise.

Posted by eric at 9:54 AM

June 15, 2011

Unions agree to wage cut on major project

Reduction of 20% pledged for construction of over 500 affordable-housing units at planned block-long project on Eleventh Avenue; similar deal eyed for Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards.

Crain's NY Business
by Theresa Agovino

New York construction unions have reached an agreement to cut the wages of members working on a massive residential project on the far West Side by 20%, sources said. The project, which will include more than 500 units of affordable housing, is being developed by the Gotham Organization Inc.

Meanwhile, Forest City Ratner Cos. has applied to the unions for similar wage cuts as it prepares to begin construction of its first residential tower at the long-planned Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. There, at least 50% of the approximately 400 residential units will be affordable.
...

Spokesmen for the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, a union trade group, and Forest City declined to comment. Gotham President David Picket couldn't immediately be reached.

article

NoLandGrab: Bruce forgot to mention when he promised "jobs" that they would be cut-rate.

Related coverage...

Atlantic Yards Report, Modular plan or pressure tactic? Forest City said to be asking for 20% wage cuts for first Atlantic Yards residential tower

This confirms that, as I've suggested, the announced modular construction option has been used as a negotiating tool.

The New York Times, Squeezing Costs, Builders Take New Look at Prefab

Now, with an emphasis on materials conservation and reuse, and developers looking to squeeze costs any way they can, modular construction is getting a closer look.

Often the word prefab conjures images of inexpensive and poorly built structures like trailer homes. But proponents of prefab, many of whom shudder at the moniker, say that modular design done well is anything but cheaply built. A modularly constructed building uses the same materials as a traditional one. But because it is made in a factory, workers are not battling the elements and can construct it more soundly and with less waste, proponents say.

And less wages, proponents don't say.

“Is the technology there to do it? Yes. Is the desire? Yes,” said Christopher Sharples, a principal at SHoP Architects, which is designing a possible 34-story prefab tower for the developer Forest City Ratner at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. “In the near future, I think people are going to become more educated about what the potential of this approach could be.”

Posted by eric at 10:20 AM

Downtown Brooklyn Leasing Exhibits ‘Robust Health,’ Forest City Ratner Says

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Linda Collins

Here's a shocker: of 370,500 square feet in new leases at MetroTech, 275,000 of it (nearly 73%) is being leased to the taxpayers.

With the announcement in late May by Polytechnic Institute of New York University (aka NYU-Poly) that it was expanding into 120,000 square feet of space in two buildings at the MetroTech Center, Forest City Ratner Companies, the landlord, now reports multiple new leases for its properties there and at One Pierrepont Plaza nearby in Brooklyn Heights.

“Downtown Brooklyn continues to exhibit robust health despite still-challenging economic times nationwide,” said Bruce Ratner, chairman and CEO, adding that he was delighted to report that five diverse tenants have entered into new leases at 2 MetroTech Center and that Morgan Stanley has renewed for a substantial block of space at One Pierrepont Plaza.
...

• The City of New York has signed a 20-year lease for a 155,000-square-foot expansion, comprising the second floor, a portion of the fifth floor and a portion of the ninth floor, as well as the recent addition of the entire fourth floor. This space will house office and data center space for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

• The General Services Administration (GSA) has signed a 10-year lease for 120,000 square feet comprised of portions of the ground floor, and the entire sixth and seventh floors. The space will be home to the Internal Revenue Service and will be ready by early 2012.

article

NoLandGrab: One would think with the "robust health" of MetroTech leasing, Bruce wouldn't need to try to cut union wages at Atlantic Yards by 20%.

Posted by eric at 10:20 AM

June 9, 2011

Ridge Hill corruption trial delayed until early next year; companion case more clear, as one of those indicted has reached a plea deal

Atlantic Yards Report

When will we understand the mystery of Ridge Hill, in which a City Council member in Yonkers and lobbyists have been indicted in a corruption case that significantly benefited Forest City Ratner's Ridge Hill project?

Not this month, despite indications in February that the trial would come in June.

In March, we learned that the lawyer for indicted former Yonkers Councilmember Sandy Annabi wanted a federal judge to unseal attorney Anthony Mangone's plea deal with federal prosecutors.

Case delayed

On May 27, the Journal News reported, in Convicted lawyer to testify in corruption case:

A politically connected lawyer is expected to testify against former Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and her cousin as part of a cooperation agreement he reached last year with federal prosecutors.

Anthony Mangone's guilty plea agreement in the Yonkers corruption case was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and spells out his promise to cooperate with and testify truthfully for the government.

The agreement does not detail which cases Mangone must testify about — but he would be a key prosecution witness in the Yonkers case.

article

Related coverage...

LoHud.com, Convicted lawyer to testify in corruption case

One of the crimes was redacted at prosecutors' request. Aronwald said he was told that was because it involved an ongoing investigation. He said he would ask a judge to order prosecutors to reveal that information.

Posted by eric at 10:45 AM

June 8, 2011

The EB-5 story: WSJ offers less skepticism than Houston Chronicle; federal agency announces plan to streamline applications

Atlantic Yards Report

One of the lessons of the Atlantic Yards saga, and highlighted in the film Battle for Brooklyn, is the importance of a skeptical approach to the media.

Nowhere is such skepticism more important than in coverage of the EB-5 phenomenon, in which would-be immigrants trade purportedly job-creating investments for green cards for themselves and their families.

Despite ample evidence that the program is dubious, especially related to the Atlantic Yards project, the Wall Street Journal yesterday proceeded with some shoddy journalism, in an article headline Program Gives Investors Chance at Visa.

It's in line with the Journal's lame coverage in February, which ignored misrepresentations made by the New York City Regional Center, the first investment fund in the city that recruited investors, in signing up Chinese and Korean millionaires to invest in the Atlantic Yards project.

article

Posted by eric at 7:20 AM

June 7, 2011

Forest City Enterprises reports earnings rise for first quarter 2011, claims Brooklyn office vacancies being addressed, must absorb Nets losses

Atlantic Yards Report

Forest City Enterprises, whose Forest City Ratner arm is developing Atlantic Yards, reported positive earnings results yesterday, though the company's Brooklyn portfolio may not be as rosy as some of the rest of the business.
...

The most significant driver of results: $42.6 million from the sale of land and air rights to Rock Ohio Caesars Cleveland LLC for construction of a casino in downtown Cleveland, where FCE is headquartered. (Here's the Plain Dealer coverage.)
...

AY update

In both the press release and the conference call, FCE officials said that approximately 55% of the forecasted contractually obligated revenues for the arena are currently under contract.

Three months ago, FCE reported the same percentage. In September 2010, the figure was 51%.

"We are also in the process of initial planning, design, and engineering for work on the first residential multifamily building at Atlantic Yards," [incoming CEO David] LaRue added.

article

Related coverage...

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Forest City reports Q1 profit, sees $42.6 million boost to pre-tax EBDT from Cleveland casino deal

Monday's earnings call was the last with a member of the Ratner family at the company's helm. At Forest City's annual meeting Friday, longtime CEO Charles Ratner will become chairman of the board. He will be succeeded by David LaRue, the company's chief operating officer.
...

Shares of Forest City's stock (NYSE: FCE-A) closed trading Monday at $18.71, down 21 cents or 1.1 percent.

Posted by eric at 12:39 PM

More trouble at Ratner’s malls

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

Last week it was Crooks 3, Pocketbook Protectors 0 in Bruce Ratner's lawless local malls.

Ratner raids

Several criminals went shopping in the Atlantic Center and the Atlantic Terminal last week. Here’s what happened:

• A crook snaked his hand into a 26-year-old woman’s purse as she shopped inside the Atlantic Center Mall on May 29, taking her wallet. The victim didn’t notice that her wallet, and the $110 inside, was missing until 4:30 pm.

• A sticky-fingered thief palmed a wallet from a 29-year-old woman’s handbag on May 30 as she perused the aisles inside Daffy’s inside the Atlantic Terminal. The woman discovered that her wallet was missing at 5:15 pm, but by then the thief had already run to Target — which is also inside the mall — and spent $224 purchase with her credit card.

• An employee at Old Navy was arrested on May 31 after he swiped 70 polo shirts. Security personnel told police that the 39-year-old employee had taken the shirts on May 16.

article

Posted by eric at 12:12 PM

June 6, 2011

FCE PRESS RELEASE: Forest City Reports Fiscal 2011 First-Quarter Results

via PR Newswire

Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) today announced EBDT, net earnings and revenues for the first quarter ended April 30, 2011.

EBDT

First-quarter EBDT (earnings before depreciation, amortization and deferred taxes) was $127.4 million, an increase of $56.9 million compared with 2010 first-quarter EBDT of $70.5 million. On a fully diluted, per-share basis, first-quarter 2011 EBDT was $0.63, a 70.3 percent increase compared with 2010 first quarter EBDT of $0.37.

For an explanation of EBDT variances, see the section titled "Review of Results" in this news release. EBDT and EBDT per share are non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principle (GAAP) measures. A reconciliation of net earnings (the most directly comparable GAAP measure to EBDT) to EBDT is provided in the Financial Highlights table in this news release.

Net Earnings/Loss

First-quarter net earnings attributable to Forest City Enterprises, Inc. were $47.6 million, or $0.25 per share, compared with a net loss of $15.6 million, or $0.10 per share, in the first quarter of 2010. After preferred dividends, net earnings attributable to Forest City Enterprises, Inc. common shareholders was $43.7 million, or $0.24 per share, for the quarter ended April 30, 2011.

Revenues

First-quarter 2011 consolidated revenues were $316.9 million compared with $271.5 million last year. The year-over-year revenue variance was impacted primarily by the same factors impacting EBDT, as described below under "Review of Results."

Review of Results

An exhibit illustrating factors impacting first-quarter 2011 EBDT results, compared with results for the comparable period in 2010, is available on the Investor Relations page of the Company's web site: www.forestcity.net, and is included in the company's first-quarter 2011 Supplemental Package furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For the three months ended April 30, 2011, the Company's combined Commercial and Residential Segments (also referred to as the rental properties portfolio) provided a pre-tax EBDT increase of $55.7 million, compared with the first quarter of 2010. The year-over-year increase was primarily the result of initial proceeds of $42.6 million from the previously announced sale of land and air rights to Rock Ohio Caesars Cleveland LLC for construction of a casino in downtown Cleveland, increased income of $7.7 million from tax credits, the ramp-up of new properties of $2.6 million, and decreased interest expense on the mature portfolio of $2.2 million. These increases in the portfolio were partially offset by reduced EBDT from properties sold of $4.6 million.

link

Related...

PR Newswire, REMINDER: Forest City Enterprises Fiscal 2011 First-Quarter Earnings Conference Call

Forest City Enterprises, Inc., (NYSE:FCE-A) has released its first-quarter 2011 financial results and will hold a conference call today at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss these results. Investors are invited to dial into the conference call hosted by Charles A. Ratner, president and chief executive officer, or to listen to a live webcast of the call through www.forestcity.net.

Posted by eric at 10:21 AM

June 3, 2011

Brooklyn Broadside: NYU’s Expansion Benefits From Downtown Space Here

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Dennis Holt

Triple oops! The Eagle's Dennis Holt forgets to disclose his fealty to all things Ratner.

Last week’s report on NYU-Polytechnics’s growth plan adds a new dimension and a new promise. They plan to expand by taking up space in nearby office buildings, in MetroTech space for that matter.

The plan includes Poly taking up 120,000 square feet of office space in two buildings, the ninth and 10th floors of 2 MetroTech and the sixth floor of 15 MetroTech.
...

This is a win-win situation for all involved. Forest City Ratner, in this case, earns income from empty, non-paying MetroTech space. NYU pays much less to rent the 120,000 square feet than if it had to build anew. And NYU also achieves a degree of planning capability it didn’t have before.

article

Posted by eric at 10:31 AM

Coming Soon: A Town Within a City

The New York Times
by Elsa Brenner

Double oops! Just as it did on Wednesday, The Times forgets to mention its cozy relationship with Forest City Ratner Companies.

Home to a residential drug addiction center in the 1970s, and then the headquarters of a major electronics warfare company, an 81-acre site here along Interstate 87 is now being reincarnated as a mixed-use community.

The road from the property’s former identities to the new one has been long and tortuous — marked by opposition from residents, legal action by neighboring communities worried about additional traffic, and accusations of misconduct on the part of political insiders. That’s not to mention the effect of the recession, which slowed down construction of both the housing and retail components of the project.

It is now more than a decade since the idea for a townlike development was conceived in this city of 196,000 people — and sections of the $660 million Ridge Hill Village, as the project developed by Forest City Ratner Companies is called, are finally opening.

article

Posted by eric at 10:04 AM

June 1, 2011

The Week in Crime: Armed Robbery and Cell Phone Snatchings

The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill]
by Mitchell Trinka

Who's going to protect the Pocketbook Protectors?

Atlantic Terminal Mall Theft

Four teens were nabbed by officers after stealing clothes and shoes from Burlington Coat Factory in the Atlantic Terminal Mall on May 24, police said. The teens, who had picked up $231.91 worth of items, tried to leave without paying at 4 p.m, but were approached by store security, police said. The teens attacked store security and tried to flee the store, police said. A 17-year-old, a 16-year-old and two 14-year-olds were arrested in the mall 20 minutes after trying to steal the items, police said.

No charges have been filed against the 14-year-old, according to the Kings County District Attorney’s office. The 17-year-old and 16-year-old have both been charged with robbery in the third degree, grand larceny in the fourth degree, assault in the third degree, petit larceny, criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree, attempted assault in the third degree, menacing in the third degree, harassment in the second degree and two counts of robbery in the second degree, according to the Kings County District Attorney’s office.

article

Posted by eric at 3:50 PM

Transit Hub in Maryland Gets a Second Chance

The New York Times
by Eugene L. Meyer

Oops! The Times forgets to disclose who built its headquarters building.

Many people in the mid-Atlantic region probably know this small suburban town as a train stop on the way to or from Union Station in Washington. But with Amtrak and Maryland commuter train stops, a Washington Metrorail station, buses and major highways nearby, New Carrollton seems to have everything a far-sighted developer could want.
...

In a five-way competition, two companies were picked to lead the effort: Forest City Washington, an offshoot of Forest City Enterprises, a publicly traded company based in Cleveland that has nearly $12 billion in assets nationally; and Urban Atlantic, a Bethesda, Md., developer. Forest City is developing a transit-oriented project, Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, and Urban Atlantic has done $1 billion worth of similar projects, largely in the Washington and Baltimore areas.
...

The project has been hampered by a widespread reputation for “pay to play” corruption in Prince George’s County, in which it is located.

The perception was bolstered last year when the departing county executive, Jack B. Johnson, was arrested on charges of taking bribes from developers. On May 18, he pleaded guilty to extortion and evidence tampering in the case.

article

NoLandGrab: Someone needs to explain why the "transit-oriented" Atlantic Yards project is slated for 3,600 parking spaces — and an "interim" surface parking lot that could last for a couple of decades.

Posted by eric at 9:47 AM

May 31, 2011

Now renting: luxe condos built for the global rich

AP via CBS Moneywatch.com

Due to a glut of glitzy condo towers and the need to appease skittish lenders some developers have found a new use for the gilded, clubby preserves once meant for buyers who could afford the seven-figure price tags. They're renting them out and offering all of the perks normally reserved for the elite. The hand-watered grass roofs and outdoor movie theaters. The heated, valet-attended porte-cocheres. The pet spas offering canine cardio and play dates for your puppy.

And developers have found that renters —reluctant to buy in a still-unsteady market— are embracing them. One marketing banner flapping against a ritzy, new rental building in New York says it best: "Repent. Rent. Repeat."

Frank Gehry's crumpled, stainless-steel skyscraper in Manhattan--the tallest residential tower in the world--was originally supposed to include 200 sprawling condos along with 700 rentals. Now all of the critically-acclaimed building's apartments are for rent. The units, whose rents start at $2,630 for a 600-square-foot studio, are even rent-stabilized --meaning rents are regulated so tenants will only see small annual increases. There's even an option to pay extra for decor hand-picked by Gehry, including Capellini's Rive Droite armchair, Jonathan Adler's Claude Drawers and Blu Dot's Swept Sofa.

"People are liking the fact that they don't have to commit to a mortgage and a large dollar amount to live here," says MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner, the building's developer.

article

NoLandGrab: 'Cause God knows, $2,630 a month for a 15' x 20' box is a bargain anywhere.

Posted by eric at 1:16 PM

May 27, 2011

New Rochelle Dems Pick Slate for Upcoming CIty Council and Mayoral Race

Talk of the Sound
by Robert Cox

Haven't heard this anywhere else, but here's what one New Rochelle blogger is reporting about Forest City's Echo Bay project.

If they achieve a super-majority, it is expected that the Democrats would use this power to finance tens of millions of dollars to move the DPW City Yard to a new, smaller location on Beechwood Avenue in order to give away the current City Yard to Forest City Ratner, a Cleveland-based developer. Council Member Lou Trangucci of District 1, site of the proposed City Yard on Beechwood, has objected to the plans on the grounds that paying off the bond will require significant tax increases.

Forest City has several large projects going in the area most of which are the subject of Federal indictments related to bribing public officials to support local projects. A Forest City official is an unindicted co-conspirator in each of the various Department of Justice cases. A senior official at Forest City Ratner admitted recently to one Talk of the Sound contributor that the Echo Bay Project is "dead" and that "nothing is going to happen there". Some political observers in New Rochelle believe that the entire project is a political favor to Mayor Noam Bramson based on an expectation that when Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) retires, Bramson will run and win her seat in Congress. The Ratner family have been big donors to Mayor Bramson over the years.

link

Posted by eric at 12:55 PM

NYU is up on Downtown thanks to latest Metrotech leases

The Brooklyn Paper
by Kate Briquelet

NYU is expanding its existing Polytechnic Institute to include two more buildings in Metrotech Center, a move that borough officials cheered as a magnet for Downtown development — and a sign that university is serious about Brooklyn.

NYU-Poly signed a 20-year lease with Forest City Ratner for space in Metrotech Center, a campus of 11 mixed-use buildings between Flatbush Avenue Extension and Jay Street, where space has recently been going cheap.
...

The Metrotech complex — built in the early 1990s with hefty public subsidies — has largely included financial institutions, until many began to decamp during the financial bubble of 2008, according to real-estate broker Chris Havens.

He said that NYU likely took advantage of a “fantastic deal” and that Metrotech space is “going cheap.”

“The biggest hole in Brooklyn is Metrotech — there’s lots of space there for lease,” Havens said.

article

NoLandGrab: Ah, finally some unvarnished truth about Forest City Ratner's Metrotech. Guess we won't be seeing any Atlantic Yards office towers (or office jobs) any time soon.

Posted by eric at 9:27 AM

May 26, 2011

Forest City Enterprises gets one-third off loan due Cleveland; will subsidary FCR pursue similar discounts regarding Atlantic Yards?

Atlantic Yards Report

Is a discount on a Forest City Enterprises loan from the city of Cleveland a harbinger of further requests to adjust Forest City Ratner's public obligations regarding Atlantic Yards?

Well, we can't be sure, but the Forest City modus operandi, it's clear, is to play hardball, taking advantage of what public agencies allow.

(FCR doesn't have any loans to pay back, but it is supposed to create new public infrastructure, and already renegotiated a discount on the development rights to the Vanderbilt Yard and got permission to build a replacement yard smaller than promised.)

The discount in Cleveland

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer's blog, a post headlined Forest City paying $10.3 million to close out $15 million in city loans:

Forest City Enterprises will pay Cleveland $10.3 million of $15.4 million owed on three development loans, and the city will call it even.

About half the money will replenish a "rainy day" fund that is to run out this year, and $3.9 million will go to economic development. The City Council has set aside $1.4 million for neighborhood projects, with each of the 19 members receiving $75,000.

The deal, initiated by the city, involves loans made to the real estate and development company with federal Urban Development Action Grant money in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Forest City used the low- and no-interest loans to develop The Avenue at Tower City Center.

Forest City had faced balloon payments totaling about $15.4 million due in 2016 or 2020, depending on the loan.

Ken Silliman, Mayor Frank Jackson's chief of staff, said the deal ensures the city will collect two-thirds of a debt that would be hard to recover if Forest City defaulted. He and Economic Development Director Tracey Nichols said it also makes money available for economic development at a time when private financing remains tight.

(Emphasis added)

Making the deal

Why should Forest City default? They can afford to pay back the loan. They just don't want to.

The question is why Cleveland let them get away with it.

article

Related content...

Cleveland.com, Forest City paying $10.3 million to close out $15 million in city loans

Silliman acknowledged that the city is unlikely to recoup the full value of the three Forest City loans.

Posted by eric at 11:01 AM

At MetroTech, NYU-Poly takes some unused office space of Forest City Ratner's hands; move pitched as "owning the square"

Atlantic Yards Report

When I first wrote about New York University's astonishing absorption of the Brooklyn-based engineering school Polytechnic University, I thought it merely an intriguing (and severely under-examined) real estate story involving a principal of the MetroTech complex developed by Forest City Ratner and Polytechnic.

Now there's a more explicit connection. As the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, in an article headlined NYU-Poly Expands at MetroTech Center: Will Allow School to ‘Own the Square’ and Enhance 24/7 Downtown Community.
...

Poly already occupies buildings around the commons--buildings with ground-level space flanking the open area--so I don't see how adding upper floors in office buildings makes the campus more dynamic.

Rather, it solves a problem for Forest City Ratner: getting office tenants into its properties. Remember, In the past year, as Crain's NY Business reported, NYSE Euronext moved out of roughly 387,000 square feet at 2 MetroTech Center.

We don't know if Poly is paying the rates expected from office tenants, but it's unlikely.

article

Posted by eric at 10:53 AM

May 24, 2011

NYU-Poly Expands at MetroTech Center

Will Allow School to ‘Own the Square’ and Enhance 24/7 Downtown Community

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Linda Collins

Going for a more dynamic, vibrant feel to its campus in Downtown Brooklyn, NYU-Poly, more formally known as the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, has signed a lease with Forest City Ratner for academic space in two Ratner-owned buildings at MetroTech.

article

NoLandGrab: Nothing says "dynamic" and "vibrant" like MetroTech! Forest City is also bringing that "24/7" feel to the neighborhoods near its basketball arena.

Posted by eric at 11:14 PM

The Slow And Quiet Return Of Richard Lipsky

City Hall News
by Adam Lisberg

He's baaaaaaack?!

He doesn’t roam City Hall anymore with his cellphone earpiece and his red appointment book. He doesn’t exhort reporters to cover his press conferences. He doesn’t blast out email about his latest blog posts.

But indicted lobbyist Richard Lipsky is quietly edging back into the game.

Lobbying reports on file with the city and state show Lipsky billed at least $28,500 to three clients in March and April. That’s down significantly from the $60,533 he billed 10 clients in January and February, but it’s still a significant level of work.

It’s unclear whether Lipsky actually lobbied government officials, or simply advised his clients on public relations and other functions, after he was charged March 10 with conspiracy and money laundering.
...

He made his name as a lobbyist for small businesses, fighting the city’s plans to seize property in Willets Point, Queens through eminent domain, though he has also worked on behalf of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards development that used eminent domain.

article

Posted by eric at 10:56 AM

May 20, 2011

SQUARE FEET | THE 30-MINUTE INTERVIEW: Ronald Dickerman

The New York Times
by Vivian Marino

Mr. Dickerman, 47, is the founder and president of Madison International Realty, a real estate private equity firm, which through its investment funds holds ownership stakes in buildings around the world, including several in the New York area, among them the Chrysler East Building and 520 Madison Avenue. The company has also had investments in the Seagram Building over the years.

Q Tell me about your business.

A I think we do something very unusual in the world of commercial real estate and investing: we acquire ownership interests in Class A assets from existing investors looking for an early exit strategy. Our objective is not to seek control of the properties — it’s to provide liquidity, which means buy their interest. We’re not a loan-to-own shop.
...

Q You recently announced a deal to acquire a 49 percent interest in 15 retail and entertainment properties owned by Forest City Ratner.

A They came to us, I think, in September 2010 to fund their go-forward investments. You may know that the Atlantic Yards development is something like $4 billion.

These properties are as core as core can be. They’re 99 percent occupied; the average lease term is over eight years.

article

Related coverage...

Atlantic Yards Report, Why did Forest City Ratner sell a 49 percent stake in its malls? To help pay for Atlantic Yards, and to combat investor "fatigue"

In a "Square Feet" interview in the upcoming Sunday New York Times Real Estate section, Ronald Dickerman, founder and president of the private equity firm Madison International Realty, explains his business and talks about the deal announced at the end of March to acquire a 49 percent interest in 15 retail and entertainment properties owned by Forest City Ratner.

So what do companies like Forest City do with the cash?

"To redeploy into other investment opportunities, to fund other liabilities within their portfolio," responded Dickerman.

In other words, to help pay for Atlantic Yards.
...

Madison investors see a rate of return "between 17 and 18 percent gross," so that suggests Forest City Ratner gave up something significant.

Asked if his firm adds value to its holdings, Dickerman said no:

We invest in core Class A assets where the building itself is relatively stable and the deal is not distressed. What’s distressed about the transaction is the fatigue of the underlying investor.

Posted by eric at 11:38 AM

Long-delayed Ridge Hill opening nears

Westfair Online
by John Jordan

A project that will easily surpass $600 million to build when all is said and done is on the cusp of having its first tenant open for business and is readying for an October “mini” grand opening when dozens of tenants are expected to open their doors.

The Ridge Hill project in Yonkers, which will total approximately 1.2 million square feet of mixed-use space and is being developed by Forest City Ratner Cos., was approved by the Yonkers City Council in July 2006 and officially broke ground Nov. 28, 2007.

Since then, Forest City Ratner and general contractor Yonkers Contracting Company Inc. have been undertaking the massive excavation, infrastructure and building construction in connection with the project. Originally scheduled to open in late 2009, the project has encountered delays that have pushed the project’s opening to this October that will be followed by individual tenant openings that will be staggered throughout the remainder of this year and into 2012.

article

NoLandGrab: Must've been the Atlantic Yards lawsuits that caused those delays.

Posted by eric at 11:09 AM

May 18, 2011

‘The Gugg’ Comes to Downtown

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Linda Collins

"The Gugg?"

The Eagle has learned that the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is bringing a temporary exhibit to a storefront space in Downtown Brooklyn.

Tim King, a principal of CPEX Real Estate, and MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president at Forest City Ratner, worked together to provide a free venue for the exhibit — in the former home of Sid’s Hardware at 345 Jay St., also known as 1 MetroTech.

King, who received the call from the Guggenheim’s curator several weeks ago, said the request for a site came with “a wish list of requirements, including free space.” He contacted Gilmartin, who he described as “very enthusiastic,” then showed the space and put the curator in touch with Forest City — all pro bono.
...

The exhibit, titled “Stillspotting NYC,” will be ongoing but will have its inaugural edition in Downtown Brooklyn, according to David van der Leer, assistant curator of Architecture and Urban Studies. “We looked at many places around the borough — from Williamsburg, Bushwick, Crown Heights to DUMBO — and found our favorite place for the first edition of ‘Stillspotting NYC’ in Downtown Brooklyn,” wrote van der Leer in a published statement. “To many it is a place of work or transit, but so few people realize it can also be an incredible resource for stillness that will be transformed over the coming years.

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NoLandGrab: The "stillness" that "the Gugg" sees is a product of the Metrotech dead zone that Bruce Ratner has created in downtown Brooklyn.

Posted by eric at 10:10 AM

May 16, 2011

Saving six figures: likely one reason Forest City Ratner hasn't yet fulfilled the obligation to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor for the CBA

Atlantic Yards Report

As I described 11/29/10, Forest City Ratner has claimed, dubiously, that it didn't have to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor (ICM) to provide a credible outside analysis of the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), despite provisions in the document, signed 6/27/05, to hire one "[a]s soon as reasonably practicable."

"It didn't actually go into effect until we broke ground for the arena," Forest City Ratner executive Jane Marshall claimed last fall. Of course the developer had been proudly reporting some figures--such as minority contracting--all along.

One reason for that reticence, as I've suggested, may be that such an ICM might do its job.

Tight budget

Another may be simpler: Forest City Ratner keeps a close watch on its spending, and every six-figure sum it saves makes a difference.

article

NoLandGrab: OK, Jane, even if we gave you the benefit of the doubt, you've had 14 months to do what you said you would do.

Posted by eric at 9:51 AM

A Forest City Enterprises tale: 60 years of service to the co-chairman of the board, formality and awe

Atlantic Yards Report

Norman Oder highlights a case of Stockholm Syndrome at Forest City HQ.

A column in the 5/15/11 Cleveland Plain Dealer, Eleanor Fanslau has been at the heart of Forest City for 60 years: Regina Brett, profiles Eleanor Fanslau, 77, who for 60 years has served as the secretary and "right hand, his bookkeeper, executive assistant, receptionist and caretaker rolled into one" to Sam Miller, Forest City's co-chairman of the board and treasurer, who's now 90.

He's retiring and moving to emeritus status. Last June, I wrote about his performance at the annual meeting, in which he came off "more like the great-uncle who gets to hog the microphone at the family reunion because he’s always rented the venue."

Sacrificing service

Regina Brett's column describes Fanslau's super-loyal, sacrificing service to a company that's grown from a modest local lumber company to a national developer:

They sound like an old married couple who yell just because they can. It's the cadence of their conversation.

And yet:

He doesn't allow her to make personal calls. After 60 years, he still insists she call him Mr. Miller. She comes in at 7:30 a.m., prints out his emails, opens mail, pays bills, answers letters and phone calls. She eats lunch at her desk.

article

Posted by eric at 9:37 AM

May 13, 2011

Cognitive dissonance in Ratner-land: is Bruce Ratner a corporate hero or a guy who plays the system? It depends what you read

Atlantic Yards Report

The first two weeks of May have featured a high level of Ratnerian cognitive dissonance: two media mentions that buff developer Bruce Ratner as a white knight, countered by two other mentions that raise serious questions and qualms.

First came Ratner's refute, that sycophantic cover story in The Real Deal. Then comes word (via The Graduate Baruchian and No Land Grab) of Ratner's well-received appearance at the Baruch Business School's Zicklin Leadership Series.

Business ethics

NLG's Eric McClure pointed to this excerpt:

What can an organization do to encourage good business ethics?
BR — It starts from the top. Ethics is an issue of culture. That comes directly from the executives and people who run the company. Lectures turn people off. Leading by action sets the tone. At FCRC a balance between life and work is strongly encouraged. The job is important, but friends and family come first. When people recognize that work is not everything, they become less susceptible to temptation and making poor decisions. Moreover, a culture of fairness further creates an environment where people can make good decisions.

If Forest City Ratner and parent Forest City Enterprise really believe in ethics, well, wouldn't they:
--stop issuing wildly misleading brochures
--not pay consultants (who later get indicted) for no-show jobs
--feel some chagrin about disruptions made in their name

The list could go on.

article

Posted by eric at 1:39 PM

May 12, 2011

Good corporate citizen? Profile of Ratner in the Forward quotes Atlantic Yards opponents and mentions Kruger charges

Atlantic Yards Report

Here's some news unmentioned in The Real Deal's sycophantic profile of Bruce Ratner last week: as headlined in the Forward, the weekly newspaper geared to a Jewish audience, From Humble Lumber Sellers to Clout-Wielding Developers: An Immigrant Tale: Federal Indictment of a Local State Senator Shines Light on Bruce Ratner’s Brooklyn Redevelopment Project.

The piece, by Neil deMause of the book and blog Field of Schemes, recognizes Ratner's history of gaining government support and gives reasonable credence--and the last word--to Ratner's opponents, notably Candace Carponter of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.

Still, I'd contend, the article could have been even tougher. I posted a comment:

“I think all of this stems from his sense of what it means to be a good corporate citizen,” said [Joe] DePlasco.

DePlasco is the developer's paid spokesman. Of course that's what he thinks.

I think, based on an examination of the record, that Forest City Ratner has long made compromises and pursued policies that privileged its bottom line over corporate citizenship. (That's not surprising; FCR's obligations are first to its parent company and shareholders.)

The question for readers and journalists caught in the "he said, she said" back-and-forth is whether the developer, by dint of its track record, deserves more or less credence.

I'd argue for less. Take, for example, the developer's history of deceptive promotional brochures and publications.

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NoLandGrab: Actually, we don't think DePlasco really thinks Bruce is a good corporate citizen. He's just paid to say it.

Posted by eric at 12:48 PM

Polarizing Downtown Brooklyn business group kept sloppy books - audit

NY Daily News
by Erin Durkin

Honchos at a group charged with lending its business expertise to Downtown Brooklyn could use some accounting classes themselves, an audit found.

Controller John Liu's report slamming the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership for sloppy bookkeeping came as the Partnership got the nod to take over another neighborhood business group - over the objections of some local merchants.

The audit found the Partnership couldn't account for $1.2 million in employee pay and benefits - 45% of its total budget for the year.
...

"If that audit is any indication of how they're going to perform, you can kiss all the good work the BID has done over the years (goodbye)," said board member Vincent Battista, executive director of the Institute of Design and Construction, a junior college on Willoughby St. "They're so inefficient they don't know which way is up."

The board voted 22-9 to approve the takeover, backed by the city and major developers like Forest City Ratner. The move came after they shelved conflict of interest rules that could have barred the 13 board members who also sit on the Partnership board from voting.

article

Posted by eric at 12:06 PM

May 11, 2011

Thanks in part to Forest City Ratner influence, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership takes over MetroTech BID

Atlantic Yards Report

So, what does the news about the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership's controversial takeover of the MetroTech Business Improvement District (BID) have to do with Atlantic Yards? A bunch.

The DBP, a reliable cheerleader for Atlantic Yards, and was once (and perhaps still) under investigation for improper lobbying, has support from political leaders and Forest City Ratner. Consider Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's statement yesterday, as reported by the New York Post:

Borough President Marty Markowitz called the Partnership deal “an important step in the ongoing transformation of Downtown Brooklyn into a vibrant, 24/7, live-work urban center -- and soon, home of the Brooklyn Nets.”

link

Posted by eric at 10:49 AM

Apartment was too messy to rob!

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

Target's Pocketbook Protectors just can't keep up with all the pickpockets in Bruce Ratner's purloiner-plagued Fort Greene malls.

Wallet snatch

A thief sneaked off with a woman’s wallet as she shopped inside Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Terminal Mall on May 6.

The victim was walking through the shopping center between Hanson Place and Atlantic Avenue at 9:20 pm when she realized her bag had been opened.

The mall and its counterpart, Atlantic Center, make weekly appearances in this column, a constant warning to be vigilant.

article

Posted by eric at 10:38 AM

May 10, 2011

Controversial takeover of Metro Tech BID approve

The Brooklyn Blog [NYPost.com]
by Rich Calder

Something is rotten in Metro Tech.

Mayor Bloomberg and the borough’s biggest developer have prevailed in a heated Downtown Brooklyn turf war.

A development corporation created by Bloomberg to spur economic development in Downtown Brooklyn was awarded a $216,667-a-year contract to run daily operations of a striving Business Improvement District representing 25 square blocks in and around Metro Tech Center.

The decision today by Metro Tech BID to hire Downtown Brooklyn Partnership to manage the business improvement district’s daily operations -- and a $2.6 million budget raised through a neighborhood property tax -- ends more than two years of bickering by BID board members split over the plan.

The Partnership was granted the new responsibilities despite Monday’s release of an audit by Comptroller John Liu that ripped it for keeping shoddy payroll records, poorly documenting private donations and snubbing competitive-bidding laws.
...

A faction, including top BID brass, had fought the Partnership plan despite pressure from City Hall and developer Forest City Ratner, which built Metro Tech’s office complex in the 1980s.

article

Related coverage...

NY Post, Comptroller report rips city's Downtown Brooklyn development corp.

Liu’s audit relies on fiscal 2009 data, which showed the Partnership ended the period with a $319,956 deficit.

It states that 45 percent of the Partnership’s $2.7 million budget is for payroll – including $220,000 for its president, Joe Chan – but the Partnership fails to correctly maintain time sheets that show whether employees actually work all the hours they’re paid for.

The report also states the Partnership is not accurately recording private donations it receives, which could affect matching government grants the Partnership is eligible to obtain. And it says the Partnership isn’t following city guidelines when awarding contracts, including some cases where the Partnership, which was created in 2006, didn’t solicit enough competitive bids.

team tish, Metrotech Board Votes on Management Agreement with DBP; Bookkeeping Issues Outlined in Comptroller Audit Report

“Ironically, the NYC Comptroller’s audit of DBP reveals that the Partnership has poor bookkeeping (including timekeeping and tracking of private contributions) and some procurement issues, which leads one to ask why would the MetroTech Board vote to give DBP more responsibility, if the organization already has problems managing the Court-Livingston and Fulton Mall BIDs? It is my hope that MetroTech Board members are fully aware of the NYC Comptroller’s audit findings before their meeting,” said Council Member [Letitia] James.

The Brooklyn Paper, Audit rips Downtown Brooklyn Partnership over bookkeeping, salaries

The organization in charge of charting Downtown’s future is having serious difficulty steering its own ship, according to a city audit released on Monday.
...

The analysis, which examined data from July 1, 2008 to June, 2009, concluded that the Partnership:

• Lacks adequate controls to substantiate $1.2 million in payments to salaried employees.

• Fails to follow proper procedures regarding documenting $600,000 in private contributions.

• Doesn’t follow the procurement and reporting requirements of the $6-million consulting contract it holds with the Department of Small Business Services.

Posted by eric at 9:57 PM

May 6, 2011

Even in a slow lobbying year, Forest City Ratner spent some $345,000 on array of lobbying firms, including Lipsky

Atlantic Yard Report

In past years, state officials have released annual lobbying information in April; since no such document has been forthcoming, I've taken a look at Forest City Ratner's lobbying in 2010, which, understandably, was well below that in 2009, when the developer renegotiated deals with both the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Empire State Development Corporation.

Indeed, the 2009 total of $1,127,598 in city and state lobbying, perhaps the largest sum for any real estate developer, was succeeded by a 2010 total of some $345,000, likely dwarfed by sums spent on public relations, such as the 3/11/10 groundbreaking ceremony.

The developer spread the money among nine firms, including the one-man show run by Richard Lipsky, who faces corruption charges.

article

Posted by eric at 11:00 AM

May 3, 2011

More trouble at Ratner’s malls

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

Maybe, someday, "social missionary" Bruce Ratner will go on a mission to truly protect the pocketbooks of patrons shopping in his crime-plagued Fort Greene malls.

Ratner raids

There was more trouble at the, well, troubled Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal last week. Here’s the rundown:

• A 51-year-old man was arrested on April 27 after he was caught swiping eight pairs of women’s shoes and four handbags from the Marshall’s in the Atlantic Center. The thief was caught by store security just before exiting the store between Fort Greene Place and S. Portland Avenue at 7:10 pm.

• A thief snaked a cellphone out of a woman’s handbag as she perused the aisles inside the Atlantic Terminal Target. The woman was about to buy something at the Flatbush Avenue store at 4 pm when she realized her cellphone had been taken — even though she had possession of her bag the entire time.

• Someone swiped a wallet from a woman caring for her child inside the Atlantic Center on April 30. The woman had put her wallet on the ground as she tended to her child at 8 pm, not realizing that someone was nearby looking to exploit an opportunity.

article

Posted by eric at 11:23 AM

May 2, 2011

Yonkers Contracting survives multiple probes, indictments in its history

LoHud.com

The two Yonkers companies that have taken turns reconstructing the Cross-Westchester Expressway have spent decades building themselves into regional powerhouses in the heavy construction industry — one in relative obscurity, the other often deflecting suspicion.

In an industry frequently under scrutiny for mob ties and financial shenanigans, Ecco III Enterprises has escaped unscathed.

But a whiff of corruption has lingered on Yonkers Contracting Co. for decades, though charges never stuck.
...

The company did not get work on the $4 billion Atlantic Yards redevelopment that is bringing the New Jersey Nets to downtown Brooklyn, despite a $346 million bid for one part of the work. But the developer, Forest City Ratner, did tap YCC as general contractor of the $650 million Ridge Hill project a few miles up the Thruway from the contractor's Midland Avenue headquarters.

The developer plays a key part in the latest scandal to rock Albany, the indictment of state Sen. Carl Kruger and several others, including lobbyist Richard Lipsky.

article

Posted by eric at 11:52 AM

April 28, 2011

FCR may raise $40M more from immigrant investors; document confirms that EB-5 loans can be used to pay off mortgages, says nothing about job creation

Atlantic Yards Report

We would call this unbelievable, but Atlantic Yards is so crooked that nothing is unbelievable.

An Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) document reveals that developer Forest City Ratner, which already has signed up 498 immigrant investors to offer a $249 million low-interest loan, may seek another 80 investors for a $40 million loan.

The agreement between the ESDC and a Forest City Ratner affiliate was acquired via a Freedom of Information Law request. Though it offers much detail on how the money might be spent--Forest City has wide latitude--it says nothing about the ostensible purpose of the funding under the federal government's EB-5 immigration program: job creation.

The issue of job creation must be addressed in documents submitted to a federal agency, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The investors park their money for perhaps five years, and can get green cards for themselves and their families, assuming the claims of job creation pass muster.
...

[T]he loan proceeds could be used to reimburse Forest City Ratner for its costs on the Arena, the Subway Entrance, the public plaza, the upgrade railyard, demolition of project structures, utility work, the construction of the Carlton Avenue Bridge, the creation of arena parking, and preparation of development sites.

Essentially it's a piggy bank for whatever Forest City Ratner wants, including the final category, which I highlighted: paying off any liens and encumbrances, such as the existing land loan from Gramercy Warehouse Funding.

Does any of this create or retain jobs? That's what they may say on paper, but it seems clear that the developer is substituting lower-cost capital for higher-cost capital.

Take for example the Carlton Avenue Bridge; the developer is obligated to reconstruct it, whatever the source of the capital. So the use of immigrant investor funds for the bridge doesn't add jobs.

article

NoLandGrab: As some people are fond of saying, "f**k the bridge." And the jobs, and the investors, and the taxpayers, and....

Posted by eric at 10:32 AM

April 26, 2011

Another iPhone swipe

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

How many times do we have to warn you — do not enter Bruce Ratner's malls without your pocketbook protector.

Marshall menace

Crooks converged on the Marshall’s inside the troubled Atlantic Center on Atlantic Avenue between Fort Greene Place and South Portland Avenue last week. Here are some highlights:

• A goon grabbed a 30-year-old woman’s purse as she shopped for clothes inside the department store on April 15. The woman laid her bag by her feet as she went through several clothing racks at 8:30 pm. When she completed her task 15 minutes later, she realized her bag was missing.

• A 47-year-old woman was arrested on April 19 after she was caught stealing more than $1,600 worth of clothing and accessories. The thief was grabbed leaving the store at 8:12 pm without paying for handbags, shoes and lingerie.

article

Posted by eric at 10:34 AM

April 25, 2011

Kunpeng, consultancy promoting AY to immigrant investors in China, among firms willing to deceive regulators, according to newspaper investigation

Atlantic Yards Report

There's new evidence that consultants helping Chinese millionaires immigrate, as in the program involving the "Brooklyn Arena and Infrastructure Project," are skating toward fraud.

In this case, the evidence does not involve the EB-5 program, in which investors park $500,000 for a purportedly job-creating project in exchange for green cards for themselves and their family, but rather a similar Canadian program.

Kunpeng International, a consultant prominent in promoting the Brooklyn project as an associate of the New York City Regional Center (NYCRC), an investment pool working with Forest City Ratner, has been identified as one willing to deceive Canadian regulators.

(Kunpeng's head is at right in the photo with the Empire State Development Corporation's Peter Davidson, who provided a certificate during a roadshow in China last October. That proclamation, as I wrote, elides the difference between the Brooklyn Arena and Infrastructure Project before the potential investors--purportedly the arena, infrastructure, and railyard--and the Atlantic Yards project as a whole, which would produce many more jobs and potential benefits.)

Helping a fictitious applicant

In a 4/22/11 article headlined How China’s ‘crooked consultants’ help the rich enter Canada, the Globe and Mail reports that a fictitious potential immigrant created for the purposes of the article--who has the required minimum $1.6 million CAD in assets but not the required documentation providing the wealth is legitimate--was offered help in sugarcoating his past by 18 of the 22 China-based immigration consultants approached.

Of the 22, 12 said that even a criminal record--jail time for stabbing someone in a fight--could be overcome:

If the relative were to persuade – bribe, if necessary – someone at his local police station to issue such a certificate, explained an agent at Kunpeng International, a Beijing-based firm, Canadian officials “can’t come to China to check the archives” in person.

John Ryan, chief executive officer of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, a former consultant in China, told the newspaper that business ethics in China are flexible:

“In Chinese culture, they feel that, in dealing with governments, they need an edge. They don’t really understand that, in our Canadian system, they can deal openly and honestly with the government and be dealt with fairly.”

article

NoLandGrab: Is it us, or does our system sound much closer to China's than to Canada's?

Posted by eric at 11:00 AM

April 21, 2011

Marty Peeved By Panasonic HQ’s Move To Newark

‘Would Have Been No Better Place’ Than B’klyn

AP via Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Despite Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’ wishes to lure electronics giant Panasonic here, the firm has opted to stay in the Garden State, moving its North American headquarters — and about 800 jobs — from Secaucus to Newark.

Markowitz, who mentioned his wishes to lure Panasonic here at last year’s ceremony to announce that retail would be moving into the Brooklyn Municipal Building, said, “I am disappointed that Panasonic passed on a chance to bring its big screens to the ‘big stage’ of Brooklyn, U.S.A.
...

In a sense, what happened to Panasonic is the reverse of what happened to the Nets basketball team. When the Nets were for sale 2004, Bruce Ratner, who planned to bring the team to Brooklyn, was bidding against Charles Cushner and then-New Jersey senator Jon Corzine, who wanted to keep the team in New Jersey. Ratner won, and they lost.

link

NoLandGrab: As the saying goes, their loss was our bigger loss.

Posted by eric at 10:39 AM

Battle of the BIDs: MetroTech merchants fighting takeover try by downtown Brooklyn group

NY Daily News
by Erin Durkin

Small-business owners around MetroTech are battling a move by downtown Brooklyn powerbrokers to take over their merchants group.

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is vying to take over the MetroTech Business Improvement District - which taxes property owners and provides security and cleanup services - and control its $2.6 million annual budget.

Partnership officials say they're just trying to run things more efficiently, but some BID members are resisting, charging the group would slight services to small businesses and cater to big developers.

"It's all about the money," said BID President Victoria Aviles, owner of Bridge Cleaners and Tailors. "We have programs that benefit the mom-and-pop merchants and the new residents ... We serve the community, not the developers."
...

City officials and top local developers like Forest City Ratner - which developed MetroTech - are backing the takeover.

article

NoLandGrab: We follow a simple rule of thumb in disputes like this — if Forest City Ratner supports it, it can't possibly be good.

Posted by eric at 10:30 AM

April 20, 2011

More iPhone thefts

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

Folks need to learn that it's just not safe to enter Bruce Ratner's malls without a pocketbook protector.

Nintendos nicked

A trio of thieves in baggy pants filled their trousers with more than $2,000 in Nintendo games during an April 12 visit to the Best Buy in the troubled Atlantic Center Mall.

Workers at the store between Fort Greene Place and S. Portland Avenue said that the thieves entered just before 7 pm, swiped several games and game consoles, and left.

The mall, and its neighboring Atlantic Terminal Mall, make frequent appearances in our police blotter.

article

Related coverage...

The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill], The Week in Crime: Two Stabbings and a Fingertip Bitten

A 44-year-old woman’s wallet was taken while she shopped at Daffy’s in the Atlantic Terminal Mall on April 11 at 7:30 p.m., police said. The woman was notified by Chase bank that her credit card was used while she was still shopping in Daffy’s, police said. The thief also took her Target credit card, Gap credit card, New York State driver’s license, and health insurance card, the woman reported.

Posted by eric at 2:34 PM

Unlike Nets, Panasonic chooses Newark over Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Blog [NYPost.com]
by Rich Calder

The Nets might be choosing Brooklyn over Newark, but Panasonic plans to do the opposite.

As the Nets prepare for a 2012 move from Newark's Prudential Center to the new Barclays Center under construction on Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and other officials have fallen short in a big push to lure the electronics giant and its 950 jobs to the borough.

link

Related coverage...

The Wall Street Journal, Newark Lands Panasonic With Subsidies

Critics of the deal say New Jersey got played.

"I'm just baffled that they would give them that much money to stay, not only within the tri-state region but within their own state," said Bettina Damiani, a project director for Good Jobs New York, which is skeptical of tax incentives for companies. "Just to move up the Turnpike?"

NoLandGrab: Technically, it's down the Turnpike, but Damiani's point is no less valid.

Posted by eric at 10:35 AM

Paying the price to be heard in Albany

LoHud.com

Consider the saga of Patricia Lynch Associates LLC, as discussed in the Sunday article. The robust lobbying firm paid a $500,000 fine last year as part of a settlement with then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office. Investigators asserted that the firm arranged campaign contributions, gifts and other favors to gain access for clients to the state Comptroller's Office under the disgraced Alan Hevesi. The firm also agreed to a five-year ban on lobbying the comptroller's office.

In 2010, Patricia Lynch Associates clients included the City of Yonkers, which paid it a total of $78,486. Another Lynch client is Forest City Ratner, the developer building the massive, mixed-use Ridge Hill complex in Yonkers. It figures prominently in a federal corruption case against former Yonkers Councilmember Sandy Annabi, a Democrat accused of accepting a bribe to drop her longstanding opposition to Ridge Hill.

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Posted by eric at 10:28 AM

April 19, 2011

Panasonic rebuffs Brooklyn's overtures

Electronics giant to relocate corporate headquarters in New Jersey, a move that's sweetened with a $102.4 million subsidy from the state.

Crain's NY Business
by Daniel Massey

Here's a first — someone actually out-subsidized MetroTech!

Downtown Brooklyn may be getting New Jersey's Nets, but local officials' attempts to lure Panasonic and its 950 corporate headquarter jobs from the Garden State have come up short.

In the end, Brooklyn could not compete with a $102.4 million subsidy package offered to the consumer electronics giant to move to Newark, N.J., from its current home in Secaucus, N.J.

New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, Newark Mayor Corey Booker and Panasonic officials scheduled a Wednesday press conference in Newark to make the announcement, sources said.

Big Apple officials had been trying to sell Panasonic on two sites in downtown Brooklyn owned by developer Forest City Ratner—MetroTech Center and Atlantic Yards.
...

In a statement, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said he would continue to work to bring companies of all sizes to Brooklyn, despite being rebuffed by Panasonic.

article

NoLandGrab: Well, we could always take another run at Cracker Barrel. Or not.

Related coverage...

Atlantic Yards Report, As expected, Panasonic to move within New Jersey, not to Forest City Ratner sites in Brooklyn

As expected, Panasonic will not move its 950 jobs to Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards, or its MetroTech complex, but rather will move within New Jersey.
...

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz issued a statement:

“I am disappointed that Panasonic passed on a chance to bring its big screens to the ‘big stage’ of Brooklyn, U.S.A. Brooklyn is the Creative Capital of America, and there would have been no better place to develop Panasonic’s next ‘ideas for life.’ This doesn’t change Brooklyn’s status as the hottest place to do business in New York City, and I will continue to work to bring companies of all sizes to Brooklyn. And when the Nets move from Newark to Barclays Center in 2012, it’s going to be a heck of a commute for those Panasonic employees!”

Brooklyn may be good at luring food and drink establishments, or small creative companies, but it sure is not the "hottest place" to do business when it comes to office space.

Posted by eric at 11:13 PM

Tug o' war for B'klyn biz bucks

NY Post
by Rich Calder

There’s a turf war heating up in Downtown Brooklyn.

At stake is control of a striving Business Improvement District representing 25 square blocks in and around Metro Tech Center.

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a public-private entity created by the Bloomberg administration in 2006 to spur local economic development, is trying to seize control of Metro Tech BID.
...

But, unlike two nearby Downtown BIDs that quietly agreed to partnership takeovers in 2010, board members for Metro Tech BID are split.

A faction, including top brass, refuse to award the partnership a $300,000-a-year contract to run the BID – despite pressure from City Hall and developer Forest City Ratner, which built Metro Tech’s office complex in the 1980s.
...

“It’s dead wrong to have one group be Downtown Brooklyn’s only voice, and this would set a bad precedent for all city BIDs, ” said Michael Weiss, Metro Tech BID’s executive director.

The partnership is paid $220,000 yearly to run smaller, adjacent BIDs representing Fulton Mall and the Court-Livingston-Schermerhorn streets corridor.

Weiss -- who’d lose his $165,000-a-year job through the merger -- said the plan would “devastate services” for small businesses and the neighborhood’s growing residential community because the partnership “usually puts large developers’ needs first.”
...

Forest City officials, including CEO Bruce Ratner, hold seven of the 33 voting board seats at the BID.

article

Posted by eric at 10:27 AM

April 15, 2011

Big Deal Pending at Ratner's Metrotech

NY Observer
by Jotham Sederstrom

Polytechnic Institute of New York University, the private engineering college in downtown Brooklyn, is nearing a deal for approximately 9,000 square feet of office and administrative space at Metrotech Center, sources familiar with the process told The Observer yesterday.

Currently occupying space at the Forest City Ratner-owned 5 and 6 MetroTech as well as nearby space at the historic Wunsch Building at 311 Bridge Street, the 157-year-old school is exploring space at both 1 and 4 MetroTech Center, the sources said.

link

NoLandGrab: 9,000 square feet doesn't sound like a very big deal. Maybe they're missing a zero?

Posted by eric at 11:14 AM

April 14, 2011

Brooklyn BID takeover moves forward

Crain's NY Business

Look who's meddling in a downtown Brooklyn power struggle.

Allies of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership have managed, for now, to beat back a proposal aimed at blocking its ability to usurp funding from the MetroTech BID, which it oversees.

The BID held an emergency meeting yesterday that was attended by board members, Bloomberg administration staff, and lawyers for some of downtown's largest developers. The sole item on the agenda: revising the BID's conflict-of-interest policy.

The proposed revision, many agree, would make it next to impossible for BID board members who also sit on the partnership's board to vote to divert money from the BID to the partnership.

“This is not just about MetroTech,” said BID President Victoria Aviles. “This is about all the BIDs in New York City and how umbrella organizations can take them over.”

Despite her efforts, opponents managed to stall the vote after lawyers for Forest City Ratner and Muss Development criticized the proposed conflict-of-interest proposal for being vague. Following an onslaught of hoots and hollers, members voted to form a committee that will review the policy.

article [registration required]

The delay tactic rankled board members who believe that the partnership and its deep-pocketed friends are gunning for a power play. “It's about money,” said Vincent Battista, a downtown Brooklyn business owner. “It's not about serving the community.”

BIDs enjoy a reliable revenue stream from property tax assessments. Some have argued that because the partnership's funding from the city is drying up, its survival depends, in part, on money it can pull from the MetroTech BID and two others in downtown Brooklyn. “They're looking for bailouts on the backs of the BIDs,” said one insider.

Not so, the partnership says: It's simply trying to fulfill one of its original missions, which is to consolidate the services of various organizations in downtown Brooklyn. There is no takeover, supporters claim.

“Those arguments and other ploys are an attempt by a deeply embedded BID bureaucrat to maintain his position,” said an insider, referring to Mike Weiss, executive director of the MetroTech BID. A wily veteran of city politics, Weiss has maneuvered for a year to stymie the partnership's plans. The MetroTech BID board meets again May 5.

Posted by eric at 12:02 PM

April 10, 2011

“Reverse Morality” Clauses for Celebrity Endorsers: What Are They? Something Celebrities, Including Jay-Z, Should Try Enforcing

Noticing New York

Corporations that make use of celebrity endorsements commonly write protections into contracts to protect themselves case of misbehavior by a celebrity. But there are also reverse-morality clauses to protect the celebrity in case of bad behavior by the corporation. A course presented by Andrew Bondarowicz, Esq. suggests that Jay-Z might need such protection as part of his endorsement of Atlantic Yards?

Unfortunately, while reverse morality clauses are actually becoming more prevalent (Mr. Bondarowicz’s says they were almost unheard of 20-30 years ago but are becoming popular in the post-ENRON environment) they are rarely enforced. Why not?

Mr. Bondarowicz puts it this way:

While the considerations may be very similar, it is very unlikely that morals clauses will be enforced in reverse situations mainly because the brand is the one typically that’s paying the endorser and unless you’re willing to forgo the financial implications of that deal you tend to find a way to work within the relationship. Secondly, the brand sought out the endorser to serve as spokesman for the company and in times of crisis it becomes even more advantageous to utilize the services of that endorsement to regain credibility and trust with the public.

That rather delicado lawyer-speak can be translated thus: If the endorser enforces the reverse morals clause they will lose a paycheck, but if they work something out with "the brand" to avoid the clause being triggered they just might get paid even more as they bail the corporation out in its days of crisis.

...

...Forest City Ratner is now in a time of crisis. In fact, if you apply the triggers above in the list of standards that usually apply to paid endorsers, Forest City Ratner has by the judgment of many of us crossed quite a few of those lines, at least in the “softer categories.” As for the “harder” categories, there hasn’t yet been a conviction for felony or misdemeanor or a criminal indictment, but many would convincingly argue that Forest City Ratner is dancing uncomfortably close to those triggers as well. - - Does all this mean that Jay-Z’s paycheck is going up?

link

Related coverage...

Atlantic Yards Report, Jay-Z, "a reverse morals clause," and the flexibility of morality

Michael D. D. White, in his Noticing New York blog, suggests that Jay-Z's take from Forest City Ratner might be going up because of a "reverse morals clause" triggered by the company's questionable behavior.

Perhaps, but Jay-Z himself is hardly pure, not merely his unquestioning endorsement of Atlantic Yards, but the $50,000 fine the Nets recently incurred because Jay-Z inappropriately visited the locker room of the Kentrucky Wildcats.

Ultimately, I suspect Jay-Z's fine with it all as long as he can open the Barclays Center with some hugely promoted concerts.

Posted by steve at 12:26 AM

April 5, 2011

Nasty pistol-whip on Myrtle Ave.

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

The only thing that'll disappear faster than one of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards promises is an unattended purse in one of his malls.

Cheesy crime

What a dirty rat!

A thief palmed a 33-year-old woman’s purse on March 26 as his victim celebrated her son’s birthday at the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant/game arcade on Flatbush Avenue.

The woman put her purse on a chair inside the eatery between Hanson Place and Atlantic Avenue at 2:30 pm. When she returned to her chair a few hours later, her bag was gone.

article

Posted by eric at 3:53 PM

April 4, 2011

Wall Street Journal: beyond Atlantic Yards housing, Beekman Tower, Ridge Hill leasing post tests for Ratner

Atlantic Yard Report

What's the news from Ratner Facing New Tests, an overview today from the Wall Street Journal?

Forest City Ratner races an "uncertain rental market" for the high-priced units in the Beekman Tower, it has leased only 45% of its Ridge Hill mall in Yonkers, and, as we know, it hasn't been able to start housing at Atlantic Yards. The Journal reports:

The company's drive to build cash was underscored last week when it announced completion of a months-long deal to sell off a 49% stake in $852 million worth of retail properties. Forest City also announced its president, Joanne Minieri, was leaving the company to start her own firm.

I suggested that Minieri's departure also was a way to save money.
...

The article closes with this cryptic paragraph:

For Atlantic Yards, Ms. Gilmartin said the firm has improved its situation by extending a large loan recently, and it hopes to start the housing this year.

That sounds like they're using the money raised by EB-5 investors seeking green cards, as the Times earlier reported.

How does extending that loan create jobs, as the federal program is supposed to require?

link

Posted by eric at 11:51 PM

Carver Federal Savings on the brink

Feds order Harlem bank to raise new capital. Or else.

Crain's NY Business
by Aaron Elstein

We take no pleasure in reporting the woes facing the bank into which Bruce Ratner made a much-touted (and to some, controversial) $1 million deposit in March of 2005. Though it is ironic that the bank is in trouble due to bad real estate loans.

The parent of Carver Federal Savings Bank holds its annual stockholders meeting April 4 at The Studio Museum in Harlem, near the bank's 125th Street headquarters. It could be the last.

Time may be running out for Carver, the nation's largest bank founded and run by African-Americans and an integral part of the city for 63 years. Staggering under a load of delinquent real estate loans, the bank is under orders from the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision to raise $20 million in fresh capital by the end of this month. That's a steep climb for a bank that at best posts annual profits of $5 million. Yet if Carver can't raise the cash, regulators can either seize the institution and sell it to another bank, or dissolve it.

Longtime Chief Executive Deborah Wright has pulled Carver back from the brink before and has many high-level business and political connections who could help the bank get the needed funds.

article

NoLandGrab: But of course, Ratner, who made the deposit for TV cameras while surrounded by signatories of the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement, claimed his deposit had nothing to do with Atlantic Yards. Which is good, since he might not get it back. But that's ok, because he encouraged everyone else to put their money there, too.

Here's what he told NY1 back in March, 2005.

Bruce Ratner, the president of Forest City Ratner, said the public deposit, made with a ceremonial giant check, has nothing to do with his hopes of building an arena for the Nets in Downtown Brooklyn.

“This is part of a commitment by our company to constantly, whether an arena or not arena, to support local institutions,” said Ratner. “I have to say one other thing: This is a great bank, and it's a good business move for us and everybody to put deposits here. This is a very important part of the community and very important part of our city.”

Posted by eric at 10:54 AM

Ratner Facing New Tests

The Wall Street Journal
by Eliot Brown

When Forest City Ratner broke ground last year on its $904 million basketball arena, it was a sign that one of the most active developers in New York was emerging from a brutal recession.

Now as the real-estate market creeps back, large challenges remain for the Brooklyn-based development firm.

The company's $876 million rental tower in downtown Manhattan designed by Frank Gehry began leasing in February. The developer must lease 903 apartments in an uncertain rental market.

Meanwhile, Forest City, led by Bruce Ratner, has leased only 45% of its Ridge Hill mall, a 1.3-million-square-foot retail complex in Yonkers set to open this spring. And the company has been struggling to raise money for the housing that will accompany the basketball arena.

The company's drive to build cash was underscored last week when it announced completion of a months-long deal to sell off a 49% stake in $852 million worth of retail properties. Forest City also announced its president, Joanne Minieri, was leaving the company to start her own firm.

Mr. Ratner wasn't available for comment.

article

Posted by eric at 10:25 AM

April 3, 2011

The explosive growth of the EB-5 regional center program: from 23 to 125 in less than three years

Atlantic Yards Report

Don't think that only Forest City Ratner has figured that the federal government's EB-5 program is a good way to raise low-cost capital.

So have many, many others. Consider the explosion in the number of regional centers, federally authorized investment pools that market green cards in exchange for purportedly job-creating investments. (Click on graphics to enlarge.)

July 2008: 23

July 2009: 60

November 2009: 75

October 2010: 114

March 2011: 125

link

Posted by steve at 10:34 PM

Sellout! Ratner hawks half of his malls to raise $ for A’Yards

The Brooklyn Paper
By Aaron Short

One reason that developer Bruce Ratner needs 25 years to build Atlantic Yards might be that he hasn't got enough money to build the project.

Cash-strapped developer Bruce Ratner is selling half his stake in two of the borough’s largest shopping centers as he struggles to begin his $4.9-billion Atlantic Yards project across the street.

Ratner sold 49-percent shares of Fort Greene’s Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal Mall and 13 other projects to an international real estate investor for $172 million last week.

A spokesman for the company said that the sale would have “no direct bearing” on the delayed mega-development, which is supposed to consist of 16 residential and office towers, plus a basketball arena, but currently only features the under-construction sports facility.

link

Posted by steve at 10:27 PM

April 2, 2011

News from Forest City conference call: AY office space forgotten; project will get built at company's pace; no mention of EB-5 or modular construction

Atlantic Yards Report

During a conference call with investment analysts yesterday held by Forest City Enterprises, there were no questions about Atlantic Yards, so apparently issues of modular construction or EB-5 fundraising have not reached the radar screens of those analysts.

But there were some clues in both remarks by FCE officials and documents released by the company.

For one thing, the Atlantic Yards office tower--a key component of expected tax revenues--seems to be off the table, suggesting it's not expected in the near term. Another involves the repeated claim that Atlantic Yards will develop at Forest City's pace.

Where's the office space?

An end-of-year Supplemental Package to the Securities and Exchange Commission, described Atlantic Yards as the first among "Projects Under Development""

Below is a summary of our active large scale development projects, which have yet to commence construction, often referred to as our "shadow pipeline" which are crucial to our long-term growth. While we cannot make any assurances on the timing or delivery of these projects, our track record speaks to our ability to bring large, complex, projects to fruition when there is demand and available construction financing.

1) Atlantic Yards - Brooklyn, NY Atlantic Yards is adjacent to the state-of-the art arena, the Barclays Center, which is designed by the award-winning firms Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects and is currently under construction. In addition, Atlantic Yards will feature more than 6,400 units of housing, including over 2,200 affordable units, approximately 250,000 square feet of retail space, and more than 8 acres of landscaped open space.

Missing was any mention of the office tower.

At Forest City's pace

In remarks recalling the November 2008 presentation in which Forest City included Atlantic Yards among projects where "we control the pace," CEO Chuck Ratner indicated that the developer still feels the same way.

link

Posted by steve at 11:12 PM

April 1, 2011

Cash-Strapped Forest City Ratner Sells 49% Stake in Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal Malls

The L Magazine
by Mark Asch

Bruce Ratner's company has sold a 49% interest in 15 NYC shopping centers, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. This includes the Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls, those two monstrosities across Flatbush from the project which has put Ratner into such dire financial straits.

As if the implications of the sale—the largest possible non-controlling stake in privately owned, healthy income-generating retail developments—weren't clear enough, graf 2 of the WSJ article notes, with killing objectivity, "The sale... comes as Forest City has been hobbled by major development projects that were started at the market's peak, when prices and expectations were far higher than they are today." (One thing they don't mention: this isn't the first time Ratner's sold off assets to keep Atlantic Yards moving. Remember that time he sold his basketball team to the richest man in Russia?)
...

Ratner, you may recall, had several blocks of Prospect Heights declared "blighted" so that the state could claim eminent domain to hand them over to him. Ratner and the state's urban renewal project apparently consists of letting huge swaths of the neighborhood remain vacant and undeveloped indefinitely, or at least until he can find a few million more pennies under the couch.

link

Related coverage...

Park Slope Patch, Ratner Sells Big Stake in Atlantic Terminal Mall

Madison International, a real estate private equity firm, will pay the developer’s company, Forest City Ratner, $172 million for properties that include both Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal. Madison will also take on $499.9 million of debt.

Ratner will retain the majority share and continue to manage the properties, including the Atlantic Terminal Mall.

Ratner’s plans for 16-tower mini-city and basketball arena at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues was on the brink of financial ruin in 2008 when the economy tanked. Since then, the original architect of the project, Frank Gehry, has been fired, and the developer has said the project could be completed in 25 years, rather than the original 10 years.

Posted by eric at 11:01 AM

Brooklyn Kids With Cancer: Apply for Free Family Camp in Maine

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn families with a child who has been diagnosed with cancer can attend Camp Sunshine, a one-of-a-kind national retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families in Maine, thanks to the generosity of the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance. The Alliance is a philanthropic partnership among Barclays, the Nets and Forest City Ratner Companies.

Camp Sunshine offers families a place to relax together and take a break from the extraordinary demands placed upon them on a daily basis. The year-round program is free of charge and staffed almost entirely by volunteers. It is the only program in the nation whose mission is to address the impact of a life-threatening illness on every member of the immediate family.

The weekend of April 15 through 18 marks the second consecutive year of the Brooklyn program. It is hoped that up to 40 families from the city will participate in the year’s session at no cost. The program is intended to provide an opportunity for families living in Brooklyn to meet others fighting similar battles, share their experiences and allow their children to just have fun. Families interested in filling the remaining slots can visit the Camp Sunshine website at www.campsunshine.org.

link

Posted by eric at 10:55 AM

March 31, 2011

Forest City reports increased earnings, savings on Nets, small uptick on contracted arena revenue--and departure of Minieri

Atlantic Yards Report

In a press release headlined Forest City Reports Fiscal 2010 Full-Year and Fourth-Quarter Results, Forest City Enterprises yesterday reported record earnings, though those earnings on a per share basis are down.

The parent of Forest City Ratner noted that the sale of the Nets was paying off, and that there was a modest increase in contractually obligated arena income.

The Real Deal also reported yesterday that Forest City Ratner president and Chief Operating Officer Joanne Minieri, with the company since 1995, had left for her own consulting venture. She also will continue to advise FCR.

Was Minieri nudged out in an effort to save a big salary--no replacement was announced--or was she simply itching to leave? It's tough to know, from the outside, but the developer has been trying to save on relatively small expenditures, such as $100,000 for an Independent Compliance Monitor.

article

Posted by eric at 11:41 AM

FCE PRESS RELEASE: Forest City Reports Fiscal 2010 Full-Year and Fourth-Quarter Results

Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) today announced EBDT, net earnings and revenues for the fourth quarter and full year ended January31, 2011.

EBDT

EBDT (Earnings Before Depreciation, Amortization and Deferred Taxes) for the full year ended January 31, 2011, was $309.9 million, a new record for the company and a 2.9 percent increase compared with last year's $301.1 million. EBDT for the fourth quarter was $43.1 million, a 45 percent decrease compared with last year's fourth-quarter EBDT of $78.4 million.

EBDT for the fourth quarter and full year 2010 were impacted by a loss on early extinguishment of debt of $31.7 million ($0.16 on a fully diluted, per-share basis), related to inducement payments for the early exchange of a portion of the company's 2016 Senior Notes for Class A common stock, which occurred in the final week of the fiscal year.

On a fully diluted, per-share basis, full-year 2010 EBDT was $1.59, a 20.5 percent decrease from the prior year's $2.00 per share. Per-share EBDT for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $0.23, compared with $0.43 per share in the fourth quarter of 2009. Per-share data reflects new Class A common shares and the "if-converted" effect of convertible debt and convertible preferred stock issued in 2009 and 2010.
...

Net Earnings/Loss

For the full year, net earnings attributable to Forest City Enterprises, Inc., were $58.7 million, or $0.34 per share, compared with a net loss of $30.7 million, or $0.22 per share, in 2009. For the fourth quarter of 2010, net loss attributable to Forest City Enterprises, Inc. was $1.8 million, or $0.01 per share, compared with net earnings of $6.2 million, or $0.04 per share in the fourth quarter of 2009.
...

Work continues at the Barclays Center arena at Atlantic Yards, with steel now rising several stories above ground level at the site. With the building taking shape, the reality of major league sports returning to Brooklyn has helped generate additional momentum and enthusiasm for the project. Approximately 55 percent of forecasted contractually obligated revenues are currently under contract for the arena, which is expected to open in late summer 2012.

link

Posted by eric at 11:32 AM

Forest City Ratner Unloads Share in Both Atlantic Center, Terminal

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Linda Collins

Forest City Ratner Companies is selling a 49-percent stake in 15 of its shopping centers, including the Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues at the edge of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene.
...

The [Wall Street] Journal notes that the sale comes as Ratner is experiencing increased costs in its development of three major projects, including the Barclays Arena and housing complex at Atlantic Yards.

“The company is having difficulty starting the [Atlantic Yards] housing component,” the Journal wrote.

link

Posted by eric at 10:22 AM

March 30, 2011

President of Forest City Ratner steps down to start her own firm

The Real Deal

Joanne Minieri stepped down as president of the New York subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises today, the same day the firm sold 49 percent of its stake in 15 New York City properties. Minieri will continue to advise the New York arm, Forest City Ratner, on major projects, but will launch her own venture geared towards consulting real estate developers and financial services companies. Minieri joined Forest City Enterprises in 1995 and was promoted to president and COO in 2007. As president she has been closely involved in Forest City's Atlantic Yards project including breaking ground on the Barclays Center that will be home to the Nets. Bruce Ratner, CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, called Minieri's accomplishments with the company "extraordinary," and Forest City Enterprises CEO Charles Ratner praised the team she assembled. "I am pleased to be leaving at a time with many challenges behind us, and so many signature projects successfully completed," Minieri said.

link

NoLandGrab: Successfully completed? Like the Carlton Avenue bridge?

Posted by eric at 7:49 PM

Federal agency stonewalls Freedom of Information Act requests on Forest City's EB-5 green card scheme, waits four-plus months to send denial letters

Atlantic Yards Report

Are the Feds in on this crooked deal, too?

Will we ever find out how exactly federal authorities gave preliminary approval--and more--to the astounding efforts to get Chinese millionaires to invest in Atlantic Yards in exchange for green cards?

Not that likely.

During a crucial four-month period when developer Forest City Ratner and the New York City Regional Center successfully recruited immigrant investors in China and South Korea, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) stonewalled my Freedom of Information Act requests in a very odd fashion.

The USCIS responded to me in letters dated 10/22/10 and 11/2/10, as well as two undated letters.

However, it did not mail those letters until early March, some four months later, and gave no explanation for the delay.

Moreover, the explanation given for three denials of my FOIA requests--that they were not of journalistic and public interest--seems belied by another letter that granted a request for expedited treatment, apparently because my request was of journalistic and public interest.

While that request was granted, I have not received the records at issue.

Read on for more of Norman Oder's back and forth with the USCIS. No word as to when, or if, he's going to start meeting shadowy Hal Holbrook-looking dudes in the bowels of parking garages. All we know is, follow the money.

article

Posted by eric at 12:53 PM

Annabi lawyer wants Mangone plea deal unsealed in Yonkers corruption case

LoHud.com
by Timothy O'Connor

The lawyer for indicted former Yonkers Councilmember Sandy Annabi wants a federal judge to unseal attorney Anthony Mangone's plea deal with federal prosecutors.

Mangone pleaded guilty to corruption and tax charges in the case, which began four years ago when the FBI and federal prosecutors investigated Yonkers City Council's handling of the controversial $600 million Ridge Hill development project.

He signed a plea agreement prior to his Nov. 29 guilty plea. His lawyer, James DeVita, asked a federal magistrate judge to seal the plea deal until sentencing, leading to speculation that Mangone had agreed to cooperate with federal investigators in the long-running probe. Federal prosecutors did not object to the sealing of the agreement.
...

Annabi's lawyer, William Aronwald, said he thinks Mangone is working with federal authorities.

"I have no doubt he's a cooperator," Aronwald said Tuesday.

article

NoLandGrab: The big questions are what does Mangone know, and what is he telling prosecutors?

Posted by eric at 12:43 PM

Ratner Sells Shopping-Center Stake

The Wall Street Journal
by Eliot Brown

Since more traditional means of raising money didn't work out, Forest City Ratner has turned to an asset sale.

Forest City Ratner, one of New York's largest developers, has sold a 49% stake in 15 shopping centers scattered throughout the metropolitan area in a deal that values the retail portfolio at $852 million, the company said Tuesday.

The sale to Madison International Realty comes as Forest City has been hobbled by major development projects that were started at the market's peak, when prices and expectations were far higher than they are today.

Madison, a firm that owns noncontrolling equity stakes in properties, is paying $172 million to Forest City, which holds the remaining equity and will still manage the properties. The portfolio has $500 million in debt connected with it.

The malls tend to be well-trafficked properties, with a list that includes the Atlantic Center at the edge of Fort Greene in Brooklyn, a property in the Times Square area and a mall on 125th Street in Harlem.

"This is probably the largest portfolio of retail properties owned by a single landlord in the New York area," Ronald Dickerman, Madison's president, said in an interview Tuesday.
...

The Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner subsidiary, led by Bruce Ratner, is in the process of developing three major projects, including a new Nets basketball arena and housing complex in Brooklyn, a 76-story apartment tower in Lower Manhattan and a large mall in Yonkers.

The Brooklyn arena has seen costs rise by hundreds of millions of dollars since it was initially planned, and the company is having difficulty starting the housing component. The mall in Yonkers envisioned a high-end retail tenant base that has proved difficult to attract because of the economic downturn.

article

NoLandGrab: No word as to whether the "colorful characters" (aka shoplifters, pickpockets and purse-snatchers) who frequent the Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls were included in the deal.

Related coverage...

Atlantic Yards Report, Seeking cash, Forest City Ratner sells 49 percent of Atlantic Terminal/Center malls, other retail and entertainment properties

In an effort to "create liquidity" (aka raise cash), Forest City Ratner has sold a a 49% stake in "15 mature retail and entertainment properties" in the New York City area, including the Atlantic Terminal and Atlantic Center malls in Brooklyn.

The buyer, Madison International Realty, will invest $172.3 million in cash. The properties are valued by this transaction at $851.5 million, including $499.9 million of debt. Forest City will continue to own a majority 51% stake, and manage the properties.

Is that a good deal for Forest City? Did Madison get a bargain? The only context I see is from the Wall Street Journal, in a short article today headlined Ratner Sells Shopping-Center Stake:

The sale to Madison International Realty comes as Forest City has been hobbled by major development projects that were started at the market's peak, when prices and expectations were far higher than they are today.

Those "major" projects include Atlantic Yards, the Ridge Hill project in Yonkers, and the Beekman Tower in Lower Manhattan.

Forest City Enterprises Press Release, Forest City Announces Joint Ventures with Madison International Realty for 15 New York City Area Retail Centers

The properties included in the transaction are: the 42nd Street Retail and Entertainment Complex and Harlem Center (retail component) in Manhattan; Atlantic Center, Atlantic Terminal (retail component) and The Heights in Brooklyn; Queens Place, Steinway Street Theatres and Shops at Northern Boulevard in Queens; Shops at Bruckner Boulevard, Castle Center and Shops at Gun Hill Road in the Bronx; Shops at Richmond Avenue and Forest Avenue Cinemas on Staten Island; and Columbia Park in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Posted by eric at 12:09 PM

Where Wal-Mart Failed, Aldi Succeeds

The New York Times
by Stephanie Clifford

While Wal-Mart revives its plans to get into New York City, a giant German retailer has slipped in relatively unnoticed.

In February, with virtually no opposition — a Queens politician even showed up at the grand opening in Rego Park, Queens — a discount retailer called Aldi opened its first store in the city, and plans to open a second one, in the Bronx, later this year.
...

Even though Aldi, like Wal-Mart, is nonunion, it has faced little resistance, compared with the heated opposition often headed by unions and politicians that Wal-Marts have encountered in larger markets.

Why so little push back? Here's why.

“There’s no reason to oppose an Aldi — it’s a small format, and they usually get space from an existing landowner or landlord, a small guy who’s plugged into the community, not a big guy like a Forest City Ratner,” Mr. Johnson said.

article

Posted by eric at 11:34 AM

March 29, 2011

Believable? Feds told $249M in immigrant investor (EB-5) funds would create 3705 construction jobs, 350 in retail, 1786 in art/entertainment

Atlantic Yards Report

How can Forest City Ratner and its partner, an investment pool called the New York City Regional Center (NYCRC), claim that 498 Chinese (and Korean) millionaires seeking green cards would create 7696 jobs by investing a half-million dollars each ($249 million total) in the Atlantic Yards project?

It's one of the most preposterous claims in the entire saga of Forest City Ratner's effort to gain a low-interest loan, saving perhaps $191 million, via the federal government's EB-5 program. Under the program, investors and their families gain green cards in exchange for purportedly job-creating investments, ten per investor.

Now there's new evidence undermining the claim, given that the claimed job total--including jobs in construction and entertainment--can't reflect how the money would be used.

A graphic on the web site of Kookmin, a South Korean immigration agency working with the NYCRC, suggests, for example, that the investment would create 3705 construction jobs and 1786.5 jobs in "art, entertainment."

Those numbers defy common sense--the entertainment jobs, for example, would have to be tied to the arena.

But the money isn't needed for the arena.

Read on [that means YOU, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services!] for Norman Oder's thorough dismantling of the Atlantic Yards EB-5 house of [green] cards.

article

NoLandGrab: We just emailed a link to this story to uscis.immigrantinvestorprogram@dhs.gov urging the Citizenship & Immigration Services to dig into this shady deal. We suggest you do the same.

Posted by eric at 11:16 AM

More robberies at Target

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

Indicted Atlantic Yards lobbyist Richard Lispky and Atlantic Yards booster Carl Kruger seem to have inspired the locals to perpetrate a little crime of their own.

Target troubles

At least three more thefts took place inside the troubled Atlantic Terminal Target last week. Here’s the rundown:

• A thief snagged a wallet from a shopper looking for bargains at the store, which is near Atlantic Avenue, on March 19. The woman’s bag was sitting inside a shopping cart at around 4 pm when the thief rifled through it.

• A goon handed a stolen wallet to an accomplice after swiping it from a 25-year-old’s shopping cart on March 26. The woman saw the thief take her wallet out of her bag at 5:45 pm, but he had already passed it off when she confronted him.

• Two women were arrested on after they tried to smuggle 55 articles of clothing on March 27. The thieves also tried to make off with some groceries and baby items during the 8:30 pm theft.

article

Posted by eric at 10:52 AM

March 28, 2011

So, the Prospect Park Alliance actually welcomed Bruce Bender's help to get state funding via Carl Kruger for a new skating rink

Atlantic Yards Report

Norman Oder follows up on Emily Lloyd's letter to the New York Post.

I'd point out that there's a little wiggle room there. Alliance staff asked Amy Bender for help. They didn't necessarily ask her to ask her husband. But perhaps that was implied. And it certainly was welcomed, according to Lloyd's letter.

Also note that the article cited, “Kruger Crony Leaned on Me for Vote”, doesn't actually say anything about the Prospect Park Alliance. Rather, a March 16 Post article, headlined Prospect Park group rage at 'Kruger' exec, began:

A top Atlantic Yards executive who requested state funds for Prospect Park's skating rink from embattled state Sen. Carl Kruger was never asked to do so by the park's fund-raising group -- and now park advocates are furious at being linked to the corruption scandal, sources told The Post.

"He has dragged our name through the mud," fumed a Prospect Park Alliance source about Forest City Ratner Vice President Bruce Bender, whose conversation with Kruger was featured in a federal criminal complaint against the Brooklyn Democrat.

The claim that Bruce Bender wasn't asked is not inconsistent with Lloyd's statement. Prospect Park Alliance board members may not have agreed to have Bruce Bender raise funds for them, though some might have recognized that asking Amy Bender would involve her husband.
...

I'd add that the Alliance might not want to be involved in dialogues like these, as described in federal charges.

"The Vice President said he needed a 'combo of two projects... the park and Carlton Avenue Bridge." Kruger said "the bridge is out," and asked Bender to choose:

The Vice President said that he did not know and that "this" was "bad." KRUGER said, "I guess the park, fuck the bridge." The Vice President said that "my dilemma is as you know, I don't mind fucking the bridge, I can't fuck it right now, I've got to leverage that bridge, what's my value?"

link

Posted by eric at 11:18 AM

Above board

NY Post
Letters to the Editor

“Kruger Crony Leaned on Me for Vote,” (March 17) states that Forest City Ratner Vice President Bruce Bender sought funding for the construction of a new skating rink in Prospect Park without having been requested to do so by the Prospect Park Alliance.

Alliance staff did ask Board Member Amy Bender to help advance our request for state funding for the skating rink, which is currently under construction. Bender’s husband, Bruce, was trying to assist the alliance in obtaining state-funding toward a major public project.

Alliance staff who are involved in public fundraising were informed about those efforts. All proposals for public funding are requested in an appropriate and transparent way.

Emily Lloyd, President/Administrator, Prospect Park Alliance, Prospect Park

link

NoLandGrab: We're not sure whether this makes it better or worse. The fact that the Alliance would ask the developer of New York City's most-controversial real estate boondoggle, which is soaking up hundreds of millions in those precious state funds, to lobby on their behalf doesn't show particularly good judgment.

Posted by eric at 10:30 AM

It Pays to Be a Lobbyist in Brooklyn

mcbrooklyn

A couple of weeks ago it came out that State Senator Carl Kruger was accused of taking $1 million in bribes including money from Richard Lipsky, a lobbyist on behalf of developer Forest City Ratner.
...

Life is good for lobbyists in Brooklyn. One developer alone, Forest City Ratner, paid roughly $3,819,600 over the past five years to lobbyists pushing his controversial Atlantic Yards mega project. (It must be hard to keep track of a few bribes when that kind of money is flying around.)

The Forest City Ratner company (under the name Atlantic Yards Development Co.) paid lobbyists $1,023,000 in 2009 and $298,000 in 2010. In 2008, the company paid lobbyists under two names: $72,000 to lobbyists under the Forest City Ratner name and $298,000 under the name Atlantic Yards Development Co. In 2007, under the name Forest City Ratner, they laid out $980,000. In 2006 they paid lobbyists $1,148,600.

article

Posted by eric at 10:20 AM

Critics fault tax abatement agreements

Municipal officials, who get most of the payments in lieu of taxes, defend the practice

MyCentralJersey.com
by Sergio Bichao

Guess who's riding the tax-break gravy train in New Jersey.

Critics of tax abatement deals have questioned whether abatements are necessary at all to attract development, or even if the development itself is necessary or desirable. The comptroller's report calls it "inappropriate or nonremedial development.'' The South Jersey township of Gloucester, for example, awarded abatements to three separate Wawa convenience stores, within two to four miles of each other, even though the area within a five-mile radius already was served by 20 such Wawa stores.

Woodbridge does not seem like a town that would have to try hard to woo developers. The New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Interstate 287, Routes 1, 9 and 440, and major rail lines, with three commuter stations, all criss-cross the township, connecting it to all points of the state.

Yet officials believed it was necessary to offer a 30-year abatement worth $26 million to Forest City Ratner, a multibillion-dollar developer, to build a strip mall next Woodbridge Center mall, which is paying $7 million a year in property taxes. A Wegmans supermarket and strip mall on the other side of Woodbridge Center also has no PILOT, paying $1.6 million a year in regular property taxes.

article

Posted by eric at 10:03 AM

March 23, 2011

Two vicious iPhone robberies

The Brooklyn Paper
by Thomas Tracy

It wasn't quite like last week's all-out criminal free-for-all at Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn malls, but a sticky-fingered thief did help himself to some fancy frames.

Vision villains

A crook swiped more than $2,800 worth of designer glasses from the National Vision Center in the troubled Atlantic Center Mall on March 18.

Workers at the store between Fort Greene Place and South Portland Avenue said that the thief stormed in at 5:10 pm and began looting the display cases, taking three pairs of Prada glasses, three pairs of Gucci glasses and one pair of specs designed by Dolce Gabana.

article

Posted by eric at 10:34 AM

March 21, 2011

Corrupt Brooklyn Politician's House Looks Exactly How You'd Expect

Curbed
by Joey Arak

State Senator Carl Kruger, accused of shady dealings in connection with a number of Brooklyn real estate projects—including Atlantic Yards and the Brooklyn Navy Yard—has had a long and complicated and possibly intimate relationship with members of the Turano family of Mill Basin. And seeing as how the Kruger case will one day make for a great Dateline special, the Times investigated these colorful characters in great detail. But the star of the show, by far, is the Turano's gaudy 7,000-square-foot waterfront mansion, which looks like it was built for a mobster, probably because it was.

link

Photo: Emily Berl for The New York Times

Posted by eric at 11:13 AM

March 20, 2011

A Ratner Bluff on the Not-So-Fab Prefab Modulars? A Second Opinion

Noticing New York

Many have denounced the recent announcement that modular construction is being considered for Atlantic Yards. This blog post considers that the announcement may simply be a feint.

The analysis of whether the public is being blackmailed essentially harkens back to the way that Ratner threatened Community Board 2 for additional approvals on his Beekman Tower project by saying he wouldn’t build the community’s promised school. He was already theoretically obligated to build the school in connection with the permission he had been given to erect such an immense building on the site. He got the benefit of the extra approvals from the community board.

On today’s WNYC 411, Greg David has another take on the possibility that Ratner is bluffing, this time harkening back, also to the Beekman Tower, but this time to the way that Ratner later (bluffingly?) halted the tower's construction in order to exact concessions from the construction unions. The tower DID eventually proceed and Ratner DID get concession from the unions.

The fact is we may both be right. If it is potentially a ploy Ratner may intend it do double duty and do both.

Business reporter Mr. David appears to be having a harder time saying he still supports Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-monopoly, but he refused to say, when questioned during his interview, that he was wrong from the start. He offered a tempered and lukewarm hedged assessment: “Sure I regret that it’s not going to be beautiful off the bat, but you know fifteen years from now it might be great, - I’m hoping.” - - Fifteen years as hoped for by Mr. David is, of course, outside the 10-year time frame for which ESDC did its environmental assessment and the project is actually now expected to take decades.

link

Posted by steve at 9:15 PM

March 18, 2011

Animated video: F#@k the Bridge with Carl and Bruce

Atlantic Yards Report

An anonymous and creative person has created an animated video that appropriates the dialogue between Bruce Bender and Carl Kruger, but has cartoon characters deliver it, with cutesy/robotic computer-generated voices.

link

Posted by steve at 4:23 PM

With Federal Case and Modular Building Plan, New Attention for Atlantic Yards Project

The New York Times
by Charles V. Bagli

The Atlantic Yards project began with much fanfare in December 2003, when the developer Bruce C. Ratner unveiled his plans at a pep rally at Brooklyn Borough Hall: an exotic basketball arena and a sprawling residential development that would provide affordable housing, jobs and community development.

The $4.9 billion project took a battering during the ensuing seven years of public review, controversy and delay. Today, the 18,000-seat basketball arena, which will be home to the Nets, is taking shape at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. But revelations in the past few days have brought renewed attention to the rest of the 22-acre project.

Last week, a federal bribery case against State Senator Carl Kruger turned up a recording of an executive at Mr. Ratner’s company, Forest City Ratner, pressing Mr. Kruger for $9 million to rebuild the Carlton Avenue Bridge at Atlantic Yards. Forest City Ratner did not get the money, and the executive was not accused of any wrongdoing, but the recording did bring unwanted attention to the company’s desperate search for financing.

And this week, Forest City Ratner confirmed that it was considering erecting a 34-story prefabricated, or modular, tower, as a way of cutting its construction costs and fulfilling its obligation to start building housing.

The construction unions that Mr. Ratner had lauded last year for sticking with him were stunned by the suggestion that much of the work might take place in a factory, where wages are much lower than on-site. Forest City has put off the start date for the tower, the first of 16, until the end of the year.

Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the organization whose lawsuits delayed the project for years, said the plan for a modular building was the latest in a long line of broken promises.

article

NoLandGrab: What really delayed the project for years was a) a degree of outlandishness and unrealistic ambition that, b) made the project impossible to finance, compounded by c) an absolute disregard for public process that forced opponents to pursue legal action.

Related coverage...

Norman Oder is moved to publish two blog posts on The Times article.

Atlantic Yards Report, Times can't help but notice bad news about Atlantic Yards, gets supportive quote from Markowitz, soft-pedals EB-5 story, railyard deal

The New York Times today follows up on the skein of bad news and broken promises afflicting the Atlantic Yards project, but doesn't go nearly far enough.

The article downplays the bargain Forest City Ratner got on the renegotiated railyard and finally mentions--but completely soft-pedals--the astounding effort to trade green cards for purportedly job-creating investments.

The headline, With Federal Case and Modular Building Plan, New Attention for Atlantic Yards Project, inherently indicates the Times's own role in calling attention to the project.

Yes, the taped conversation between scandal-plagued state Senator Carl Kruger and Forest City Ratner executive Bruce Bender is in the public record, but the modular building plan was a Times scoop.

The missing scoop(s)

And the Times could've had a scoop of sorts on Forest City Ratner's effort to exploit the EB-5 investment program; after all, I laid out a road map in a comment yesterday on the Times's web site.

Instead, just as with two other pieces of damning Atlantic Yards news--Forest City Ratner's bailout of ACORN, and the major cut in the value of arena naming rights--the Times covered it belatedly, parenthetically, and weakly.

Atlantic Yards Report, How does refinancing a land loan and helping build a new railyard create Atlantic Yards jobs, under EB-5? It defies common sense

Bagli writes:

[Forest City] also lined 498 Asian investors who enrolled in an obscure federal program that grants green cards in exchange for a $500,000 investment in a job-producing American project.

MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner, said that when it received final approval from the federal government, the $249 million would be used to pay down a land loan for the project and additional work on the railyard.

How would that create jobs? It wouldn't--at least not in great quantity, not close to the 4980 minimum jobs required (ten per investor) or the 7696 jobs claimed.

If no EB5 funds, then what?

What happens if Forest City does not pay down the land loan? The collateral development rights would have gone to their lender, Gramercy Warehouse Funding, if Forest City didn't pay. Now they'd go to the Asian investors.

What about the railyard? They're obligated to build the railyard by 2016; if they can't come up with financing they'd lose development rights.

Their whole 2005 bid to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority--and the renegotiation of the bid in 2009--was based on the premise that the cash component was only a small percentage of the overall value.

How jobs are calculated

In either case, note that under federal guidelines, actual jobs need not be counted; rather, an economist's report suffices. It applies a "multiplier" to the total sum invested.

However, for the "Brooklyn Arena and Infrastructure Project," Forest City Ratner and its partner, the New York City Regional Center, have been claiming that the $249 million sought is part of a $1.448 billion package, and that the "multiplier" be applied to the entire sum.

That of course would increase the number of jobs.

That may pass muster under lax federal review, but it's bogus.

It's bogus because refinancing the loan wouldn't create jobs.

And it's bogus because the arena--nearly a billion dollars, and the main component of the EB-5 project as pitched to investors--is already funded and would go ahead with or without the immigrant investor funds.

Posted by eric at 1:11 PM

Bruce Bender (and elected officials) on jobs

Battle of Brooklyn via Vimeo

In 2004 when the project was first announced it had the full support of the trade unions because they were promised jobs during construction. As the process went on the unions could be counted on for boisterous support of the project at public hearings. An article in the March 16th, 2011 New York Times announces that the developer will likely use modular construction to build the housing. This will save the developer money but will severely limit the number of jobs.

In this scene from Battle for Brooklyn (out spring 2011) elected officials and a representative of Forest City talk about the jobs circa 2004.

link

NoLandGrab: You know what "enervates" us? Chuck Schumer.

Posted by eric at 12:52 PM

Bad Faith Towers

Design Observer
by Alexandra Lange

Never let it be said that Bruce Ratner is not an avid follower of architectural trends. With this latest iteration of building at Atlantic Yards he swaps titanium for brown paper, correctly sensing that, post-recession, prefab is more palatable than starchitecture. Where once the Faustian bargain he offered Brooklynites appealed to their old school pride (a real city has its own sports team) and new Brooklyn snobbery (we could have had a Gehry before Manhattan), the new one is more pragmatic. Do you want affordable housing now, built fast and cheap, or later, when I wring a reduction in the number of promised units from the state?

The Times (for once) offers some distance from Ratner, development partner for their own Eighth Avenue tower, by pointing out that this new plan sells out the construction unions that were among Ratner's biggest supporters. (Another sign of distancing: The paper also seems to be calling the project Atlantic Yards again, a site Ratner and his Russian partner rebranded Barclays Center.) The desirable industrial jobs that would come from the prefab plant required to build such a tower would pay much less than old-fashioned site work. Do we want green industry enough? Are we so desperate for affordable housing (again, the recession changes everything) that we will take a chance on untested building technology? Who gets to be the guinea pig on the 34th floor? Surely Forest City Ratner did not want this news out the week of the Japanese quake.

Surely Ratner will tart up the prefab units with some cast concrete lintels and blown-up brownstone details, and call them contextual. But the truth is, the Times rendering is not so far from the boxy stacks Gehry proposed after the billowing Miss Brooklyn proved too costly. As with the disappointing 8 Spruce Street, there's a thin value engineered line between industrial production and genius.

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Posted by eric at 12:40 PM

Union reps criticize Ratner's bombshell about modular construction; Markowitz issues statement of support, left with contradiction

Atlantic Yards Report

In Unions Outraged Over Ratner's Prefab Tower, Patch does a good job rounding up comments from construction unions regarding Forest City Ratner's plan for modular construction, which came to light yesterday.
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Meanwhile, the project's biggest cheerleader, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, tried to finesse the issue. As the New York Times reported today:

But Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president and a longtime supporter, attributed Atlantic Yards’s current problems to a devastating recession and the opposition’s lawsuits.

“Despite the economic realities we face today,” Mr. Markowitz said in a statement, “I have every confidence that Atlantic Yards will deliver what was promised, including affordable housing, much needed jobs and, of course, the new Barclays Arena for the Brooklyn Nets.”

How exactly would Atlantic Yards deliver the "much needed jobs," in the quantity and at the pay levels expected?

All indications are that there would be fewer jobs, at lesser pay. And that means the cost-benefit analyses should be recalculated.

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NoLandGrab: Maybe Ratner's plan to slice union jobs is why Marty is touting a job fair on the cover of his latest "Brooklyn!!" "newspaper."

Posted by eric at 12:27 PM

The Ratner-Kruger campaign connection; one month after Atlantic Yards was announced, (brother) Michael Ratner and his wife gave $2000 each

Atlantic Yards Report

Follow the money.

Now that charges are swirling around state Senator Carl Kruger, it's worth a look back to see how Forest City Ratner (FCR) apparently steered campaign contributions to him less than a month after the Atlantic Yards plan was announced.

Kruger, along with some other undistinguished Brooklyn politicians, received campaign contributions via a most unusual source: FCR CEO Bruce Ratner's brother Michael Ratner, the eminent human rights lawyer, as well as his wife Karen Ranucci.

Kruger got $2000 from each on 1/6/04, as indicated in the graphic (click to enlarge; full list at bottom). Atlantic Yards was announced on 12/10/03.

Michael Ratner's curious pattern

Michael Ratner wouldn't comment when I first wrote about this in September 2006. I suggested that he was carrying water for his brother Bruce, who for a stretch was a "refusenik" from campaign contributions.

Michael Ratner's Brooklyn political contributions--in a pattern quite different from his other contributions to progressive politicians--seem to have been guided not by ideology but by corporate interests.

He was an investor in the Nets, as well as significant stock in the publicly traded corporation, Forest City Enterprises, controlled by the Ratners' extended family.

Indeed, the evidence is damning: Michael Ratner and his wife, Karen Ranucci, both Greenwich Village residents, both made campaign contributions using Forest City Ratner's Brooklyn building as a return address, as well as from their home address.

Click through to learn how many of Michael Ratner's favorite pols have ended up behind bars.

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Posted by eric at 11:57 AM

Prefabricated Tower May Rise at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards

Local 157 blogspot

The New York City District Council of Carpenters' reposting of yesterday's blockbuster New York Times article elicited this comment from "anonymous":

Ratner, the Rat - once the benefit of the grants & funding were in place...who is kidding who here, the Modular Components of the Tower will be built in Shanghai, China by men making $15 bucks a day.

The below quote conveniently leaves out the fact that the INDOOR COMPONENT will occur IN CHINESE FACTORIES! You guys gave back enough on the PLA Wage & Benefit Concessions - you have to fight this.

"Modular construction saves time because the building components can be put together at the same time the foundation is being dug, and because the factory is indoors, weather is not a problem. Materials can be bought in greater bulk and stored on-site. More of the work is done horizontally, on the factory floor, rather than vertically, saving the time it would normally take for all the plumbers, carpenters, electricians and others to move up and down the structure every day."

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Posted by eric at 11:37 AM

From a View on Court Street to Overseeing the Entire City

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Samuel Newhouse

An article on the new chief of NYC Buildings Department's legal unit includes this tidbit:

The DOB’s office, for example, has a white roof, which helps keep the building at a cooler temperature without expending as much energy. New developments at the Atlantic Yards site in Downtown Brooklyn will have the same cool white roofs.

Unless, of course, those cool white roofs cost one penny more than any another type of roof, in which case, they'll go the way of just about every other Atlantic Yards promise.

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Posted by eric at 11:08 AM

March 17, 2011

Prefab Preview?

Passing by the Barclays Center construction site this afternoon, we spotted what we thought — given the absence of union construction workers — must be a model for Bruce Ratner's newly announced modular housing.

We're guessing this is a duplex.

Posted by eric at 11:17 PM

Unions Outraged Over Ratner's Prefab Tower

Union leaders lamented potential plans to build a 34-story prefab residential building on the Atlantic Yards site.

Park Slope Patch
by Stephen Brown and Amy Sara Clark

Local union workers are reeling from developer Bruce Ratner’s acknowledgement that the first residential building at the Atlantic Yards site may be prefabricated — a move that would cut costs, as well as hundreds of union jobs.

The revelation, reported by The New York Times, would cut construction costs in half by requiring a smaller workforce making significantly less money.

“We understood that there would be a certain number of jobs generated by this project that would in turn support the local economy. Clearly farming out modular housing does not do any of those things,” said Richard Weiss, a spokesman for Construction & General Building Laborers’ Local 79. “The union supports projects based on one criteria only: are there jobs for our members in this project? If that’s not the case, then we’re not going to support it.”

Other union representatives were equally dismayed.

“It would be disappointing, very disappointing,” said Edward Walsh, president of the New York State District Council of Iron Workers, which works on the site of the $4.9 billion, 16-tower mega project at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. “There are a lot less jobs for iron workers if this is built prefab.”
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“We have obvious concerns about the safety and quality of modular construction for larger buildings as well as its impact on estimates for job creation, wages and benefits that have been central to the economic justification for projects advancing,” said a spokesperson for the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater NY via E-mail.

“Forest City Ratner has been a developer using union labor of the building and construction trades for many years, and it is on this basis that we have consistently supported projects its pursues.”

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Posted by eric at 10:56 PM

Developer Mulls Pre-Fab Housing at Atlantic Yards

WNYC News Blog
by Cindy Rodriguez

In a written statement, the Building and Construction Trades Council said it's concerned about the safety and quality of modular construction, as well as its impact on jobs and wages.

Forest City said pre-fab technology could allow for more efficient development, and eventually translate into more affordable housing and more union jobs. A spokesman for the developer said it would never build something that isn't safe. The company said while its exploring the modular option, it's pursuing conventional construction as well.

Related coverage...

Field of Schemes, Ratner mulls prefab housing tower alongside Nets arena

The good news: Facing a May 2013 deadline to break ground or else face million of dollars in penalties, Forest City Ratner may finally be building one of the promised apartment buildings that were the main hook for getting approval for its Brooklyn Nets arena project.

The bad news: The developer is considering building a prefabricated 34-story tower, which would be the world's largest, in order to cut costs.

Why is that bad news? Well, the other hook for the project was that it would create jobs, and as the New York Times' Charles Bagli notes, "a carpenter earns $85 an hour in wages and benefits on-site, but only $35 an hour in a factory." (Not to mention that a factory can be built anywhere, which pretty much obviates the job benefits to New York City of the project.)
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Bagli also notes that since no one has ever built a prefab building this tall, no one is sure whether it would hold up to wind shear and seismic forces. Plus, as he doesn't note, a building made of stacked-and-bolted-together boxes — think a pile of shipping containers with windows in them — sounds hideously ugly. But then, we know that Ratner has a tolerance for ugly.

A|N Blog, QUICK CLICKS> SUPPORT, PREFAB, WRIGHT, GENIUS

The New York Times covers Forest City Ratner‘s plan to use prefab building components for a 34-story apartment building at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. Engineered by Arup and designed by SHoP, the units should be pretty high-end as far as modular housing goes, but construction workers argue that the prefab approach will mean less jobs.

Posted by eric at 10:44 PM

Hint of Old-Time Ratner Debate Surfaces Again

Developer: Modular Tech Is Only One Possible Option

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Raanan Geberer

Telling the truth, however, doesn't appear to be one of them, because the Eagle has a statement from Forest City, and guess what? They're not selling out the unions — this is going to mean more union jobs!

An official statement from the developer read, “Forest City is working very hard to identify innovative ways to develop the first residential building at Atlantic Yards because the need for affordable and middle-income housing in the city remains critical. That said, Forest City will only build consistent with its values as a company, and that means union labor. Modular technology is cutting edge, allowing for more sustainable and efficient development.

“Particularly now, this could translate into more middle income, affordable and elderly housing. And that also means more union jobs. While we are still designing out the building for conventional construction we are exploring the modular option as well.”

They did not say whether parking spaces would all be filled with flying cars, however, or whether the entire complex would be powered by a huge hamster-filled Habitrail.

Councilwoman Letitia James, who took part in many anti-Ratner demonstrations when the Atlantic Yards were a hot issue, said this development highlights “a long list of failed promises,” meaning the promise of more construction jobs. “I wasn’t particularly disappointed because I wasn’t particularly surprised,” she said.
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The New York Central Labor Council did not return calls to the Eagle by press time.

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Posted by eric at 10:29 PM

Ratner Planning Prefab Alternatives For Atlantic Yards

Gothamist
by Garth Johnston

With Frank Gehry long gone, how low-brow can Forest City Ratner take the never ending Atlantic Yards project? Well, the company is seriously considering making the project's first non-stadium building, a 34-story residential tower adjacent to the Barclay Center, the world's tallest prefabricated building.

Inspired in part by the above video of a 15-story tower going up in China over two days, the Times reports that Bruce Ratner has ordered the building's latest architect, SHoP Architects, to work on both regular and modular designs for the 400-unit building.

Assuming that the structure can support itself, withstand winds, and pass other structural tests a prefab building would be a huge boon financially for Forest City Ratner, which has had much difficulty financing the project since the markets collapsed. But, as the Gray Lady points out, those savings would come at the expense of one of the projects most consistant supporters: construction unions.
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Candace Carponter, legal director for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, hammers the point home: “Jobs and affordable housing accounted for nearly all of the Atlantic Yards project’s promised benefits, and with Ratner’s selling-out of the unions, shelving of any office space, and the scarcity of subsidies for housing, the community is left with the arena as the primary “benefit” - if you believe a traffic-choking, noise-generating, taxpayer-money-losing white elephant is somehow beneficial.”

And that isn't even touching on the fact that prefab buildings are, with very rare exceptions, incredibly unattractive.

NoLandGrab: Is it us, or does that rendering of the last Gehry design kind of look like prefab towers that weren't anchored properly? Maybe we're getting that "world-class Frank Gehry design" after all! Though that overnight Chinese building is very reminiscent of Bruce's Atlantic Terminal illness.

Related coverage...

Brownstoner, Ratner Considers Prefab Tower for Atlantic Yards

The story says that though the move would cut costs, a prefabricated tower "is untested at that height" and the move would likely piss off construction workers, who were among the mega-project's most vocal supporters. Although the the developer has its architecture firm SHoP working on designs for both a traditional and modular building, another consideration is whether a prefab structure of this height would actually result in much of a cost savings, according to the story: "Whether taller modular buildings can be built to withstand intense wind shear and seismic forces, while retaining cost savings, is another question, because the higher a structure is built, the more bracing it would require."

About.com [Brooklyn, NY], NIMBY: Ratner Atlantic Yards to Try Building Highest Ever Prefab Apartments?!?

Oh, and BTW, this questionable building, with about 400 apartments, "would fulfill his obligation to start building affordable housing at the site," according to the Times story, Prefabricated Tower May Rise at Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards. If the first building gets an OK, rest assured that Ratner will try to build all 16 of the proposed apartment towers in the same way: pre-fab.

Iffy housing safety for poor people? Undercutting the original deal, that the Atlantic Yards would create a lot of jobs?

Everybody knows Atlantic Yards is in a financial bind. And this prefab idea is ingenious, out-of-the-box thinking. But it's bad public policy. And, in terms of possible safety issues, well, just how cynical can you get?

The Real Deal, Ratner hopes to build world's largest prefabricated tower in AY

The Times notes that by employing this relatively inexpensive method to fulfill his obligation to provide affordable housing, Ratner is neglecting a longtime support group: construction workers who were after Atlantic Yards jobs.

The Huffington Post, World's Largest Prefab Building Might Come To Atlantic Yards

However, constructing it this way also greatly reduces the number of new jobs- and creating new jobs was one Ratner's biggest selling points for the Atlantic Yards project in the first place.

Others are also concerned that the prefab option may not be quite as pretty as Frank Gehry's original design.

Posted by eric at 4:00 PM

Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol

NY Post
by Rich Calder and Dan Mangan

A Forest City Ratner executive whose cozy relationship with state Sen. Carl Kruger is featured in a new criminal complaint against the Brooklyn politician personally lobbied a Yonkers councilman hours before a controversial vote that later led to bribery charges against a councilwoman.

Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. The meeting was set up hours before a Yonkers council vote by then-Yonkers Republican Party chairman Zehy Jereis.

Bender, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, was the point man for FCR’s efforts to win the Yonkers council’s approval for the $630 million 81-acre “Ridge Hill” retail, commercial and residential development there.

Murtagh told The Post that Jereis called him “hours before the vote” and asked him to meet at a Yonkers Starbucks.

When he arrived, Jereis, who was with Bender, warned Murtagh that Councilwoman Sandy Annabi “is going to vote ‘yes,’ so this is going to pass, and it would help me politically if I vote in favor of it also,” Murtagh recalled.

Murtagh said he refused, adding, “I don’t make decisions like that, to do so would be political suicide.“ Jereis in Oct. 2006 was given a one-year, $60,000 real estate consulting contract by FCR in what prosecutors claim was a payoff by the company for getting Annabi to drop her opposition to the development.

Jereis had no experience in the real estate business and never submitted monthly work reports to FCR until March 2007 when the feds began dropping subpoenas as part of the Yonkers investigation, prosecutors said.

Last year, Annabi was charged by federal authorities with accepting more than $166,000 in bribes to vote in favor of Ridge Hill and another Yonkers development.

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Related coverage...

Atlantic Yards Report, Post: Yonkers Council Member says Bender pushed him to change vote in Ridge Hill case

In Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol, the New York Post continues chipping away at the relationship between developer Forest City Ratner and scandal-plagued state Senator Carl Kruger, again looking at the Ridge Hill case in Yonkers.
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And this time, unlike in an article earlier this week, the Post completes the story, explaining that Jereis got a consulting job from Forest City in an apparent reward, even as the developer and its staff evaded any charges.

Posted by eric at 9:40 AM

March 16, 2011

Prefabricated Tower May Rise at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards

The New York Times
by Charles V. Bagli

The Times's Charles Bagli has a blockbuster, and the big news isn't Bruce Ratner's fascination with unproven building techniques — it's his apparent screwing over of the construction unions.

In a bid to cut costs at his star-crossed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, the developer Bruce C. Ratner is pursuing plans to erect the world’s tallest prefabricated steel structure, a 34-story tower that would fulfill his obligation to start building affordable housing at the site.

The prefabricated, or modular, method he would use, which is untested at that height, could cut construction costs in half by saving time and requiring substantially fewer and cheaper workers. And if that method works, the large number of buildings planned for the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards — 16 in all, not including the Nets arena, now under construction — could also make it economical for the company to run its own modular factory, where walls, ceilings, floors, plumbing and even bathrooms and kitchens could be installed in prefabricated steel-frame boxes.

The 34-story building, with roughly 400 apartments, would comprise more than 900 modules that would be hauled to Atlantic Yards, lifted into place by crane and bolted together at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, next to the arena.

Mr. Ratner’s development company, Forest City Ratner, has been investigating modular construction for a year, but has kept its plans secret. MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner, confirmed Wednesday that the company was seriously considering the modular method, although, she added, no final decision had been made.
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“The company is interested in modular, high-rise construction in an urban setting,” Ms. Gilmartin said. “It’s driven by cost and efficiencies.”

But it would also infuriate the construction workers who were Mr. Ratner’s most ardent supporters during years of stormy community meetings, where they drowned out neighborhood opponents with chants of “Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

“This is something that could be of great consequence to the building trades,” said Gary La Barbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, an umbrella group for the constructio