Bruce Ratner

Bruce Ratner has drawn resentment and scorn in the Brooklyn community surrounding his planned $4 billion Atlantic Yards project, but now he’s inspired cultural enrichment. Sort of.

A local theater company has created a production, running this week, on the fight over and the effects of the Atlantic Yards project, for which Mr. Ratner’s firm plans to build a Frank Gehry-designed arena for the Nets and more than 6,000 housing units.

Brooklyn at Eye Level, put on by The Civilians production company, will run from Thursday through Sunday at the Brooklyn Lyceum, exploring the debate around Atlantic Yards.

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Opponents of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn have never held back in criticizing the media’s coverage—or what they say is a lack thereof—of the more than $4 billion planned development. Now, as Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn points out to us, the issue has apparently piqued the interest of a TV mini-series that examines flaws of mainstream print and broadcast outlets.

The IFC Media Project, made up of producers who worked on Michael Moore films, will air an episode that devotes 10 minutes to Atlantic Yards, according to the series’ Web site.

The film's take on print journalism's Atlantic Yards coverage seems less than laudatory:  read more »

The apparently inexorable rise of a skyscraper city on the edge of Fort Greene continues apace, with developer Bruce Ratner's announcement on Wednesday that Forest City Ratner had secured financing for its first residential tower in Brooklyn, the Costas Kondylis-designed, 34-story 80 DeKalb Avenue.

The glass building will join the Forte Condo (at Ashland Place and Fulton Street), and the soon-to-be-built Danspace project across the street to form a small mini-city on the edge of Fort Greene, bordering Downtown Brooklyn -- but a taste of the 16-skyscraper-and-arena Atlantic Yards complex to come.

The tower will house 292 market-rate rentals and 73 affordable rentals, "making it the first 80/20 development in Brooklyn financed with bonds issued by the New York State Housing Finance Agency," according to the release.  read more »

The planned new Brooklyn basketball arena for the Nets now may not be ready until 2011, according to developer Forest City Ratner, as the company acknowledges that the time to build the structure may take it past its current completion goal of calendar year 2010.

The news was first spotted by Norman Oder at his encyclopedic watchdog blog Atlantic Yards Report, where he put up part of a transcript from a Forest City conference in June [corrected]. In the conference, Forest City chairman Bruce Ratner said the company hoped to start construction on the arena by the end of this year, and would take two and a half years to finish.  read more »

Six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear their federal lawsuit, landowners fighting the use of eminent domain for the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn have filed another suit, this time in state court.

Opposition group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn put out a release today announcing the lawsuit, filed Friday, which claims the development was approved to benefit a private developer (Bruce Ratner) as opposed to benefit the public (which would justify the use of eminent domain), among other charges.

"Far from emerging from a legitimate democratic process where the public interest is identified and articulated," the suit says, "the Project is the product of a developer's dream-and a conscious effort to bypass City procedures mandating meaningful local review, planning, democratic oversight and community input.  read more »

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up an appeal in the fight over Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project, putting to an end the federal lawsuit filed by landowners and tenants in late 2006 that challenged the state’s use of eminent domain for the mega-project.

The plaintiffs in the suit are now pledging to take the case to state court, a route they initially avoided as eminent domain laws in New York tend to be relatively favorable to the state.

In the federal suit, the landowners and tenants charged that the state’s use of eminent domain was improper as it was intended for a private gain of developer Bruce Ratner, who sought to move the Nets basketball team to a new arena on the site and build over 6,000 apartments.  read more »

In an effort to gin up publicity for Frank Gehry's first Manhattan residential cloud-buster, the so-called Beekman Tower, developer Forest City Ratner will unveil the design in a ceremony on Friday afternoon.

The development will be Mr. Gehry's second in Manhattan, following his wildly succesful design for the IAC headquarters on 11th Avenue.

The Beekman Tower is slated to rise 76 stories between Spruce and Beekman streets, with 903 market-rate rental apartments inside.  read more »

Bruce Ratner is looking for a new name for the signature office tower in his $4 billion-plus Atlantic Yards project.  read more »

The Star-Ledger reports that Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the New Jersey Devils are trying to assemble investors to buy the Nets basketball team from development firm Forest City Ratner.

Should the Nets be sold—Forest City denied that the team is for sale—it would presumably kill the more than $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, developed by Forest City under the premise that a new Frank Gehry-designed arena would be created for the Nets.  read more »

The notoriously press-shy Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is due to appear on NY1 tonight at 8:30, going one-on-one with reporter Budd Mishkin.

The folks at NY1 have sent us over a brief teaser quote from Mr. Ratner:

We need jobs, we need shopping that's appropriate, and the right price and quality goods, supermarkets that provide food of quality and well priced, we need housing, and the architecture is important but it's not that important.

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Metropolitan Transportation Authority executive director Lee Sander seems a bit uncertain about the $100 million that developer Forest City Ratner owes the agency for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project. He had this to say earlier this month in a capital program “webinar” (no, we don’t quite know what that word is either), responding to a question about the MTA’s current capital plan:

There is $100 million associated with the sale of Atlantic Yards, and many of you have read in the newspapers some of the difficulty Forest City is having with that development, so hopefully that will proceed, but we want to make sure that that happens—but we’re concerned about that.

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Last night, City Councilman and candidate for Brooklyn borough president, Bill de Blasio, called for a moratorium on demolition at the Atlantic Yards footprint until developer Bruce Ratner outlines “what will be built when and confirms affordability,” Brownstoner and Gowanus Lounge reported this morning.

Mr. de Blasio told a meeting of Brooklyn bloggers that he was “livid” about Mr. Ratner’s recent admission in The New York Times that the Miss Brooklyn office tower and residential buildings Mr. Ratner planned to build at Atlantic Yards were stalled due to trouble finding financing, and said he cannot support an “arena-only plan.”  read more »

Another scene from Thursday evening's protest outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art against Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner.

The big protest against Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner went off Thursday evening outside of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which was honoring Mr. Ratner inside for his philanthropy. Above is a nattily dressed protestor (it was black-tie inside and outside--get it?!) snapped by Observer photo editor Nicole Brydson. More to come.

Tonight's the night! Opponents of the Atlantic Yards project plan to protest outside of the Brooklyn Museum of Art because the museum's honoring developer Bruce Ratner. Black tie is optional (it's not inside the museum) but, please, according to organizer Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, bring your own pickets!  read more »

The developers of Brooklyn’s $4 billion-plus Atlantic Yards project, Forest City Ratner, tried to assuage fears about the stalled development in a conference call with investors today, saying they are committed to the success of the project in the long term. The call was held by Forest City Enterprises, the parent company of Forest City Ratner.

“Today’s economic environment is challenging,” Forest City Ratner president Joanne Minieri said. “Projects of this size and significance are always subject to changing market demands and economic influences.”

Publicly traded real estate firms' conference calls are normally cheery affairs, with executives giving a bright outlook, matched with the footnote that their stock is quite undervalued.  read more »

Property owners and tenants filed an appeal late yesterday in U.S. Supreme Court for their case contesting the use of eminent domain in the $4 billion-plus Atlantic Yards project, an action that legal experts have said is likely to be the final chapter for the federal lawsuit, first filed in late 2006.

Even a favorable Supreme Court ruling for the plaintiffs (which would require a decision by the Court to hear the case in the first place) would not necessarily stop the use of eminent domain—it would only allow for the case to reach the trial phase.

If the lawsuit is dismissed, Matthew Brinckerhoff, attorney for the owners and tenants, said that there would still be an option to file an eminent domain case in New York State court.  read more »

Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn is inviting Atlantic Yards opponents to grab their pickets (and don formal dress if they so desire) to protest the Brooklyn Museum’s decision to honor the developer Bruce Ratner at its annual $1,000-a-plate Brooklyn Ball, which DDDB calls an “affront to Brooklyn communities.”

Kayne West will perform at the Thursday night gala celebrating the Forest City Ratner CEO—described as “an upstanding corporate citizen” and a “sing  read more »

Developer Bruce Ratner is moving closer to building his Frank Gehry-designed 76-story tower in Lower Manhattan, as his Forest City Ratner has secured $680 million in financing for the project. The 904-unit apartment building on Beekman and William streets, is slated to start major construction next week, according to Forest City.

Update 5:45 p.m.

The tower, where not much activity has been going on until now, has been the subject of much interest from local residents and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who wrote a letter to Forest City Ratner recently asking for an updated construction schedule given that Forest City had previously said a school would be open by 2009. Now, Forest City spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt confirmed, the school is slated to open in 2010.

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This morning, Brooklyn bloggers and opponents of the Atlantic Yards project are busy digesting Charles Bagli’s front-page Times story in which developer Bruce Ratner admits that the bulk of his Atlantic Yards project is stalled due to trouble finding financing or an anchor tenant for the “Miss Brooklyn” office building.

For a bullet-point run down of important points of the story, visit No Land Grab. But, basically, the article confirmed what the blogosphere has been predicting all along: Forest City Ratner will go forward with the Nets arena, but plans for three residential buildings, affordable housing, and a commercial tower are indefinitely on hold. Plus, the costs of the project have spiraled far above the initial estimates approved a few years ago.

The four blogs we looked at greeted Mr. Ratner’s disclosure with a collective “I told you so” (or something along those lines), and faulted the Times for giving him softball treatment.  read more »

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is troubled by the pace of a Frank Gehry-designed development by Bruce Ratner. And it’s not Atlantic Yards.

Downtown Express reported today that Mr. Silver sent a letter to Mr. Ratner expressing concern about the construction schedule of Forest City Ratner’s Beekman Tower at 8 Spruce Street downtown, a planned 75-story mostly residential tower that has a school in the base. Mr. Silver wrote that because the school is slated to open in 2009 and construction has been minimal, he wants an update on the anticipated completion.

A spokesman for Mr. Silver said his office hasn’t yet received a response to the letter, which is dated Feb. 25.

In the Downtown Express article, a Forest City spokesman said the firm understands Mr. Silver’s and the community’s concerns about the site. Forest City tells us they'll have a response shortly.  read more »

When a Vienna-born orthodontist and developer named Dr. Egon Neustadt died in 1984, he left instructions for his gargantuan collection of Tiffany lamps—one of the biggest in the world—to go to his sleepy Connecticut town, Sherman, where he wanted a museum built.

That sleepy town didn’t appreciate the gesture. “We’ve tried to keep Sherman a secret,” the local newspaper publisher said then.  read more »

Forest City Ratner paid former U.S. Senator Al D’Amato’s lobbying firm $400,000 in 2006 and 2007 to lobby federal legislators regarding eminent domain and other issues important to the developer of the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in downtown Brooklyn.

Forest City paid Mr.  read more »

Editor's Note: This story originally reported that the Clive Campbell who filed the claim was the real name of D.J. Kool Herc, a founder of hip hop. In fact, it is a different Clive Campbell. Mr. Campbell is a Brooklyn-based activist. The story has been corrected.

Brooklyn activist Clive Campbell is seeking $5 billion from rapper Jay-Z, developer Bruce Ratner and Barclays bank, filing a “claim of lien” in property records that seeks the money for slavery reparations.

Mr. Ratner, Jay-Z, and Barclay’s are all linked through the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, for which Mr. Ratner plans to build a Frank Gehry-designed basketball arena for the Nets and more than 6,000 apartments. Jay-Z, a partial owner of the Nets, has been a major supporter of the project, appearing at press conferences to tout its merits. Barclays owns the naming rights to the arena, and has been accused of having links with the slave trade—an accusation the bank denies.  read more »

One might have assumed that New York Nets co-owner Bruce Ratner does not adore the pettite charm of brownstones. After all, his planned 8 million-square-foot, 22-acre Atlantic Yards, which would be one of the biggest projects ever built by a single developer in New York, has been called "a nightmare for Brooklyn" because of its massive bouquet of Frank Gehry-designed skyscrapers.

But, according to city records, Mr. Ratner just bought himself a nice little 20-foot-wide, 6,408-square-foot, five-floor brownstone, exactly the kind that Brooklynites like so much. But it's on the Upper East Side.

On Valentine's Day, Mr. Ratner paid $6,965,000 for 128 East 62nd Street. More than half of the townhouse was owned by the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, founded by the late Dr. Egon Neustadt--who used to live in the house with some of his 300,000-piece Tiffany collection, according to Milton Hassol, the musuem's president.  read more »

Hale and Hearty Soup chain founders Andrew and Jonathan Schnipper have leased the last empty retail space in The New York Times Building.

The brothers will be opening a new restaurant concept described as "an updated version of a classic roadside eatery serving burgers, salads and other American favorites in a fast casual, relaxed setting," in 3,200 square feet at the corner of corner of Eighth Avenue and 41st Street, according to developer Forest City Ratner Companies.  read more »

Today brings another legal blow for Atlantic Yards opponents, this time a bit more minor than Friday’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the environmental review for the project.

Tenant attorney George Locker, who lost a case in November related to eminent domain and tenants in the project's footprint, saw his appeal dismissed today, according to developer Forest City Ratner.  read more »

Atlantic Yards opponents, who have been trying to make the risk of terrorism an issue for the planned 22-acre complex in Brooklyn, finally got some traction this weekend when The New York Times picked up some of their arguments in Saturday’s edition.  read more »

Opponents of Atlantic Yards knew from the beginning that getting their eminent domain case to the Supreme Court was going to take a lot of motions and counter-motions, appearances and appeals. This morning, they struggled to get even the first toehold for their case by arguing in federal appeals court that they should get the chance to subpoena documents and take testimony from government decision-makers.

The inside information could be a treasure trove in helping the opponents establish their case, which is basically that the project is being undertaken to benefit a private developer, Forest City Ratner, rather than the public good. Asked after the hearing whether he thought that the discovery process would reveal any “nefarious” information, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Matthew Brinckerhoff, told reporters, “It well may be. That’s what I was alluding to.”

Mr. Brinckerhoff, who represents tenants and property owners who would be displaced by the project, was not so bold in the courtroom, however. Mr. Brinckerhoff’s softer argument--that any real estate development requiring the taking of private property should stem from a government-led process rather than a privately initiated one—did not seem to impress the three-judge panel.

“If there are public benefits to be had, then what difference does it make that there is an individual who has a private, self-interested motive so long as it is determined there are public uses?," Judge Robert A. Katzmann asked.  read more »

Forest City Ratner announced this morning that Dean & DeLuca would lease 3,200 square feet in the new New York Times tower at 620 Eighth Avenue. It will be the specialty food chain's seventh location in the city. Forest City, which developed the tower with the Times, also announced that Japanese grill Inakaya would take about 3,000 sqaure feet in the tower for its first American location.

Both are expected to open by mid-2008. Full release after the jump.

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Forest City Ratner had once imagined that, by now, the Atlantic Yards site in central Brooklyn would be humming with construction activity.  read more »

The property owners and tenants in the footprint of the proposed Atlantic Yards project have not given up on their eminent domain fight against the project.

The tireless group announced today that it filed an appeal in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on the Eastern District Court’s decision to dismiss the constitutional challenge regarding the use of eminent domain for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project.  read more »

Vito Lopez, the head of the State Assembly’s Housing Committee, went into this legislative session breathing fire down the back of a 36-year-old tax incentive for new apartment buildings that he said was gentrifying working-class neighborhoods like his dear old Bushwick.  read more »

A federal court today dismissed the eminent domain lawsuit that Daniel Goldstein, the co-founder and spokesman for Develop--Don't Destroy Brooklyn, and others had filed against the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.  read more »

Now Ravi Aggarwal understands why everyone reads the Brooklyn Paper.

It could save you $1,000 or more on signage. "Arena Bagels," we hardly boycotted ye.

Witness the gospel, according to Gersh Kuntzman:

...as support for Ratner’s project goes, Aggarwal’s decision to name his store “Arena Bagels” pales by comparison to the wheel-greasing done by the state, the city and the Borough President. If Atlantic Yards is ever built, blame George Pataki, Mike Bloomberg and Marty Markowitz, not Ravi Aggarwal.

...don’t crucify Ravi Aggarwal for Bruce Ratner’s sins. Besides, you’d be missing out on a good bagel.

Forest City Ratner is stopping “all abatement and demolition activities” on the Atlantic Yards complex the day after the parapet of a building fell five stories to earth, damaging cars and prompting the evacuation of 350 neighbors.  read more »

…a little ahead of schedule. WABC says that the building’s parapet collapsed this morning during the demolition and that emergency personnel are evacuating 100 apartments nearby.

Forest City Ratner has signed two more tenants for the new New York Times headquarters, including a New Jersey-based developer marketing a fresh office tower for Times Square. SJP Properties will lease 3,500 square feet in the Times headquarters to serve as its mareketing hub for the 1.1-million-square-foot tower planned for 11 Times Square.  read more »

Forest City Ratner is looking to compete for some of New York’s scarce tax-exempt bonds to finance a Frank Gehry–designed tower in lower Manhattan.  read more »

In December 2005, right as the debate over the Atlantic Yards complex was heating up and before the  read more »

Forest City Ratner sent out a press release on Thursday saying that the former Ward Bread Bakery at Pacific and Vanderbilt streets in Prospect Heights was next in line for the Atlantic Yards treatment, with abatement and demolition scheduled to begin Monday.

But don't cry too hard, because the building, the target of an unsuccessful landmarking attempt, will come back in its next life as an insect or something: Some 75 percent of the demolition debris will be recycled.  read more »

The full release after the jump.

- Matthew Schuerman

The Brooklyn Public Library e-mailed The Real Estate a response to our questions about the "Footprints" show on Atlantic Yards, which we blurbed earlier today. The statement doesn't explain why the exhibit will not include six more abstract or political works, including the piece above by Donald O'Finn, that were in the original show last fall. But here goes:

As a modern library, our mission is to provide free and open access to information for all library patrons through many resources, including books, technology, educational and cultural programs and art exhibitions. BPL is a publicly funded, non-partisan institution, so we exhibit art that is relevant to the community and the times. Our exhibitions committee - which is comprised of BPL staff, Brooklyn-based gallery owners, and local artists - is charged with selecting our exhibitions, insuring that the installations are accessible to all members of our diverse communities.

It's worth mentioning that the Grand Space show last fall was funded with a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council, which is also publicly funded.

The Real Estate does not know whether the library just has different taste than the arts council, or if it is simply more worried about seeing that public funding go down the, um, toilet.

- Matthew Schuerman UPDATE: Or maybe it's private funding they are worried about going down the toilet? The Brooklyn Paper reported last September that the library was trying to get Bruce Ratner, developer of Atlantic Yards, to fund its new arts branch.

Michael Showalter knows there's little hope left for opponents of Bruce Ratner's 22-acre Atlantic Yards project.

"Clearly, we're in a losing battle, short of shackling ourselves to the fence," the comedian told The Real Estate. "That doesn't mean we should stop ourselves from trying."

Tuesday night, he'll be performing in Park Slope's tweedy hangout Union Hall for Laugh Don't Destroy, a comedy benefit for the anti-Atlantic Yards coalition, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB).

Mr. Showalter, the son of feminist writer Elaine Showalter and a fixture on the New York comedy scene (one-third of comedy troupe Stella and co-writer of the movie Wet Hot American Summer) sat down last week to coffee at The Flying Saucer Cafe on Atlantic Avenue, a favorite spot of his in the four years he's lived in downtown Brooklyn.

Dressed warmly in jeans and a collared shirt under a blue sweater, with a red and blue scarf, he talked of his hopes that his comedy will aid the opposition. Mr. Showalter is on DDDB's advisory board--basically, a list of well-known supporters, from bespectacled author Jonathan Safran Foer to firecracker actress Rosie Perez.

"I'm probably number 50 on the list of names," Mr. Showalter says with a shrug. "But, you know, if Heath Ledger and Steve Buscemi can't help out, then I can help."

Mr. Showalter recruited some of his friends for the comedy night, including fellow Brooklyn comedian Eugene Mirman. Kristen Shaal, one of New York magazine's Ten Funniest New Yorkers You've Never Heard Of, and Boston transplant Baron Vaughn will also perform.

Mr. Showalter's apartment is just blocks from the area at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues where a sports arena, train station and five new towers (up to 511 feet high) will most likely be built over the next decade. "I'm appalled by what's happening and I feel very helpless about it," he says, nudging his stubbled chin with a knuckle.

DDDB spokesman Daniel Goldstein says the group will make a short presentation about its opposition to Atlantic Yards, and, at $20 a ticket, Mr. Goldstein hopes the event will raise about $2,000 for lawyers' fees. DDDB is involved in a federal lawsuit that's likely the last gasp to preventing Mr. Ratner's project.

Mr. Showalter will be in familiar territory at Union Hall, where he does stand-up every Sunday night.

"I'm not a very politically active type person. This is the most I get involved in anything," Mr. Showalter said. "But Brooklyn has a certain charm, an aesthetic that the community really believes in, and [this development] is going to be a tough pill to swallow. Right now, I can park my car on the street and that's never going to happen again. There's also a sense that I live in a borough, and that's going to change once these monstrous skyscrapers get put into place."

- Gillian Reagan

• The ultimate magazine of ultimate Upper East Side wealth has put out an Ultimate Guide to Manhattan, which has quite the taste for children's museums and beauty treatments. We'd like to note that Hiro Ballroom (in Downtown Midtown, pictured above) is not "relaxed." [Resident]
• Is it possible that the Soho-encompassing, tourist-loved West Broadway Art Market is worthwhile? [Apartment Therapy]
• The Barclays backlash builds in Brooklyn: Two African-American Assemblymen--who happen to be supporters of Atlantic Yards--say that "developer Bruce Ratner betrayed his black allies." [Brooklyn Paper]
• Downtown New York has lost two pioneers. Union Square savior Norman Buchbinder passed away at age 84; and artist Arnold Bergier has died, nearly 50 years after founding the Save the Village Committee. [Villager]
- Max Abelson
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At the prompting of one outspoken reader, here's a little more about the latest debate going on with the Atlantic Yards Project.

Years ago, Barclays Bank in England was involved in the slave trade and did business with South Africa during apartheid. Today, they've got the naming rights for the stadium that's part of the massive Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn.  read more »

Critics have seized on this as more evidence that Bruce Ratner's project is at odds with needs and sensitivities of the local community. Here's a statement sent over to me by Daniel Goldstein of the opposition group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn: