January 6, 2009
Will December 19, 2009 be the decision date for Atlantic Yards? It depends on "reasonable steps"
Atlantic Yards Report
A reader reminds me that I didn't read all the fine print before posting today on the future of Atlantic Yards in 2009. After all, a state document sets up December 19, 2009 as a decision date--but maybe not a final one.
Target: December 19
The State Funding Agreement, as I wrote last March, sets up an "Effective Date," defined as when litigation... shall have been sufficiently concluded so as to permit such financing and construction to proceed.... [and] ESDC has acquired and delivered vacant possession of the Project Site.
That could take a while, especially if George Locker's timetable moves litigation into 2010.
If the Effective Date does not occur prior to December 19, 2009 and Forest City Ratner fails to pursue or cooperate in the site litigation or take "reasonable steps, (including advancing design work and other predevelopment activities)" in furtherance of the project, it "will be deemed abandoned," and the ESDC will get its money back.
Is that likely? I'm not so sure.
Posted by eric at January 6, 2009 7:02 PM | Permalink
BROOKLYN AT EYE LEVEL To Be Made Into A Full-Length Play
BroadwayWorld.com
The Civilians (Steven Cosson, Artistic Director) the award-winning New York-based theater company, have announced that they will commission a full-length play from their newest project, Brooklyn at Eye Level, following a successful series of initial performances. The show played to capacity crowds December 4 - 7 at The Brooklyn Lyceum and was embraced by the entire community as an important contribution to the often contentious debate surrounding the Atlantic Yards development.
Brooklyn at Eye Level is the culmination of a long-term investigation of development in Brooklyn and its effect on neighborhood and community. This lively presentation of theater, dance and music took its inspiration from interviews with the real life players in the story of Brooklyn: residents both old and new, community activists, developers and politicos, among many others. Representatives from both sides of the Atlantic Yards battle attended the performances, many of them returning for repeat viewings, including BUILD, Develop Don't Destroy, Fifth Avenue Committee, Pratt Institute, Pratt Center for Community Development, Park Slope Civic Council.
Civilians Artistic Director Steven Cosson commented, "The community response to Brooklyn at Eye Level has been nothing short of amazing. We were so fortunate to be able to present the culmination of this initial phase in the heart of Brooklyn, so close to the footprint of this very important civic debate. We look forward to going further with this project and commissioning a full-length work inspired by the material. We will also continue to work with our supporting organizations to develop content for radio, television, online programming and other media formats."
Posted by eric at January 6, 2009 2:38 PM | Permalink
ATLANTIC YARDS RATNERVILLE CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
ATLANTIC YARDS CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
Weeks beginning January 5, 2009 and January 12, 2009In an effort to keep the Atlantic Yards Community aware of upcoming construction activities, ESD and Forest City Ratner provide the following outline of anticipated upcoming construction activities.
Please note: the scope and nature of activities are subject to change based upon field conditions. All work has been approved by appropriate City and State agencies where required.
In addition to the activities described below noise attenuation and vibration monitoring measures are underway in connection with the Memorandum of Environmental Commitments dated 12/08/06.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact our project Ombudsperson at: 212-803-3233 or AtlanticYards@empire.state.ny.us.
Abatement and Demolition Work
All work described below will comply with the additional oversight and protocols by the Department of Buildings (DOB) that were established on April 30th, 2007.
- Demolition is underway at 800 Pacific Street (block 1129, lot 25) and will continue throughout this two week period.
NoLandGrab: As far as we know, no actual demolition is transpiring at 800 Pacific, which is the last remaining piece of the Ward Bakery. But what about the Carlton Avenue bridge? The ESDC and elected officials remain silent on this debacle, which has cut off easy travel between Prospect Heights and Fort Greene, creating hardship for pedestrians and hampering emergency response. We suggest that New York State apply for federal stimulus funds to rebuild what Forest City Ratner has destroyed, and then bill FCR for the full cost.
Posted by eric at January 6, 2009 1:36 PM | Permalink
Besides major lawsuits, other expected litigation could delay arena construction
Atlantic Yards Report
Attorney George Locker isn't finished suing to block the Atlantic Yards project, and those pending and potential lawsuits could delay arena construction by two more years.
Besides pending major lawsuits over eminent domain and the Atlantic Yards environmental review, which may be resolved this year, other expected litigation may delay the start of arena construction, perhaps into 2010 or 2011. That means the best-case arena opening date could be 2012 (as I’ve already argued), or 2013, rather than the announced 2011.
That estimate comes from attorney George Locker, who represents tenants in two Atlantic Yards arena block footprint buildings. Without an assessment by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) or independent authorities, I can’t be sure if the timetable estimate is solid, but it should certainly be part of the conversation.
Posted by eric at January 6, 2009 10:34 AM | Permalink
WINTER IN AMERICA...how construction workers should respond to the meltdown
A call for construction workers to unite with tenants, and the rest of the working class
IndyMedia.org
by Gregory A. Butler
Union carpenter/writer Gregory Butler calls upon workers in the building trades to resist a push by contractors for deep wage-and-benefit concessions, and presents a novel affordable-housing plan.
In New York City, we have an easy answer before us – all those abandoned buildings stopped in mid build because the banks cut off the developer’s credit line!
We should demand that the City of New York use eminent domain to seize those abandoned buildings, use public funds to finish building them and turn them over to the New York City Housing Authority to serve as low income housing.
Suddenly dropping thousands of low income units into the housing market will serve to pull down overall rents, opening up housing opportunities for the middle income population.
What about Atlantic Yards, which is pledged to use union labor?
One thing we should absolutely NOT do anymore is to totally subordinate ourselves and our unions to the contractors, the developers and their trade associations.
Louis Colletti is not our friend – neither is Donald Trump – or Larry Silverstein – or Steve Ross – or Bruce Ratner – or any of the other developers… they are our class enemies, the people we have to struggle against to get what we need, both narrowly as construction workers and more broadly as part of the working class.
We and our unions need to stop being shills for their narrow commercial interests and their taxpayer subsidized megadevelopments!
Atlantic Yards Report, Militant union carpenter: unions shouldn't compromise with contractors or support Atlantic Yards
Norman Oder provides some context, and cites some of Butler's earlier writings.
Butler wrote critically in September 2008 about a lack of union militancy:
Although New York developers, building owners, not for profit community groups and governmental entities continued to increase their use of non union contractors over the next decade - and as wages and working conditions sharply deteriorated for those non union tradespeople, the unions made very sparing use of their members power on the jobsites.
...For instance, only 2 union rallies were held in all of Brooklyn (New York City’s most populous borough) during this decaded - and one of them - the larger of the two events - was to support developer Bruce Ratner’s deeply unpopular Atlantic Yards luxury housing/office building/New York Nets basketball arena project in Prospect Heights.
Later, he added:
The general response of the Building Trades has been to tag along behind the bosses - symbolized in New York by all the rallies that have been held to promote unpopular megadevelopment plans - like the Johnson family’s Hudson Yards Stadium for the Jets on the West Side of Manhattan or the Atlantic Yards stadium/office building/luxury hirise development that billionare developer Bruce Ratner and centimillionare music producer Jay-Z want to build in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Posted by eric at January 6, 2009 10:15 AM | Permalink
"I don’t know... how long we could delay": A look forward at Atlantic Yards in 2009
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder surveys the landscape of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards megaproject for the coming year and handicaps the chances that the project, or at least the arena, ever gets built.
Click here to find out what's in store for: the legal cases, stalled construction, the still-in-New Jersey Nets, bond financing, affordable housing subsidies, the political supporters, Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs), and how much more self-inflicted abuse one cash-strapped development company can take.
Posted by lumi at January 6, 2009 5:05 AM | Permalink
Forest City in the News
Here are some bits of non-Atlantic Yards-related news concerning developer Forest City Enterprises:
GlobeSt.com, Demolition Underway for $108M Presidio Project
SAN FRANCISCO-Forest City Enterprises is spending the next few months tearing down the non-historic “wings” of a former hospital complex here as it prepares to renovate its historic core and add space en route to a 161-unit rental community. The former Public Health Service Hospital is located at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge within the Presidio, a sprawling former army base that has been under redevelopment for more than a decade.
Forest City landed $67.5 million in construction financing for the estimated $108-million project in November, 18 months after it signed the related development agreement with the Presidio Trust. The demolition, which began in December, will take four months to complete. Completion of the renovation and new construction is slated for late 2010. Forest City hopes to achieve LEED-Gold certification for the project from the US Green Building Council.
Cleveland.com (Plain Dealer), Analysis: Frank Jackson's influence on medical mart in doubt
Cleveland's Medical Mart project is still limping along, as a final decision for the site location has yet to be determined. This has got to be driving cash-strapped Forest City Enterprises executives crazy, since one of the sites is owned by the development company:
Commissioners will decide on a site for the complex after MMPI presents them with an analysis of two possible locations: Tower City and the current Cleveland Convention Center. They had wanted to pick a site by Jan. 15. The latest delay will push the decision to mid-February.
A spokesman for Forest City Enterprises last week said he was hopeful [Mayor] Jackson's involvement would move things along. The company owns Tower City and has been frustrated with the project's stagnation.
Conntact.com, It's Winstanley's Town; We Just Live in It
In addition, Forest City Enterprises, a $10 billion publicly-traded real estate company headquartered in Cleveland, is negotiating with the Science Park Development Corp. to convert the old gun factory, known as Tract A, into a mixed-used residential and commercial development.
Posted by lumi at January 6, 2009 4:50 AM | Permalink
The Year in Review by the Daily Bulletin
The top legal, judicial and courthouse news stories of 2008
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Ryan Thompson
For you legal eagles, we've excerpted the Atlantic Yards courtside action from the Brooklyn Eagle's year in review:
JANUARY
• Atlantic Yards lawsuits continue to be dismissed in both state and federal courts. Many still pending.FEBRUARY
• Another Atlantic Yards lawsuit is dismissed.MAY
• Atlantic Yards opponents file another lawsuit, claiming the project is delayed too long. New York Court of Appeals refuses to hear one of the Atlantic Yards lawsuits.SEPTEMBER
• Atlantic Yards cases and appeals continue.
Not very informative, we agree. Since we pretty much have no freakin' idea what the Eagle was trying to say, we had to look up these excerpts in Norman Oder's Atlantic Yards Report year in review:
JANUARY
State Court Justice Joan Madden takes eight months to rule against a community challenge to the Atlantic Yards environmental review. She punts on the crime statistics and thus doesn't fully assess the issue of blight.
A Forest City Ratner official admits the legal battle over Atlantic Yards cast doubt on the developer's ability to get arena financing and requests that the appeal in the case challenging the AY environmental review to be heard in May rather than September. The request is not granted.
FEBRUARY
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously upholds Judge Nicholas Garaufis’s dismissal of the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case and suggests (correctly, it turned out) that a U.S. Supreme Court appeal would be tough to mount.
MAY
The ESDC's 10-year project "is a public relations and marketing scheme; it does not exist in a legally enforceable form," argues George Locker, a lawyer for residents of two buildings in the AY footprint. The ESDC objects to "purported quotations" about the timetable from Bruce Ratner in the New York Times and instead points to Ratner's Daily News op-ed.
JUNE
The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal of the federal eminent domain suit, setting up for a longshot state court challenge. (There's an interesting fib in the ESDC's brief.)
AUGUST
The Atlantic Yards eminent domain case is filed in state court and, though most of the arguments have already been dismissed in the (likely) more hospitable federal court system, the new case adds a novel claim.
SEPTEMBER
In the appeal of the case challenging the AY environmental review, two of five justices seem skeptical of state’s blight claim, but questions in court do not predict a final ruling.
Posted by lumi at January 6, 2009 4:29 AM | Permalink
Plans for population growth may be off
MetroNY
By Amy Zimmer
In better times, city officials banked on a population boom, but the recession has some urban planners saying the Bloomberg administration may need to reconsider its rosy estimate of a city of 9.1 million people in 2030.
Expectations of a population spike were buoyed by massive construction projects such as the troubled Hudson and Atlantic yards.
“The downturn in the real estate market signals that the city’s population is not likely to increase in the near-term future,” said Tom Angotti of Hunter College’s Center for Community Planning and Development.
Posted by lumi at January 6, 2009 4:25 AM | Permalink
Avi Schick Leaves ESDC
Once Spitzer's man at ground zero, Schick also played roles in Atlantic Yards, Columbia expansion
The NY Observer
By Eliot Brown
Avi Schick, the prosecutor-turned-development official who has served as downstate president of the Empire State Development Corporation for the past two years, will leave his job this week. Mr. Schick emailed a letter on Monday evening to colleagues announcing his departure.
Mr. Schick's departure comes more than seven months after the Paterson administration announced he would resign his position; in May, the state announced he would leave in September.
At the ESDC, Mr. Schick, once a top prosecutor in the state attorney general's office under Eliot Spitzer, oversaw state involvement in projects such as Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, the development of Governors Island, and Columbia University's West Harlem expansion.
Posted by lumi at January 6, 2009 4:21 AM | Permalink
January 5, 2009
More details emerge about Forest City Ratner bailout of ACORN: did Bertha Lewis mislead her board?
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder follows up on blogger Anita MonCrief's most recent entry regarding the financial relationship between ACORN and Forest City Ratner.
ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief--who has an ax to grind but has presented accurate information--offers more details about the agreement between Forest City Ratner to bail out the struggling national organization ACORN, headed on an interim basis by Bertha Lewis, who as head of New York ACORN signed the controversial Atlantic Yards housing agreement with the developer.
MonCrief suggests the deal was approved after the fact.
...Moreover, though the New York Times, according to MonCrief, knew of the deal, the newspaper neglected to write about it. However, as I detailed last month, the Times wrote about a roughly equivalent bailout of ACORN.
It's time for another look.
Posted by eric at January 5, 2009 10:49 AM | Permalink
ACORN and FCR: Did they Dupe Brooklyn?
Anita MonCrief
The blogging ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief has published a new post about the loan and grant extended by Forest City Ratner to ACORN, which calls into question the veracity of ACORN Chief Organizer Bertha Lewis's dealings with her own board.
As with all major power consolidations (or as it is known to students of history: a coup d’état ) there are snags and other loose ends that need to be taken care of. In this instance, that dangling piece of thread is the Atlantic Yards debacle. As reported earlier, Forest City Ratner gave ACORN a loan of 1.5 million dollars back in September. According to several members of the ACORN Board, Bertha Lewis lied on several occasions regarding the timing of the loan and whether Board approval was ever received.
Careful review of the loan agreement shows that a letter was sent to ACORN dated August 19, 2008 from Forest City Ratner that stated Forest City Ratner would make a loan to ACORN in the amount of 1 million dollars and give ACORN Institute 300,000 now and 100,000 in August of 2009 and 2010. What is even more interesting is the date on the signed agreement between Bertha Lewis and FCR, September 4, 2008 (for copies of the contract please email me). According to emails that I have in my possession, Bertha Lewis confirmed the loan to the New York Times on September 25, 2008, and she stated that the loan was signed on September 8, 2008 and dispersed around September 12, 2008. The email goes on to show that Bertha's recollection of how she got approval to take this money from good old Bruce might have been a little faulty, or as one board member puts it:
“Bertha,
This does not fly with me. When I had [asked] for a copy of the loan agreement from Forest City [Ratner], you told the young lady no! I have since talked with an attorney and was told that I have every right as a member of this board to ask for these documents. This is [impertinent] behavior from you....
NoLandGrab: Will the mainstream media give FCR and ACORN a pass on this, or might they actually look into these troubling allegations?
Posted by eric at January 5, 2009 10:40 AM | Permalink
“It’s not going to happen in a nanosecond": a look back at Atlantic Yards in 2008
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder looks back at the Atlantic Yards news from 2008, including major stories that he broke. Many items seem like they happened just yesterday, while others are like a broken record:
Click here to read about lawsuits, protests, counter protests, renderings, demolitions, construction delays, lawsuits, financing, lobbying, lies, damn lies, subsidies, blight, Nets to Newark, lawsuits, more demolitions, liar fliers, Atlantic Lots, green roof, balance sheet blues, even more subsidies, ground breaking delays, more ground breaking delays, the resurrection of Jim Stuckey, construction halt, lawsuits, Barclays Bank, Ward Bakery RIP, Nets for sale, Nets not for sale, layoffs, $1.5 million to ACORN, free Nets tickets, Forest City stockwatch, and the Atlantic Yards deathwatch.
Posted by lumi at January 5, 2009 5:56 AM | Permalink
Destroying Coney Island to save it
MetroNY
By Neil deMause
After two straight years of “last summer ever!” at Coney, 2009 is starting to feel like the end for real. Astroland itself is in the process of being packed up — possibly for shipment to Australia — leaving only the Cyclone and the smaller Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park as remnants of Coney’s once-great amusement district.
...
Such is what’s become of the city’s 4-year-old plan to “revitalize” Coney Island via a sweeping rezoning plan to bring in housing and “entertainment retail.”
...
[Developer Joseph] Sitt’s money-grubbing has drawn lots of deserved jeers, but Coney has plenty of company as a failed example of Bloomberg development policy: Hudson Yards, Atlantic Yards, Willets Point, all of which promise to end up as empty holes commemorating the popping of the real estate bubble (let’s not even get into Ground Zero). A Jan. 14 meeting by the Municipal Art Society is expected to turn into a last-ditch push for the city to call a timeout on its rezoning and go back to the drawing board. It’s a bit late for “think before you act,” but better late than never.
Yesterday, Gowanus Lounge featured a video of Coney Island's makeshift memorial.
Posted by lumi at January 5, 2009 5:46 AM | Permalink
January 4, 2009
Richardson Withdraws as Commerce Nominee
The Wall Street Journal
by Jonathan Weisman
What does Bill Richardson have to do with Atlantic Yards? Forest City Enterprises was one of the biggest donors to the presidential campaign of the erstwhile nominee for Secretary of Commerce, and New Mexico is home to the company's giant Mesa del Sol project.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination as President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary Sunday, citing a federal grand-jury investigation into a "pay to play" scheme in his home state, Obama transition officials said.
Just days ago, Republican Senate aides said they didn't believe the investigation of CDR Financial Products would be a major impediment to Mr. Richardson's confirmation. But the probe appears to be heating up. Mr. Richardson hired a personal lawyer last month and in mid-December, the grand jury began taking testimony from a slew of witnesses.
The grand jury is investigating how the company won more than $1.5 million in work advising the state of New Mexico after making contributions to Mr. Richardson's political action committees. The "pay-to-play" investigation is trying to determine whether the governor's office had any role in the contracting decisions.
NoLandGrab: Might the grand jury take a gander at the arrows connecting Richardson, Forest City and Mesa del Sol, too? Regardless, FCE is losing a friend at Commerce.
Posted by eric at January 4, 2009 4:40 PM | Permalink
It Came from the Blogosphere...
A Sports Scribe, I-what?
If team owner Bruce Ratner sells the team, as it has been rumored, then the new owners might as well save the headache of trying to build the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. When the City of New York and New York State was basically throwing money towards the Yankees and Mets for their facilities while pondering the West Side Stadium for the Jets, it was not a stretch to believe that the Nets would move across the Hudson River before the end of the decade.Yet, Ratner was dealing with the quagmire that Walter O’Malley dealt with a half-century earlier for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Whether the lack of movement has been public opposition, government reluctance or both, this area has never been developed in the manner than some have envisioned. Add the fact that Ratner made his money from real estate and you have a derailed train with broken tracks to its side.
Fucked in Park Slope 209 Reasons Brooklyn Is So Damn Badass: Happy 2009!
179. We, (and the tanking economy) stopped Atlantic Yards! Sort of (Noah Adler). The fact that a public that was shut out of Bruce Ratner's stupid development plan for the Atlantic Railyards has managed to stall the project until the economy tanked. Yay! (David).
Posted by amy at January 4, 2009 10:00 AM | Permalink
Mayor needs an economic plan
Crain's
While no one would suggest the mayor can solve all the local economy's ills, he needs to come up with new programs that offer immediate aid and support. He should start with the city's vital tourism trade, as well as small businesses and emerging industries. He must rethink his affordable-housing plan, which can't succeed unless there is more new construction, and he has to explain how he will keep such crucial projects as the redevelopment of the West Side rail yards, Atlantic Yards and Willets Point on track.
article
NoLandGrab: Wouldn't it be more important to start with explaining WHY these projects should be continued in their current forms when alternate plans would make much more sense and not wreak economic havoc?
Posted by amy at January 4, 2009 9:53 AM | Permalink
In governors' request for federal infrastructure aid, only a hint of (indirect) help for Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
So New York State Gov. David Paterson, along with governors from other large states, has asked the federal government for a total of $1 trillion in emergency aid over two years for all 50 states.Could any of that be directed to Atlantic Yards? The news coverage wasn't clear, summarizing the request as including $350 billion for infrastructure; $250 billion for anti-poverty programs; and $250 billion in flexible education spending to maintain funding for programs from pre-kindergarten to higher education; and middle-class tax cuts.
Given that the "ready-to-go" projects are the focus, Atlantic Yards could not be directly affected. However, it's possible that a change in rules regarding the Low Income Housing Credit Program could make it easier to fund affordable housing destined for the project.
Posted by amy at January 4, 2009 9:51 AM | Permalink
In Fresno, new mayor wary of lingering FCE project; developer's rep claims commitment
Atlantic Yards Report
The new mayor of Fresno, CA, Ashley Swearingin, is wary of a delayed development called South Stadium, an 85-acre mixed-use project promised by Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises.
...
At a debate in September, Swearingen, a Republican who led the Fresno Regional Jobs Initiative, said, "[L]et me speak in general terms and say that from a policy standpoint I never really supported or endorsed the idea of an exclusive negotiating agreement with Forest City. I think it’s the wrong way to go about downtown revitalization. Once it was done it was done and I was curious to see the outcome and I think thus far we just really haven’t seen anything, particularly when the Proposition 1C dollars were handed out and the Forest City project did not receive the funding that they expected to receive. So I think there are certainly red flags on that project."Exclusive negotiating agreement? Doesn't she know that in New York, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation said of Atlantic Yards, "So, they came to us, we did not come to them. And it is not really up to us then to go out and try to find a better deal. I think that would discourage developers from coming to us, if every time they came to us we went out and tried to shop their idea to somebody else. So we are actively shopping, but not for another sports arena franchise for Brooklyn."
Posted by amy at January 4, 2009 9:49 AM | Permalink
Slow news leads to front-page treatment for Nets dancers, DDDB baby
Atlantic Yards Report
I had to laugh yesterday when I saw various editions of this week's Courier-Life paper.A front page standalone photo promoted an "exclusive" look (on p. 4) into the lives of two Nets dancers who've moved to Brooklyn "respectively to pursue dance careers. The two talented ladies say they love their new home borough and can't wait for the team to relocate to Brooklyn." (Click to enlarge graphics.)
Well, their commute would be so much shorter. Then again, there are 16 2008-09 Nets Dancers and a bunch are from New Jersey and Staten Island.
Posted by amy at January 4, 2009 9:44 AM | Permalink
January 3, 2009
Curbed Awards '08: The Neighborhoods, In Glorious Detail!
Curbed
Atlantic Yards makes two appearances on the awards list:
I. PRESERVATION AND EXPANSIONLost Neighborhood Landmarks of the Year
3) Ward Bakery.
Though the Coney faithful rightly bemoan the depressing destructoporn that engulfed Astroland as the year wound down, the total destruction of Ward Bakery in the Atlantic Yards footprint saddened us more profoundly, probably because the place will remain an empty lot for the next few eons.III. THERE GOES THE...
Massive Projects At Massive Risk Award
1) Atlantic Yards/Hudson Yards.
We sort of always knew, given all the hype and press and controversy and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth surrounding our twin yards, that neither one of these projects would ever happen in their proposed form. Predictions for 2009: Hudson Yards disappears from the public agenda altogether, while Bruce Ratner brings the Nets to play in a 3,000-seat replica of Ebbets Field. It's called compromise, people!
DDDB adds: "3,000 seats might be about right the way the Nets are drawing this year."
Posted by amy at January 3, 2009 10:25 AM | Permalink
Markowitz on the relationship with donor FCR: "I don't see the slightest conflict"
Atlantic Yards Report transcribes Marty's Brooklyn Paper interview adding text from the podcast that wasn't in the paper version.
The effect of budget cuts, Markowitz contended, was to rely more on private donations, which led Kuntzman to press him on his relationship with developer Forest City Ratner.Markowitz's statement that "I don't see the slightest conflict" is questionable, however, because his role as Atlantic Yards cheerleader-in-general can interfere with the borough president's obligation to represent the public, including challenges to the developer on broken promises or environmental impacts.
Posted by amy at January 3, 2009 10:17 AM | Permalink
Brodsky to IDA: delay vote on tax-exempt bonds for Yankees, Mets
Atlantic Yards Report
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has asked the members of the New York City Industrial Development Authority--the bonding arm of the New York City Economic Development Corporation--to delay a January 16 vote on an additional $454 million in tax-exempt bonds the new Yankees and Mets stadiums.Brodsky, who chairs the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, gave the board members documents he uncovered regarding "legal failures of the initial funding for Yankee Stadium" and said he's still waiting for "documents that clarify and explain the request for additional funding, the role of the IDA, and the role of other parties."
A public hearing on the funding request is schedule for January 15, with a vote scheduled for 9 a.m. the next day, the switch enacted after complaints that it had been scheduled for Inauguration Day, January 20.
"The spate of taxpayer bailouts of large corporations was at least justified by the threat that they would otherwise go out of business," Brodsky said. "There is no reason to provide public assistance to these hugely successful businesses at a time when taxes are rising, services are being cut, and jobs are being lost."
Posted by amy at January 3, 2009 10:15 AM | Permalink
NJ Nets: Mail's In (Pharmaceutical Edition)
NJ.com
Dave D'Alessandro/Star-Ledger
Dave: I found your story about fan support at home interesting in that it did not point any blame at ownership, who have essentially made them a lame duck for the state they play in. As long as Brooklyn keeps getting thrown in our face, it's hard for even me to get excited about what is actually a pretty good team. Love to see them embrace NJ and either stay put or go to Newark. Seems to me people have forgotten just how few people went to Nets games in the early 90s. What turns up these days at the Meadowlands those teams would have killed for. There was a legit base building during the Kidd era and Ratner just killed it, since his interest has always been real estate and not the Nets -- and certainly not New Jersey. Eddie TrunkET: All valid points, and you're crawling around an interesting issue pertaining to fan psychology. Do they really have to feel emotionally attached to a team in order to go out to a game once in a while? I can't speak with any authority on that, because I haven't rooted for a team since before you were born. If I weren't professionally obligated to attend these games, I'd go fairly regularly, but only if they promised not to shoot T-shirts at my head.
Dave: How can you justify New Jersey's largest paper giving so much space to a guy solely dedicated to taking the Nets out of Jersey? Shame on you. Thomas Greco
Tom: You already know I'm the most parochial clod in the room, but we can't take this stuff personally. You are hereby invited to vote with your wallet - knowing full well that your disdain (and the indifference of your friends) are the primary inspirations for their leaving in the first place.
Dave: Yormark is a salesman. Not much else. If he has a functioning IQ, he'd realize his Atlantic Yards is a long shot. Also why no mention of the poison pill this guy signed with Meadowlands? You know the one, the clause that allows Nets to break lease for any destination penalty-free except for Prudential Center? How is that good for New Jersey or the Nets? It isn't on either count. Their home regard arises from tipping off in an empty barn. There is no other valid explanation. I think Newark would give this team a buzz at home it needs. Patrick Sullivan
Pat: Why would the NJSEA give them an out from their lease if there was a chance they'd take their business to a competing arena?
DD -- Nice job, you didn't drink the Kool-Aid. Ratner and Yormark's obsession with Brooklyn is the reason I gave up my season tickets after 15 years, even though the team won't get to Brooklyn until 2011 -- at the earliest (or if ever). They ripped the team apart with Brooklyn in mind. The last two seasons of mediocrity was enough for me to bid adieu to the Meadowlands before they do. If they were staying in New Jersey, I would have remained a loyal fan through re-building. After all, I lived through the Butch Beard era, and started to follow the team closely when Coleman was a rookie. The Nets were my hobby; a very expensive hobby, but a hobby nonetheless. I have to think that season tickets are way down; my former seat neighbor told me that my seats have been empty all season except for one game, and four other couples in my former neighborhood didn't renew either. And indeed, hot dogs were $4.25 and the beer was $7.75. David Wald.
DeeDubya: Here's the thing. They like to talk about how their core constituency is pleased with the game presentation, the TLC, and the future of the team - even if it involves a schlep across two rivers in a few years. And maybe their demographics support that assertion. But it's pretty obvious to the rest of us that they are shoveling sand against the tide - and that people just like David Wald represent the tide, and he's going out.
Posted by amy at January 3, 2009 10:08 AM | Permalink
Sports Bubble Primed to Burst
Minyanville
Andrew Jeffery
Another real-estate developer turned sports mogul, Bruce Ratner, may be wishing he'd stuck to skyscrapers rather than sky-hooks. Ratner owns the New Jersey Nets, and, along with Forest City Enterprises (FCEA), is trying to build the team a new $950 million Brooklyn complex. Legal troubles and financing difficulties have stalled development; Forest City has stopped work on all other existing projects.Ratner isn’t any more beloved than Zell: Nets fans have no desire to make the trek across the Hudson for games, and Brooklynites aren't interested in seeing luxury condos go up in their backyards.
Posted by amy at January 3, 2009 10:03 AM | Permalink
January 2, 2009
$75-MILLION OF COUNTY TAXES FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS
REALNEO
The Northeast Ohio online community thanks Cleveland-area taxpayers on behalf of Forest City Enterprises, for the $42 million Convention Center subsidy generated by a 0.25% hike in the county sales tax.
What have you done lately for Randy Lerner, Sam Miller, Albert Ratner, Tim Hagan, the Cleveland Orchestra or the Playhouse Square Foundation?
Plenty.
You may not know it but as a resident of Cuyahoga County you have been extremely generous to these richest of our rich.
The figures are in through December for a number of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County taxes.
...The $42 million is the result of the one-quarter percent sale tax increase voted by two people – Hagan and Jimmy Dimora. No real public debate. Absolutely no public vote.
So thank you from Sam Miller & Al Ratner.
That is, of course, if the dysfunctional Cleveland and Cuyahoga leadership can ever get their act together to start building the new Convention Center for Sam, Al and Forest City Enterprises.
NoLandGrab: Of course, Forest City didn't bother to thank taxpayers, since they look upon the public subsidy as an "entitlement."
Posted by eric at January 2, 2009 11:06 AM | Permalink
Off-the-Field Losses Crimp Team Owners
Prestige of Owning Sports Franchise Is Lost When a Principal Business Struggles Along With Athletes
The Wall St. Journal
By Matthew Futterman
For all the talk of slumping ticket sales and sponsorships, the most troubling scenario for the sports industry is the growing trend of team owners beset by financial problems in their principal businesses.
...The problems have been spreading as the souring economy diminishes the fortunes of team owners. That jeopardizes the essential ingredient of the sports business: rich people who can afford a really expensive hobby.
"The willingness or tolerance for future losses is very, very low," says Allen and Co.'s Steve Greenberg, an investment banker to the sports industry and former deputy commissioner of Major League Baseball. "More owners are looking to operate at break-even or better. The problem is, it's hard to turn a $15 million to $25 million loss into break-even in a short period of time."
Unlike other recessions, this one threatens to wipe out sports owners who were recently willing and able to put up with meager profits or annual losses because of rising team values and the perks of the investment, such as the celebrity status.
...
Many owners' primary businesses incurred deep losses in 2008. As a result, league officials and investment bankers fear a market flooded with teams for sale at a time when potential buyers are few and credit for acquiring sports teams is difficult to secure, which would lead to shrinking team values.
...
Also feeling the crunch is Forest City Enterprises Inc., the real-estate developer behind Bruce Ratner, principal owner of the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets. The company said last month it was ceasing all development projects, after its stock price fell from $60 in 2007 to under $6.Forest City, which owns 23% of the Nets, pegged losses for the team at $30 million through the first nine months of 2008. The Nets have lost more than $100 million since Mr. Ratner acquired the team in 2004, forcing him to slash payroll.
Forest City still wants to develop a $950 million arena in Brooklyn for the Nets, but the project is stalled amid legal wrangling and financing problems.
NBA Commissioner David Stern says Forest City's ability to secure financing for the arena is hampered now, adding: "Our hope is that will improve in 2009."
Posted by lumi at January 2, 2009 5:13 AM | Permalink
Atlantic Yards Report twofer
Another report argues against parking requirements for projects like Atlantic Yards
Thanks to Streetsblog's end-of-the-year roundup for pointing me to the much-overlooked Transportation Alternatives report, Suburbanizing the City: How New York City Parking Requirements Lead to More Driving [29MB PDF].
What Streetsblog calls the "Best Policy Paper That You Probably Didn't See Because They Released it at the End of August" reinforces the observation--as I wrote 12/24/07 in a piece headlined PlaNYC 1950--that residential parking shouldn't be required at large outer-borough projects near transit hubs.
...
The report mentions Atlantic Yards, but I think the numbers projected in the chart (click to enlarge) are misleading.The report blends the residential and commercial variations presented in the AY environmental review, but the former configuration, as I've written, is far more likely, which would produce 2570 underground spaces for residents component and an additional 1100 underground spaces for the arena.
IS ULURP on the way out when the City Charter is revised?
The Courier-Life chain reported last week, in an article headlined Community input may be on the outs - City looking to re-examine uniform land-usage guidelines that revisions to city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) will be looked at by a City Charter revision panel Mayor Mike Bloomberg is expected to establish next year.
Such a change has been talked about for months, including in a 5/11/08 Daily News column, as I reported.
The Courier-Life article quoted an anonymous "informed source, who attended a discussion of the issue at a meeting held by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, the goal may be to shorten the lengthy ULURP process." The goal: to move development much faster.
...
Some large projects, like Atlantic Yards, have been exempted from ULURP because the city agreed to let the state take the lead. Even though former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff has acknowledged that Atlantic Yards should have gone through ULRUP, note that a city housing official has observed that ULURP doesn’t work for large projects.
Posted by lumi at January 2, 2009 4:35 AM | Permalink
90 to watch in ‘09!
From The Brooklyn Paper's list of "90 people, places and things to watch in ’09:
55. Rich Kessler: This longtime Park Sloper discovered what he calls “The Brooklyn Mirador” — a view of the Empire State Building perfectly framed inside the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ arch in Grand Army Plaza. The view could be lost if Atlantic Yards ever gets built, and Kessler is fighting to restore Olmsted’s original design scene for the plaza around the arch.
36. Marilyn Gelber: The head of the Independence Community Foundation spearheaded this year’s “Give Where You Live Campaign,” an effort to keep Brooklynites’ charitable donations in the borough last year. And she’s still an outspoken voice against Atlantic Yards.
8. Atlantic Yards: So far, court cases, economic turmoil and his own ineptitude has stalled Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project for five years — and in 2009, two more cases could drastically alter the project once and for all. A decision is expected sometime in January on a lawsuit over the state’s weak environmental review. And early this year, Brooklyn appellate judges will hear a case that challenges the constitutionality of the state’s use of eminent domain. In financing news, Ratner’s $177-million bridge loan is due in February, but sources say the developer is trying to refinance the money in the meantime.
Posted by lumi at January 2, 2009 4:27 AM | Permalink
