State Approves Major Complex for Brooklyn (Atlantic Yards)

NY Times ^ | NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

[Lorianne]

A state oversight board voted yesterday to approve the Atlantic Yards project near Downtown Brooklyn, removing the last regulatory hurdle for one of the biggest real estate projects in the city’s history.

The vote by the Public Authorities Control Board capped three years of battles between opponents and supporters of the $4 billion project. The version approved yesterday — eight million square feet over 22 acres along Atlantic Avenue — includes a huge residential housing complex with about 6,400 market-rate and subsidized apartments, a basketball arena for the Nets, and a smattering of office space, with a design punctuated by elaborate towers that dwarf nearby residential neighborhoods.

The approval of Atlantic Yards, which would be built by Forest City Ratner Companies, came after several other ambitious development projects in New York City — like a West Side football stadium and the Moynihan Station, both in Manhattan — were rejected or stalled by community opposition and political rivalry. Atlantic Yards still faces two lawsuits, with more probably on the way, but Forest City officials say they are confident that they will prevail in court.

Yesterday’s vote followed days of intense negotiation between officials at the Empire State Development Corporation, which is overseeing the project, and aides to Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly, who has one of three votes on the control board. Gov. George E. Pataki and Joseph L. Bruno, the State Senate leader, control the other two votes on the board, which must vote unanimously for a project to be approved.

[USNBandit]

eight million square feet over 22 acres along Atlantic Avenue

Atlantic is only worth $260. I would build on Park Place or Boardwalk, that is where the money is.

[Tanniker Smith]

That's a temporary situation. They're going to "develop" the neighborhood. Mostly, by kicking out the poor people, and making it too expensive to live there for the ones that aren't kicked out. Then the neighborhood will be just fine. It just won't be a Brooklyn neighorhood, it'll be some clunk of retail space imported from Manhattan.

That said, the area could use some development. I just think this is overkill. (Now, if they could've gotten the Jets to play there instead of the Nets, I might be a little more in favor of the deal. Ah, well.

TS