NEW YORK | Pacific Park Brooklyn (Atlantic Yards) | 15+ Towers

[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/newyork/artic...or-cory-booker

Nets team seals two-year Newark deal

February 18, 2010
By David Jones


The New Jersey Nets have reached a long-anticipated deal to move to Newark's Prudential Center for the next two years , as the team plans for the Barclays Arena to open two years from now at the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker confirmed the deal following a special session of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority this morning and furious negotiations to finalize talks with the Prudential Center officials.

"It's extraordinarily exciting," Booker told The Real Deal in a telephone interview. "Not only will it bring economic opportunity, energy excitement to our downtown, for the Nets they are going to receive one of the most exciting fan bases they've had in years and years." Sources said the lease with the Prudential Center includes an option to automatically renew for another two years.

The deal ends months of speculation about the Nets, who have struggled to draw fans to the East Rutherford arena after the New Jersey Devils ditched the former Continental Airlines arena for Newark.

Developer Bruce Ratner has traded away most of his marquee players in recent years, including superstars Jason Kidd and Vince Carter, before agreeing in September 2009 to sell a majority stake in the Nets to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

Wayne McDonald, an assistant professor of sports management at New York University, said the move would help generate revenue for the Nets and the Prudential Center, at a time when the league is forecasting an overall revenue slump.

"The Nets going to the Prudential Center is a very smart move," said McDonald, who noted that it will help fill out the arena's yearly schedule and provide the team additional revenue to rebuild for 2012.

Jeff Vanderbeek, chairman of Devils Arena Entertainment, said in a statement: "We are excited to learn that the Nets and NJSEA have reached an agreement paving the way for the team to play their home games at Prudential Center in Newark starting in the 2010-11 season. The excitement of bringing an NBA team to join the New Jersey Devils at the Rock further enhances Newark's reputation as a major league city and significantly benefits New Jersey taxpayers."

Booker told The Real Deal that he and Vanderbeek have been in contact with the National Basketball Association about bringing a franchise to Newark.

"I think Newark, N.J., is an NBA ready city," he said, while conceding that a Nets move to Brooklyn is more than likely a done deal. "The NBA would thrive here."

NBA spokesperson Mark Broussard said he was not immediately able to comment on the franchise talks with Booker, as certain league officials were tied up with today's mid-season trading deadline.

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...king_grou.html

Judge gives Atlantic Yards project the green light; Ratner plans to break ground Mar. 11



BY Erin Durkin
March 1st 2010

Developer Bruce Ratner is planning to break ground in Brooklyn next week on a new Nets arena after a judge handed private property to the state for the Atlantic Yards project.

"Today's court ruling marks the transition from the obstruction to the construction phase," Forest City Ratner executive vice president Bruce Bender said Monday.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges tossed a challenge to the eminent domain condemnation - a final blow to property owners who fought the wrecking ball for six years.

State officials said the occupants would be evicted in the next few months - but Ratner plans to hold a ground-breaking ceremony March 11.

And there could be construction activity on the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic aves. before then.

At a community meeting last week, Forest City senior vice president Jane Marshall said that work could ramp up within 24 hours of a ruling.

"There is going to be a substantial number of workers, trucks, materials laid out," she said.

The site - where Ratner also hopes to build 16 residential and commercial towers - was still mostly quiet Monday.

The losers in the court battle were not.

"It feels like I live in a state run by crooks," said Daniel Goldstein, set to get the boot from his Pacific St. condo.

"Our state government ... has bent over backwards to give Bruce Ratner whatever he wants, including my home, and the homes of other citizens."

Patrons at Freddy's bar have threatened to chain themselves to the storefront to battle the eviction.

"There's chains on the bar and a lot of people will be buying handcuffs," said Freddy's regular and opposition organizer Steve de Seve.

"People aren't just going to put up with this ruling."

Empire State Development Corp. spokeswoman Elizabeth Mitchell said that while the agency "anticipates an orderly relocation," the sheriff's office will remove those who won't leave.

Project opponents fought all the way to the state's highest court to stop the use of eminent domain for the project and lost - so Gerges' order turning over the property to the state would appear to be the end of the line.

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2010/daily-t...tart-next-week

Atlantic Yards Might Actually Start Next Week

By Reid Pillifant
March 2, 2010

Break out the virgin shovels and the pile of pre-loosened dirt.

After years of delays--which saw a host of courts rule on a litany of lawsuits--Bruce Ratner isn't wasting any time holding a groundbreaking for Atlantic Yards. (If he saw last week's 60 Minutes, Mr. Ratner might feel vindicated in waiting; the program had a lot of fun with all those fruitless Ground Zero groundbreakings.)

After yet another judge certified the state's prerogative to seize land for the project yesterday, Mr. Ratner has scheduled the ceremonial event for next Thursday, reports the Daily News. On Monday, the state will create "superblocks," forever closing the streets inside the project's sizable footprint.

The only remaining drama: How the state will evict resistant tenants, and--even more dramatic--how they'll remove the shackled patrons of Freddy's Bar.

[NYguy]

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/201...cbasidebar.txt

AY starts off an economic boom for Brooklyn contractors
Unanswered questions remain regarding affordable housing

By Stephen Witt
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

With the Barclays Center arena and the Atlantic Yards project officially underway, all the parties to the Community Benefits Agreement say they expect the agreement to be honored.

The 2005 CBA was signed between developer Forest City Ratner and a coalition of eight local organizations representing low- and moderate-income housing residents, religious institutions, an educational consortium, and minority contractors.

FCR spokesperson Joe DePlasco said the company remains 100 percent committed to the CBA.

Phase one of the construction is the arena block including three residential buildings.

The first of these buildings is scheduled to start this summer, with the second building six to nine months after that, and the third six to nine months after that, said DePlasco.

DePlasco said that 30 percent of the units in these buildings would be affordable. He did not give a number of affordable units in the first building.

In regard to minority- and women-owned contractors, DePlasco said over $51 million worth of contracts have already been awarded to contractors for work on the site thus far.

About 80 percent of the total prime contracts awarded to date have gone to M/WBE firms and 49.3% of the total contract dollars to M/WBE firms, he said.

DePlasco said there have been a total of $52 million of purchases to date and the MBE award was about $22 million or42.1 percent of total purchases.

Additionally, 43 percent of the 68 contracts awarded to MWBE firms have gone to Brooklyn based firms, he said.

[NYguy]

• Video Link

[prospekt]

Since when is Freddy's "the best bar in Brooklyn"? Self-appointed I assume. The VV gave the distinction only because of the controversy.
Maybe so much of the rumbling coming out of this establishment has to do with its overwhelming patronage by the boys in blue at the 78th precinct just a block away. Perhaps these guys (most of whom live in the far-flung white nabes of southern Brooklyn) have had it so easy policing low-crime Park Slope that they don't want the extra work that comes with a basketball arena?

I guess they could build a wall and leave it all up to the 77th and 88th (which is basically the function the yards has provided for decades).

[prospekt]

Booze News
Freddy's Gets Evicted, Vows to Return
By Chantal Martineau, Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 3:55PM

The crew at Freddy's has been trying to keep their minds off the Atlantic Yards project that promises to destroy their bar, focusing instead on an upcoming retrospective of its artists, set to open this Sunday. But earlier this week, what appears to be the last appeal obstructing the eminent domain seizures was denied, and the project was given the green light. Then, yesterday, Freddy's Bar & Back Room got the notice it had been bracing for: the premises must be vacated within 30 days.

"It went viral pretty fast and last night the bar was packed," says bartender Matt Kunh. "We're exploring any last legal avenues to extend the 30 days, maybe get a couple more months out of it."

In our recent chat with manager Donald O'Finn, he said that, should the bar be forced to close, he would surely reopen it elsewhere: "Freddy's II. Son of Freddy's. I think Freddy's is an idea, not an address."

In that case, long live the sequel.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkin...ys_get_evi.php

[NYguy]

yesterday, Freddy's Bar & Back Room got the notice it had been bracing for: the premises must be vacated within 30 days.

Well, they knew it was coming...

[NYC4Life]

NY1

Updated 11:16 AM
Brooklyn Streets Close For Atlantic Yards Construction



By: NY1 News


After years of controversy and delay, streets are closing in Brooklyn, ahead of the much-anticipated groundbreaking this week for the Atlantic Yards Project.

Street closings include Fifth Avenue between Flatbush and 6th, Pacific Street between Vanderbilt and Carleton, and Pacific Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

The project has divided the surrounding neighborhood – with some accepting the long-term goals of the construction, and others taking issue with eminent domain and the possibility of more traffic.

While many say there are some benefits as far as jobs and affordable housing, they say adjustments that could have been made were not and they plan to monitor the project very closely.

"We need to make sure the city and state are responsive, open, and are prepared to make changes when there are complaints that come forward from the community, that we have a mechanism to do so, that our complaints and concerns don't fall on deaf ears,” said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries.

The Forest City Ratner project includes housing developments, along with a new basketball arena for the Nets.

The project is now four years overdue. The new completion date is in time for the 2012 basketball season.



Copyright © 2010 NY1 News. All rights reserved.

[prospekt]

embaum's world

[genop]

http://www.nypost.com/p/state_cages_...T8EDmZo36phInI

State 'cages' key Atlantic Yards holdout

5:42 PM, March 9, 2010 ι By RICH CALDER
Daniel Goldstein feels he’s being treated like an Enemy of the State.

Goldstein – the public face of an opposition group that nearly killed Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project through mounting litigation – isn’t a convict behind bars or under house arrest. But he says he’s now being forced to check with the state whenever he has visitors to his Prospect Heights condo.

Goldstein and his family are the last holdouts on a Pacific Street block between Fifth and Sixth avenues that was fenced off from the rest of the real world yesterday to pave way for Atlantic Yards.

It is now impossible to enter the Fifth Avenue side, which is closed off with cement barricades. The Sixth Avenue side has temporary barricades being guarded by security officers, who are blocking all vehicles entering the block except Goldstein’s.

The guards, Goldstein said, are even stopping friends and family walking to his home to visit him, his wife and 16-month-old daughter.

“I’ve been told I can’t have visitors unless I give advanced notice,” said Goldstein, adding he had friends already stopped by guards.

“I live in New York City and pay taxes, so there’s no way that I should be treated differently. I actually don’t feel like I live in New York City or a free country anymore.”

While his mail is getting delivered, something as routine as having pizza delivered is now problematic, he added.

Elizabeth Mitchell, an Empire State Development Corp. spokeswoman, said “we are aware of Mr. Goldstein's concerns. The goal is to disrupt Mr. Goldstein and the other occupants' lives as little as possible while addressing the safety and security issues related to the development of the project, and we will continue to work with Forest City Ratner Co. to achieve this goal.”

Goldstein’s block and others in the area were permanently closed from traffic to prepare for the NBA arena developer Bruce Ratner plans to break ground on Thursday.

The state’s decision to close the streets came after a judge last week ruled the state can seize property from 12 private landowners – including Goldstein -- who refused to sell to Ratner, so the developer can move forward with the first part of the project.

Goldstein is the only homeowner holdout being fenced off because the others live on streets that still allow vehicles.

He and the others received letters last week from state lawyers saying they must leave by April 3. But Goldstein said the letters “have no legal bearing” and that he plans to stay at least through the summer because the state can’t begin eviction proceedings until it pays him for his condo, which has yet to take place.

The state has determined Goldstein’s condo is worth $510,000 – or $395 per square foot. He said when the other 29 condo owners in his building were bought out six years ago, Ratner shelled out about $850 a square foot – which would translate into $1.1 million for Goldstein’s 1,290-square-foot apartment.

Goldstein obviously plans to contest the state’s offer and is still holding out hope that the project could be stopped by two pending lawsuits.

Ratner, who received state approval for Atlantic Yards in Dec. 2006, is now finally planning a ceremonial arena groundbreaking so his New Jersey Nets can move to the new arena by 2012. However, the timetable for the project’s 16 skyscrapers of residential and commercial space remains unclear because of the national credit crunch.

Goldstein’s group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn is not planning to sit by quietly during Thursday’s groundbreaking.

The group sent out a press release today saying it will have its own rival “boondoggle celebration” an hour earlier featuring three-foot-tall bobble heads of Mayor Bloomberg, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Gov. Paterson, Ex-Gov. George Pataki, Ratner and other key Atlantic Yards boosters.

The fake beep will even offer a Proclamation marking the groundbreaking to “Bury the Soul of Brooklyn,” according to the release.

[NYguy]

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories...ll+articles%29

Childs’ play: Bruce may be bringing in top architects to work on Yards

By Gersh Kuntzman
March 10, 2010

Developer Bruce Ratner appears to be bringing in an all-star team to Atlantic Yards — and we’re not talking about his pathetic Brooklyn-bound New Jersey Nets.

Legendary architect David Childs — the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill emeritus who was the lead designer of the so-called Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site — told The Brooklyn Paper that he met with Ratner earlier in the year to give the developer’s arena plans a “once over.”

And beyond that, Ratner and Childs discussed having the esteemed designer work on one of the 16 proposed residential buildings that form the bulk of the mega-project.

“First, he brought me in to look at the arena design, which I think is very good now,” Childs said, referring to the current design collaboration between Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects.

“And then we talked about working together on the residential buildings,” added Childs, who was celebrating the opening of his firm’s signature Brooklyn building, the 38-story Toren tower on Flatbush Avenue.

“Bruce wants to bring in different architects, good architects, to do each of the residential buildings,” Childs said. “That’s something I’d be very excited about. Talking to Bruce, it’s clear that he wants to do this right. He really does.”

Childs added that he was comforted by his chat with Ratner, given that the developer has a torturous history with architects. Before hiring Frank Gehry to design the Atlantic Yards mini-city, Ratner’s work in Brooklyn — such as the Atlantic Terminal and Atlantic Center malls — was pedestrian at best.

Gehry promised to change all that, but last year, he was fired by Ratner in a cost-saving move.

The redesign of the future home of the Brooklyn Nets, done solely by the Kansas City-based Ellerbe Becket, was reviled so loudly that Ratner brought in the Manhattan-based SHoP firm to repair the damage.

The resulting arena is sometimes mocked as a “George Foreman grill,” but it also has many supporters.

“It’s a good-looking design,” said Childs, who specifically cited the building’s “industrial” outer membrane.

Forest City Ratner Executive Vice President MaryAnne Gilmartin said that the developer and Childs talked about working together in some capacity at Atlantic Yards, but said it was “premature” to speculate on the identities of other Hall of Fame-quality draftsmen who might also be brought in to work on the first residential buildings.

“This is about finding the right architects for the challenge,” she said. “There are many architects who could create a beautiful design, but this isn’t only about design. One has to add in the challenge of building a high-rise structure with union labor and an affordable housing component. Atlantic Yards is about cracking the code on this kind of challenge.”

Gilmartin said she was gratified by Childs’s kind words, considering that he is chairman of the Municipal Art Society, a design watchdog group that has a faction that is opposed to Atlantic Yards.

“David Childs is a man of stature who, speaking as an architect and a citizen, sees something positive and hopeful about the project,” Gilmartin added.

One architect who is sometimes mentioned as the kind of designer that Ratner might consider is Roger Duffy, the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill designer whose credits include the Toren, which is receiving substantial praise for its modern, clean lines.

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/100319998

Groundbreaking at Atlantic Yards comes years late
Thursday's ceremony to mark beginning of work on Nets arena in Brooklyn; building first of the residential towers expected to start in spring of 2011.

Share Print Email Add a comment By James Comtois
March 10, 2010

After more than six years of upheaval, lawsuits and false-starts, progress will finally be made at the sprawling Atlantic Yards site on the edge of downtown Brooklyn.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Barclays Center, the future home of the Nets basketball team, is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Among those scheduled to attend are Gov. David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Also present will be Bruce Ratner, chief executive of Forest City Ratner Cos., which is developing the site, as well as Barclays Bank President Robert Diamond, and Nets investor and hip-hop superstar Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter.

While some work has been done at the site in recent months, including the completion of a temporary rail yard in December, the project is years behind schedule.

Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony will nonetheless finally signal that the project is underway.

A spokesperson for Forest City said it plans to open the arena “at some point” in 2012. The first phase of construction at the 22-acre Atlantic Yards site will include three residential buildings. Design work for the first of those towers is expected to start later this year. Although Forest City Ratner has yet to select an architect, the company hopes to begin construction in spring of next year. Work on the second tower would then commence six to nine months later, and the third would begin six to nine months after that. At least 30% of the apartments in phase one will be affordable housing units, according to Forest City.

[NYC4Life]

Latest renderings from the arena's website:

[genop]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/0...yards.php#more

Architecture Dream Team being Assembled for Atlantic Yards?



The Nets are hopeless, so developer Bruce Ratner is reportedly looking at other ways to infuse his controversial Brooklyn megaproject with talent. Bring on the starchitects! There are 16 residential high-rises that are still part (in theory) of Atlantic Yards, with construction on the first—for which no design has been revealed—slated to begin next spring. Ratner already sacked the biggest name of them all, so who's he looking at now? Here's one: Freedom Tower—pardon, 1 World Trade Center—designer David Childs, who told the Brooklyn Paper that he has discussed working on one of the Atlantic Yards towers with Ratner. And then Childs went and did it: He got our hopes up!

Childs added: "Bruce wants to bring in different architects, good architects, to do each of the residential buildings. That’s something I'd be very excited about. Talking to Bruce, it’s clear that he wants to do this right. He really does." If you say so, buddy. Frank Gehry was tossed off the project in a cost-cutting move, so it's unclear how much Ratner is really willing to spend to import some flashy names. Another potential candidate is Childs's SOM colleague Roger Duffy, who designed Downtown Brooklyn conversation starter Toren. A zebra building for every Brooklyn 'hood, we say!

[NYguy]

• Video Link

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/real_esta...und_today.html

Atlantic Yards set to break ground as neighboring families, companies are told to take a hike



BY Mike Mclaughlin and Erin Durkin
March 11th 2010

Brooklyn's new Nets arena finally breaks ground Thursday - and residents and businesses near the Atlantic Yards project were told they have 30 days to get out.

In letters sent last week, state officials said they will move to evict 22 families and companies in the project's footprint if they don't leave voluntarily by April 3.

"I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't find an apartment," said Maria Gonzalez, 57, who has lived in her Pacific St. flat for 37 years.

She said she can't find an affordable home despite help from a broker paid by Yards developer Bruce Ratner.

She and her two grown daughters all live in their own apartments in the building, allowing Gonzalez to care for three grandkids while their moms work. They expect to have to split up after the move.

"It's not right, but what can we do? Money talks," she said.

Neighbor Luis Tellez, 29, said he's looking at "tiny" apartments to replace his $974-a-month two-bedroom but hasn't found anything yet. "We don't know what's next, but we have to pack," he said.

Others say they're not going anywhere yet.

Daniel Goldstein, whose condo was seized by eminent domain, said he won't leave until ordered to by a judge and expects to stay several more months.

"It's a meaningless letter written ... to scare me," said Goldstein, a founder of Develop Don't Destroy, the leading opposition group to the project.

Empire State Development Corp. spokeswoman Elizabeth Mitchell said the agency sent the letters because "we need to vacate the site as quickly as possible so that construction of this important project can proceed."

[genop]

Looks like we might be getting updates from Tom Kaminski in Chopper 880

http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/6550865.php

[Rail>Auto]

Awesome aerial shots. Thanks for posting. Is there any construction cams set up yet? A couple of things that strike me about this project...

I like the interior design, it looks so much different than gehry's design ( which didn't look very realistic). Looks like a nice combo between American Airlines Center and Conseco Fieldhouse. I'm just puzzled why you would build an arena with only 18,000 seats in New York.

With all of these dream team architects coming in, is gehry officially removed from the rest of the project too?

Is there a time table for getting Miss Brooklyn built? Is the design still the same?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Rail>Auto

Is there a time table for getting Miss Brooklyn built? Is the design still the same?

Posted above:

The first phase of construction at the 22-acre Atlantic Yards site will include three residential buildings. Design work for the first of those towers is expected to start later this year. Although Forest City Ratner has yet to select an architect, the company hopes to begin construction in spring of next year. Work on the second tower would then commence six to nine months later, and the third would begin six to nine months after that. At least 30% of the apartments in phase one will be affordable housing units, according to Forest City.