Frank Gehry's massive Brooklyn development

[NYguy]

In addition to Frank Gehry's Manhattan projects, his largest project in the city is his work for developer Bruce Ratner's "Atlantic Yards"....

http://www.bball.net/

The centerpiece of the development will be the arena, (photo from wirednewyork.com) but the complex also includes office, residential, and retail space. The tallest of the towers is to reach 620 ft....

[Cotuit]

I'm so in love with this project. It's nice to see the Outer Boroughs finally see some action.

[NYguy]

Newsday...

A moving alternative

Nets owner is looking into putting condo building on rollers and hauling it across street to make way for controversial evelopment

April 12, 2004

There's something in the way he moves ...

Nets owner Bruce Ratner is thinking about using giant rollers to move one or more occupied residential buildings that would otherwise be destroyed if he builds the team's new arena on Atlantic Avenue.

Ratner's development company grabbed headlines in 1998 by rolling the Empire Theater 168 feet on 42nd Street in Manhattan. He may repeat the trick to accommodate his controversial 19,000-seat Brooklyn Nets arena in Prospect Heights, sources close to the developer told Newsday.

In the fall, Ratner dispatched engineers to the Seagoing Lofts condominium building at 24 Sixth Ave. to test the feasibility of relocating it to a site across the street, said an official familiar with the Nets project.

"Nothing they saw led them to believe it couldn't be done," the official said on condition of anonymity. "You might be able to literally save the building by rolling it 20 feet across the street. ... What you don't want to do is condemn buildings and displace people if you don't have to."

Under the plan, Ratner could move the 21-unit building, a spiffed-up red brick former Spalding sporting goods factory whose apartments fetch $500,000 or more, to a lot currently occupied by a warehouse.

"Seagoing" refers to the name of a fish company that was the building's last commercial occupant.

"I don't like the idea, and I personally don't care if it's feasible," loft owner Kieran O'Leary, 42, said yesterday. "I don't want to live next to an arena, anyway."

Marc Wancer, 36, peered at the rain-streaked stretch of Sixth Avenue that his loft would have to roll across and chuckled in disbelief.

"Ratner really must be a high roller," he said.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who backs the Nets' move from New Jersey, urged residents to keep an open mind.

"From day one, my sense is that it's possible; if a building could be moved, then I would applaud that," he said. "Bruce and I have both spoken about it over the course of many months. It's among a smorgasbord of possibilities."

While an ambitious idea, it pales to the relocation of the landmarked, 3,400-ton Empire, which cost Forest City Ratner about $1.2 million.

Last month, Newsday reported that Ratner and architect Frank Gehry were considering revising the arena project to spare an unspecified number of occupied buildings that would otherwise have to be razed.

The total number of buildings that would have to be moved for the arena, residential towers and new commercial buildings is unclear.

Attorney Norman Siegel, who represents a coalition fighting the project, has said 162 dwellings with 334 residents could be displaced. The project, backed by the Bloomberg administration, could also displace 33 businesses employing 235 people, according to Siegel.

[NYguy]

Daily News...

Ratner touts Net savings on rents

By PAUL H.B. SHIN

Half of the new housing to be built with the proposed Nets arena in Brooklyn would be set aside for low- to middle-income families, developer Bruce Ratner pledged yesterday.

In a move that may make the controversial $2.5 billion project more acceptable to critics, Ratner said he'd reserve 20% of the proposed 4,500 new apartments as affordable units and another 30% as middle-income units. That would go far beyond what is required by law.

"I wouldn't do this project if I can't do that," Ratner told the Daily News Editorial Board. "Going about to just build luxury housing - that's not what I want to do."

An affordable apartment is defined as one where the monthly rent is less than $543 for a one-bedroom flat and $653 for two bedrooms. The monthly rent in a middle-income apartment must be less than $1,395 for a one bedroom and $1,810 for two bedrooms.

Ratner's 21-acre plan at Atlantic and Flatbush Aves. also calls for 2.4 million square feet of office and retail space, and a 19,000- to 20,000-seat arena. The plan is controversial because about 140 to 160 families would have to move out to make way for construction.

To qualify for tax-exempt bonds and tax abatements, real estate developers normally agree to what's called an 8-0/20 program, setting aside 20% of the units for affordable housing, while selling or renting 80% at market rate.

"You're not going to make as much money, but you're not going to have a marketing problem for 50% of the units," said Ratner, who is not legally bound to his housing goal.

Reaction by his critics was mixed."He has a socially conscious streak in him," said Bertha Lewis, executive director of the nonprofit community activist group ACORN.

But Arena opponent Francis Byrd is cautious. "We're a long way from being able to say we've been able to settle our differences."

[Cotuit]

While an ambitious idea, it pales to the relocation of the landmarked, 3,400-ton Empire, which cost Forest City Ratner about $1.2 million.

Is this refering to the theatre that was moved on 42nd Street? The headline made me think of that project. It's kind of a different story to move an occupied condo. It's not like the people are gonna come home from work and they'll be all done with it. I think moving the building hardly solves the problem of displacing the residents. It may save the building, but in all likelyhood, people would move during the relocation, and I think once moved, many people would not be looking to move back. Of course if they get some sweet mitigation, like completely modernizing the building, free parking, heatlhy temporary relocation stipends... it could all be worth it.

[M. Brown]

I though I heard somewhere that its some of it is not going to happen. I hope it does happen

[NYguy]

Is this refering to the theatre that was moved on 42nd Street? I think moving the building hardly solves the problem of displacing the residents. It may save the building, but in all likelyhood, people would move during the relocation, and I think once moved, many people would not be looking to move back.

Yes, it was the theater on 42nd street. As far as moving, if the choice comes down to moving from the area completely, or being inconvenienced while the structure is moved, those who really want to stay will.

Its a move the developer would be paying for, which he doesn't really have to do since the state will condemn those properties anyway and recompensate all involved. Ratner, the developer is showing a willingness to allow as many to stay as possible.

[NYguy]

Ratner just keeps making the deal sweeter for the opposition....(Brooklyn Paper)

RATNER PAYOFF: Developer suggests he

[NYguy]

Slam dunk!

Residents get a cool mil to get out of Ratner's way

By HUGH SON and NANCY DILLON

Real estate tycoon Bruce Ratner is showing Brooklyn homeowners the money.

He's turning residents of one building into instant millionaires so they'll go quietly - letting him knock down their homes to make way for his controversial $2.5 billion Nets arena and housing complex.

That means people who paid about $600,000 for a swank three-bedroom, 1,300-foot condo just last year are being offered a cool $1.2 million to flee.

One couple is bolting to trendy Chelsea, where a million bucks can buy a corner loft with 11-foot ceilings and a roof deck, according to real estate Web site Corcoran.com.

Another woman said she hopes to stay in Brooklyn, where the bulging pot of newfound cash can buy a seven-bedroom "mansionette" on tony Prospect Park West.

A move to Staten Island could land these residents in a brick colonial estate on ritzy Todt Hill, down the street from the late mob boss Paul Castellano's storied neo-Federal mansion.

"Many people really love this building, but Ratner understood that we're young and not that rooted yet in the community," said one resident of 636 Pacific St. who requested anonymity.

"It's a lot of money," said another woman, who did not want her name used, citing an internal building pact to keep mum about the deal.

Nearly all the 30 owners in the eight-story condo - a renovated warehouse called the Atlantic Arts Building - are negotiating with Forest City Ratner.

One holdout remains.

"They're kind of mimicking what they did at MetroTech, which is to treat people equitably," said Atlantic Arts Building developer Marc Freud, referring to the downtown Brooklyn office and university complex Forest City Ratner built in the early 1990s.

Ratner recently purchased the Nets and is set on moving them to Brooklyn. He commissioned renowned architect Frank Gehry to design a 21-acre residential and commercial complex over and around the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Yards.

But the project - which would displace more than 160 homeowners - has faced opposition from local leaders and residents, who say it will toss aside longtime Brooklynites and overwhelm the neighborhood.

Opponents called Ratner's buyout offers a cynical move that will do little to quell the uproar against the project in Prospect Heights and Fort Greene.

"There are still a number of hurdles, including a significant number of people in the footprint and the adjoining communities who are opposed to this project," said Councilwoman Letitia James (WFP-Brooklyn).

Ratner spokesman Barry Baum would say only that the company was "looking at how we can substantially reduce and possibly eliminate the need for residential condemnation."

The buyout of the Atlantic Arts Building is seen as key because it's in the direct path of the planned 19,000-seat basketball arena. Ratner hopes to have the arena ready for tipoff by 2007.

Roger Paz, a Prospect Heights resident who lives near the proposed arena site, said word of negotiations at 636 Pacific St. spread a panic among homeowners, who fear Ratner is using a divide-and-conquer strategy.

"All of a sudden on the street, there was talk of people making deals," Paz said. "Nobody wanted to be last to cut a deal."

Movin' on up

Here's a look at what $1.2million can get you around the city:

1. Park Ave., Manhattan - A "super-luxury" one-bedroom apartment in the Trump Park Avenue, at 60th St.

2. Boerum Hill, Brooklyn - A four-story brick townhouse with a "graceful" center staircase, gourmet kitchen, garden and English basement.

3. Tottenville, Staten Island - A four-bedroom brick mansionette with a lush front lawn, backyard pool, intercom system and a two-car garage.

4. Jamaica Estates, Queens - A six-bedroom Tudor with three fireplaces, a private driveway leading to a two-car garage, and plenty of trees.

5. Riverdale, Bronx - A "sensational" three-bedroom stone Tudor with a breakfast balcony, a garden, a two-car garage and an "entertaining level" with a summer kitchen and a stone dining terrace.