The Municipal Art Society has launched a Web site and campaign critical of the proposed phasing for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project, claiming the creation of parking lots in place of existing buildings will blight the area.

Because of the long time frame that will likely be needed to build the project—developer Forest City Ratner puts the slated completion date at 2018, though critics say that’s too optimistic—the footprint could be filled with parking lots (though Forest City denies that charge, claiming it will be public open space with trees).  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 »

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 »

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 »

A federal appeals court rejected an appeal by critics of the use of eminent domain in the $4 billion Atlantic Yards mega-project in Brooklyn, a big, if expected, victory for developer Forest City Ratner, and surely a demoralizing blow to project opponents.

The decision nearly puts to rest the legal chapter of this years-long, high-profile development battle. Since the plan was approved more than a year ago, the courts have been the focus of any attention, as Forest City chairman Bruce Ratner has done little work on the Prospect Heights site other than demolitions and some other preparation.

The rejection leaves opponents with few legal avenues left, as the appellants on the lawsuit would need a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to merely be granted a trial in the case, let alone to come out victorious. Critics had said they put their highest hopes at the federal appellate level, and have previously conceded that it was unlikely the Supreme Court would take the case (the court only hears a few dozen cases a year).  read more »