The New York Observer » Atlantic Yards http://www.observer.com Just another WordPress site Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:00:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Barclays Boondoggle: Will the New Nets Arena Be a Parking Nightmare? The issue of parking and traffic is always a problem in New York. If you aren't renting a space for an exhorbitant price, then chances are that you are driving around the block a few dozen times. (Unless you are in the Bronx, then you just park wherever on the street.) But no other borough likes to hoot and holler over traffic more than Brooklyn.

The construction of the Barclays Center is no exception, the Post reports: Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/02/barclays-boondoggle-will-the-new-nets-arena-be-a-parking-nightmare/ An Outer Borough Goal? Hockey Skates Into Brooklyn, the Bronx New York is not much of a hockey town. The Rangers are the top team in the league right now, and still the awfulness of the Knicks gets more attention. The Super Bowl is sucking up a lot of air time, but even if the Rangers win the Stanley Cup—their first since 1994, second since 1940—the back pages of the tabs will still spend most of their time on off-season baseball news.  Sean Avery's sartorial choices attract more attention than a Henrik Lundqvist shut out.

Thus The Observer almost slipped on the ice in surprise when two reports surfaced yesterday about hockey coming to some unlikely places. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/02/an-outer-borough-goal-hockey-skates-into-brooklyn-the-bronx/ A Tour Of The Atlantic Yards Arena Yesterday, Forest City Ratner developer Bruce Ratner escorted Commercial Observer staff writer Daniel Geiger and photographer Kiki Conway on a tour of the Atlantic Yards arena. While Mr. Ratner was evasive when faced with specific questions about the project and construction timeline, the pictures are revealing. Indeed, with arena seating now underway, and Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/02/a-tour-of-the-atlantic-yards-arena/ Waiting for Bruce: The Commercial Observer Tours Atlantic Yards Arena A chauffered Lexus LS sedan pulled up to the corner of Dean Street and Flatbush Avenue and out slid Bruce Ratner from the back seat. He was 15 minutes late.
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]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/02/waiting-for-bruce-the-commercial-observer-tours-atlantic-yards-arena/ UPDATE: NYU Schack Dean James Stuckey Accused of Sexual Harassment, Again An NYU administrator is accusing the school for failing to honor her promotion after she claimed that then-New York University Schack Institute dean James Stuckey sexually harassed her in a 2011 incident, according to a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.

Stephanie Bonadio, 34, alleges that Mr. Stuckey had "forcibly placed her hand on his crotch and his erect penis" while the two were  discussing her recent promotion at a dinner at The Strip House on September 23, the suit says.

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]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/01/nyu-schack-dean-james-stuckey-accused-of-sexual-harassment-again/ Play Ball! Barclays Center Down Only a Few Points as Panelists Get Back to Work Bruce Ratner has dodged another foul at Atlantic Yards. After the facade fabricator for the new Barclays Center closed abruptly in December, it was not clear how soon fabrication could resume given the complex nature of the work. But just a few weeks after the closure, ASI Limited is back in operation and Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/01/play-ball-barclays-center-down-only-a-few-points-as-panelists-get-back-to-work/ Bruce Ratner “Walked Between the Legal Raindrops”

That is Michael Powell's assessment of the Brooklyn developer in his column in today's Times, noting that Mr. Ratner is involved in at least two corruption scandals involving state politicians. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/01/bruce-ratner-walked-between-the-legal-raindrops/ Tip-Off Tip Over? Barclays Center Facade Maker Goes Out of Business, Possibly Imperiling Opening Day After years and years and years of delays, debates, lawsuits and left turns, things have been moving along at a favorable clip at Atlantic Yards—at least compared to past history.

Since the Barclays Center broke ground two years ago, construction has continued pretty much unabated, a few rodents notwithstanding. Meanwhile, Bruce Ratner is behind on his plans for new apartment towers, but he is also shaking things up with the idea of making them prefabricated.

It is then a little surprising to learn that the firm responsible for the facade of the new arena has abruptly shut its doors, and the completion of the Barclays Center could hang in the balance. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/01/tip-off-tip-over-barclays-center-facade-maker-goes-out-of-business-possibly-imperiling-opening-day/ New York [Hearts] EB-5 Visas It turns out the EB-5 visa has won fans beyond Atlantic Yards, where Bruce Ratner has been trying to use the program to gin up funds for his prefabulous apartment towers.

Over the past four years, developers in the New York area have raised upwards of $1 billion through the visas-for-cash program, according to an investigation in The Times. During that period, EB-5 applications across the country have nearly quadrupled, to 3,800, as the Obama administration has been promoting the program strongly. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/12/new-york-hearts-eb-5-visas/ How Invested Is Bruce Ratner In Prefab? Oh, Only a Few Million Last week, The Observer looked at Bruce Ratner's plans for a prefabricated Atlantic Yards project—whether he was serious about the project and whether he could achieve the steep 20 percent savings he claimed for the modular building process. A number of real estate professionals were skeptical on both counts, but they all pointed to the developers out-sized investment in prefab technology as an indicator of his seriousness. Now we know just how much of an investment that has been. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/12/how-invested-is-bruce-ratner-in-prefab-oh-only-a-few-million/ The Mod Squad: Will Bruce Ratner Transform the Way New York Builds, or Is Prefab Another Project Too Far? For nine years now, Bruce Ratner has talked of transforming Brooklyn with his Atlantic Yards project. Bringing professional sports back to the borough, creating a new skyline, “a neighborhood practically from scratch,” as architect Frank Gehry once described it. There would be union jobs and affordable housing for all to enjoy.

As of now, only basketball and a handful of those jobs are guaranteed, all of which took three times as long as originally planned. Mr. Ratner and his partners like to blame the economy and the holdouts who sued to save their property, but the fact remains, they are running well behind schedule, possibly even in violation of previous commitments made to the state when the project was approved.

To catch up, Forest City Ratner has come up with a novel solution for myriad problems with his project: modular construction. More than transforming Brooklyn, Mr. Ratner may transform the way the entire city, even the world, builds. At least that is his hope.

“It’s taken us a while to get there on the architecture,” Mr. Ratner told The Observer last month on the day he unveiled his new plans for a modular approach at Atlantic Yards. “We did a lot of work to make sure it was something appropriate, in fitting in with the arena and a good reflection on Brooklyn, the city and our country.”

He is not alone in his optimism, either. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/12/the-mod-squad-will-bruce-ratner-transform-the-way-new-york-builds-or-is-prefab-another-project-too-far/ Atlantic Yards Rivalry! Steve Witt’s ‘Gonzo’ Book Goes Head-to-Head With Watchdog Norman Oder It looks like there is some competition on the Barnes and Noble shelves for pride of Atlantic Yards place. Norman Oder has been hard at work on a book about the Brooklyn megaproject for the past year, but now his chief rival has thrown his pen into the ring. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/12/atlantic-yards-rivalry-steve-witts-gonzo-book-goes-head-to-head-with-watchdog-norman-oder/ SUIT: Forest City Broke Union Promises A group of Brooklyn residents who took part in a job training program tied to Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development project claims they were given false promises of union membership at the end of the program, according to a Federal lawsuit filed yesterday.

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]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/11/suit-forest-city-broke-union-promises/ The Multifamily Guy To look at the buildings neighboring it, 567 Vanderbilt Avenue is a typical four-story, mixed-use apartment building in Brooklyn. From the bricks it was built with to the upwardly mobile professionals and strollers it presumably houses, the structure is nearly identical to the other assets in that corner of Prospect Heights.

With a recent shift on the ground—characterized by relatively new restaurants like James, Cornelius and, inevitably, the Vanderbilt—sales prices in the neighborhood are rising.

But over on Vanderbilt Avenue in particular, where trendy bars and cafés pop up each week, prices are absolutely surging, in part because of Nostradamus-like predictions of basketball fans flooding the zone once the Nets start playing inside the proposed Atlantic Yards arena and, ultimately, exiting en masse from doors leading directly to the street.

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]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/10/the-multifamily-guy/ Risks as Growing Construction Pipeline Spreads Beyond New York City The din of construction is rising across New York City. Apart from long-term endeavors that predate the downturn, including the rebuilding of the World Trade Center and Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards, a spate of new projects has entered the planning and proposal phases in recent quarters, portending an uptick in development over the next several years.

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