Field of Schemes
sports stadium news and analysis

  

This is an archived version of a Field of Schemes article. Comments on this page are closed. To find the current version of the article with updated comments, click here.

September 08, 2006

Ratner's Nets arena project is housing-optional

The New York Observer's indefatigable Matthew Schuerman reports that the affordable-housing component of New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn arena plan - otherwise known as the part that people mostly like about it - may not happen until 2016, if at all:

Construction schedules in a 1,400-page state study of the Atlantic Yards project show that Mr. Ratner is going to build the sexy and lucrative parts of his 22-acre mini-polis first, including a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets and the tallest tower in Brooklyn.
More than four-fifths of the subsidized housing, as well as seven acres of open space, will begin construction only in the second phase, between 2011 and 2016.
That's only if the project stays on schedule. State Assemblyman James Brennan, who represents neighborhoods to the west of the site, said he believes that Mr. Ratner, the chief executive of Forest City Ratner, will only follow through on the affordable housing if he makes enough money in the first phase.
"The point is that if the venture is not successful or not as successful as planned, much of the affordable housing will be at risk or not happen," Mr. Brennan said. "The real-estate market is softening across the nation, interest rates have gone up, and three million square feet is a lot of feet to sell."

"Phased construction" has actually been a byword of the project since the very first press conference, but according to Mr. Schuerman, even the "community benefits" package agreed to with the housing group ACORN allows that "the developers may change the development phases in their sole discretion prior to commencement of the first development phase." Brennan is pushing for Ratner to sign a binding lease with the state to guarantee that the housing will be built, while shrinking the overall size of the project by 34% - in exchange for $590 million in additional state subsidies.

At least one fence-straddling local pol, famed white guy running for Congress in an African-American district David Yassky, took exception to this, and specifically the possibility that Ratner may have artificially boosted the project's size just to create leverage for more public cash. "It's typical of Forest City Ratner to inflate projections in order to get more public money from of the state," Yassky spokesperson Evan Thies told the Brooklyn Papers. "It's a deceitful way of doing business, and they should be committed to a project that works and can be vetted to the community."

Latest News Items

CONTACT US FOR AD RATES