![Barclays Center September 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Barclays_Center_September_2012.jpg)
Pacific Park is a mixed-use commercial and residential development project by
Forest City Ratner
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of Ne ...
that will consist of 17 high-rise buildings, under construction in
Prospect Heights, adjacent to
Downtown Brooklyn
Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest central business district in New York City after Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is known for its office and r ...
,
Park Slope
Park Slope is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park and Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush A ...
, and
Fort Greene
Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the wes ...
in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. The project overlaps part of the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area, but also extends toward the adjacent brownstone neighborhood. Of the project, is located over a
Long Island Rail Road train yard. A major component of the project is the
Barclays Center sports arena
An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances, or Sport, sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating f ...
, which opened on September 21, 2012. Formerly named Atlantic Yards, the project was renamed by the developer in August 2014 as part of a rebranding.
The development of Pacific Park is overseen by the
Empire State Development Corporation
Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). T ...
.
[ , four of fifteen planned buildings had opened, but the deadline was delayed by about 10 years from 2025 to 2035.] The residential component includes the world's tallest modular apartment building, 461 Dean, opened in November 2016.[Garfield, Leanna (April 6, 2017]
"11 billion-dollar mega-projects that will transform New York City by 2035"
''Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...
''
History
Context
Since the mid-20th century, there have been many proposals to develop the area around Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, known as Times Plaza; however, plans for the area emerged only piecemeal. In the mid-1950s, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley
Walter Francis O'Malley (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league b ...
proposed that the city condemn the site, where he could then have built a new stadium for the ball club to replace Ebbets Field
Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five pro ...
. City officials refused to condemn the property for subsequent sale to O'Malley on the grounds that they did not consider a privately financed baseball park to be an appropriate public purpose as defined under Title I of the Federal housing act of 1949
The American Housing Act of 1949 () was a landmark, sweeping expansion of the federal role in mortgage insurance and issuance and the construction of public housing. It was part of President Harry Truman's program of domestic legislation, the Fai ...
. O'Malley's proposal was dismissed by Robert Moses for creating a Great Wall of traffic. In 1958, O'Malley relocated the Dodgers to Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. In 1968, Long Island University eyed the site, but was opposed by Mayor John V. Lindsay.
A 1968 ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' article described a $250 million (over $1.4 billion in March 2006 dollars) plan for the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area, also known as ATURA. According to the Times, the renewal plan "calls for 2,400 new low- and middle-income housing units to replace 800 dilapidated units, removal of the blighting Fort Greene Meat Market, a site for the City University's new Baruch College, two new parks, and community facilities such as day-care centers."
The 1970s also saw plans for ambitious projects in the area, and these mostly resulted in the construction of affordable housing on the north side of Atlantic Avenue. Baruch College
Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates unde ...
also considered moving but was stymied by the City's fiscal crisis. The seeds of gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
were planted with the establishment of the Fort Greene Historic District
Fort Greene Historic District is a national historic district in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It consists of 1,158 contributing buildings, two contributing sites, one contributing object, and two contributing structures. It is ...
in 1978.
In the 1980s, a Fort Greene block association and other homeowners sued over an environmental impact statement that failed to consider how rerouted traffic would affect their neighborhood, one block away from the project. Then an economic downturn compounded community opposition. The Times reported that the stock market collapse had deterred office construction. "A lot of people are reassessing their expansion plans," James Stuckey
James Phillip Stuckey is a New York City real estate developer. He is responsible for the creation of many New York public and private large-scale projects, and was responsible for the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, as President, Chief Execu ...
, president of the city's Public Development Corporation, told the Times in 1988.
Development
The current project's name, devised by developer Forest City Ratner
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of Ne ...
, relates to the rail yard
A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...
located between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street. Officially, the Long Island Rail Road yard is called the "Vanderbilt Yard" by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
(named for Vanderbilt Avenue
Vanderbilt Avenue is the name of three thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island. They were named after Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), the builder of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.
...
that crosses over on its way to the Brooklyn Navy Yard
The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...
). The LIRR's nearby Atlantic Terminal
Atlantic Terminal (formerly Flatbush Avenue) is the westernmost stop on the Long Island Rail Road's (LIRR) Atlantic Branch, located at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. It is the primary terminal for th ...
station is the westernmost stop of the Atlantic Branch
The Atlantic Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It is the only LIRR line with revenue passenger service in the borough of Brooklyn.
The line consists of two sectio ...
. Easy access by rapid transit and suburban rail, and the desirable brownstone housing stock nearby made it a target for speculative development.
The Pacific Park project is being developed and overseen by Forest City Ratner, an arm of Forest City Enterprises, of Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, Ohio. The original master plan and some individual buildings were developed by architect Frank Gehry. Gehry was removed from the project in June 2009. After September 2009, the design for what became Barclays Center became a collaboration between Ellerbe Becket
Ellerbe Becket was an independent Minneapolis, Minnesota-based architectural, engineering, interior design and construction firm until 2009, when it was acquired by AECOM. AECOM is ranked as one of the world's largest architectural firms, with o ...
and the Manhattan architectural firm SHoP Architects
SHoP Architects is an architecture firm in Lower Manhattan, New York City, with projects located on five continents. Led by four principals, the firm provides services to residences, commercial buildings, schools and cultural institutions, as wel ...
. Pacific Park, overseen by the Empire State Development Corporation, is supposed to be a public-private project, Bruce Ratner told ''Crain's New York Business'' in November 2009.
In March 2008, principal developer Bruce Ratner acknowledged that the slowing economy may delay construction of both the office and residential components of the project for several years. At this point, its design included the arena being surrounded by Miss Brooklyn, a Frank Gehry-designed office building and three residential buildings in its first phase. Forest City sent a letter signed by Gehry to CEOs of many of New York's biggest corporations inviting them to be tenants. The city and state had provided $58 million of the $300 million promised in public funds for the project.
On June 23, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
refused to hear an appeal of the federal eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
case. The case was refiled in state court, with slightly different arguments, and in November 2009, the project cleared what the New York Times called the "final major obstacle" when the New York Court of Appeals dismissed the final challenge to the legality of eminent domain. Further challenges to the implementation of eminent domain ensued, and were dismissed in March 2010. The most prominent member of the neighborhood opposition, Daniel Goldstein, agreed under pressure to a settlement in April 2010, allowing for vacant possession, the sale of the Nets to Mikhail Prokhorov
Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov ( rus, Михаил Дмитриевич Прохоров, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈproxərəf; born 3 May 1965) is a Russian-Israeli oligarch, politician, and former owner of the Brooklyn Nets. I ...
, and the release of arena construction bonds from escrow.
The Barclays Center, for which groundbreaking
Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are ...
for construction occurred on March 11, 2010, was opened to the public on September 21, 2012, which was also attended by some 200 protesters. It held its first event with a Jay-Z concert on September 28, 2012.
In June 2014, Governor Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...
announced that the Atlantic Yards complex would be completed by 2025. That August, the Atlantic Yards complex was renamed Pacific Park. In addition, plans for a new building comprising affordable units, the 298-unit, 18-story building at 535 Carlton Avenue, was unveiled, and a new public park was also revealed.
The China-based developer Greenland Holdings
Greenland Holdings Corp., Ltd. known as Greenland Group is a Chinese real estate developer. It was founded as a state-owned enterprise. , the top 10 shareholders of the listed company owned a combined 88% shares, with some state-owned enterprises ...
, along with Forest City, started the sale of 278 condos
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
in summer 2015. The units at 550 Vanderbilt Avenue, which cost between $550,000 and $5.5 million, will be sold by Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group.
Most of the project's Phase 1 was complete by August 2016. The master plan features a total of 16 buildings. However, by 2018, only four of the originally planned fifteen buildings had been completed. The developers stated that it may take until 2035 until the project is completed, since the project was given that build-out date when the project was re-approved in 2009.
Elements of the project
Land use
The development is sited in Prospect Heights, a gentrifying area where the median price of a residential unit exceeded $1 million in 2019. The bulk of the project site was a mixture of public streets, private home
A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwellin ...
s and small businesses. Forest City Ratner controls much of this private property and has benefited from the state's use of eminent domain to acquire and close the streets. The land is owned by New York State, and the developer has a 99-year lease.
The Public Authorities Control Board, which effectively ended the West Side Stadium
West Side Stadium (also known as the New York Sports and Convention Center) was a proposed football and Olympic stadium to be built on a platform over the rail yards on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City.
The stadium would have been ...
plan, approved the state financing of the Atlantic Yards plan in December 2006.
Barclays Center
The Barclays Center is the home arena of the National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
's Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The ...
which was purchased by a group led by principal developer Bruce Ratner with the intention of making it and the arena the centerpiece of the whole project. This brought major league professional sports to Brooklyn for the first time since the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
after the 1957 season. The arena’s design once included an ice skating rink and a green roof. The Nets, by that time owned primarily by Russia's second richest man Mikhail Prokhorov
Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov ( rus, Михаил Дмитриевич Прохоров, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈproxərəf; born 3 May 1965) is a Russian-Israeli oligarch, politician, and former owner of the Brooklyn Nets. I ...
, began playing at the Barclays Center arena in 2012. Formerly the New Jersey Nets, the Nets re-branded themselves when they moved to the Barclays Center. Prokhorov, with 80 percent ownership in the Nets at that time, he became the first Russian owner of a major U.S. professional sports franchise. The deal was necessary for Ratner, who was risking losing tax-exempt financing and the Barclays naming-rights deal if he did not break ground within three months' time. On September 18, 2019, Joseph Tsai
Joseph Tsai (; born January 1964) is a Hong Kong-Canadian billionaire businessman, lawyer, and philanthropist. He is a co-founder and executive vice chairman of the Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba Group and owns the Brooklyn Net ...
, the executive vice chairman of the Alibaba Group, completed the acquisition of full ownership of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center. With the closing of the transaction, Tsai became NBA Governor of the Nets and its affiliates.
Zoning
Ground was broken on the first residential building at Pacific Park—B2—on December 18, 2012. The building will have 363 units, 50% of those units will be "affordable." In March 2011, ''The New York Times'' revealed that Forest City Ratner was considering building a 34-story apartment building out of prefabricated
Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term ...
units, making it the largest prefabricated structure in the world. The move is likely to save considerable building costs, because construction in a factory is cheaper than at a field site. While satisfying affordable housing advocates, it is likely to anger construction unions, who have been major supporters of the project. At 32 storeys tall, B2 will be the tallest building in the world constructed using modular technology. The housing component of the project has been criticized for its urban density
Urban density is a term used in urban planning and urban design to refer to the number of people inhabiting a given urbanized area. As such it is to be distinguished from other measures of population density. Urban density is considered an import ...
. The construction of a 34-story prefabricated building
A prefabricated building, informally a prefab, is a building that is manufactured and constructed using prefabrication. It consists of factory-made components or units that are transported and assembled on-site to form the complete building.
Hist ...
, while not the first prefab high-rise in the city, would be the largest. However, B2 will be completed in late 2015 — more than ten years after Atlantic Yard's commencement — instead of 2014, the original expected completion date. It was only 13% complete .
One or two buildings in the Pacific Park project would be used for office space, though the office market is poor. Retail space
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...
would be built at the ground level of buildings.
Transportation
The project is sited above the Vanderbilt train yards belonging to the adjacent Atlantic Terminal
Atlantic Terminal (formerly Flatbush Avenue) is the westernmost stop on the Long Island Rail Road's (LIRR) Atlantic Branch, located at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. It is the primary terminal for th ...
station, after which the Atlantic Yards development was first named; this is the westernmost stop on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Atlantic Branch
The Atlantic Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It is the only LIRR line with revenue passenger service in the borough of Brooklyn.
The line consists of two sectio ...
. It is the primary terminal for the Far Rockaway
Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County line ...
, Hempstead, and, on weekdays, West Hempstead Branch
The West Hempstead Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the U.S. state of New York. It runs between Valley Stream, New York, and West Hempstead, New York.
Route description
The branch se ...
es. The location is also served by a number of bus lines.
The development sits near the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue, one of the biggest, and the most congested, intersections in Brooklyn. The increase of car traffic to the area caused by extra housing and the construction of an arena has been frequently cited by critics as a major reason for their opposition to the project. According to the Environmental Impact Statement, the addition of more than 15,000 new residents would not significantly impact vehicular traffic, a claim contested by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods. While traffic was a concern to some it has been noted that there has not been an increase in traffic associated with the arena opening while there has been a large increase in subway and Long Island Railroad use.
The Pacific Park project, at its western end, is adjacent to the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station—the largest New York City Subway station in Brooklyn and among the largest transit hub
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips ...
s in New York City—serving the . The project features a new $76 million subway entrance near the front of Barclays Center. The Lafayette Avenue () and Fulton Street () subway stations are also nearby.
Public opinion
The Community Benefits Agreement
The edition of October 22, 2005 of ''The Brooklyn Paper
''Brooklyn Paper'' is a weekly newspaper that covers news related exclusively to the New York City borough of Brooklyn. ''Brooklyn Paper'' covers news and cultural events throughout the borough, using different mastheads for neighborhoods such as P ...
'' revealed that the Forest City Ratner
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of Ne ...
(FCR) company had paid large sums of money to organizations, offering what they've presented as grassroots neighborhood support for the proposed Pacific Park development. Back on December 20, 2004, six months before the so-called "community benefits agreement" (CBA) was drafted, a non-governmental pact between the developer and community groups, the 501(c)(3) filings of Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD) stated it would receive $5 million from Bruce Ratner's company in exchange for support. BUILD president James Caldwell was paid $125,000 a year, and two other BUILD executives— Mary Louis and Shalawn Langhorne— received $100,000 a year, according to the IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...
document. Additionally, the development company has also paid $50,000 to Reverend Herbert Daughtry, another CBA endorser. His organization, Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance, was commissioned to help create an inter-generational center as part of the Ratner plan to "retain staff to begin to develop a program to create these facilities." The political arm of BUILD, Community Leadership for Accountable Politics (CLAP), is apparently folding.
A Community Benefit Agreement, that claimed to be modeled on the first of its kind for the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was signed on June 27, 2005 between Forest City Ratner and a consortium of community groups to provide a range of benefits for the community. Many of these community groups were led by long standing and prominent leaders including Bertha Lewis, Executive Director of ACORN, James Caldwell, ED for Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development and Rev. Herbert Daughtry, pastor of House of the Lord Church. One of the controversies surrounding the CBA is the definition of "community", and many local groups contend that they will not be included. Among the benefits accruing to the community as defined under this legally binding agreement are:
*Affordable housing (for households earning up to $109,000 a year – 50% set aside with various degrees of affordability as set out in the agreement),
*35% minority, and 10% women contractors hired during construction
*Senior housing (10% set aside of all rental units)
*Health care center within the project
*Six acres of open space for use by the public free of charge on the project site
of open space for a project of this size is considered inadequate by city standards. Opponents note that this is not the same as public space, rather it is private space open to the public at the owner's discretion. The developer will get this space after current publicly owned streetscapes are privatized.
Signatories to this agreement are All-Faith Council of Brooklyn, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA), Downtown Brooklyn Educational Consortium (DBEC), First Atlantic Terminal Housing Committee (FATHC), New York State Association of Minority Contractors (NYSAMC), Public Housing Communities (PHC). Copies of the full CBA are available at the offices of each of these organizations.
While the Staples Center CBA included hundreds of community groups—many who did not originally support the project—the Atlantic Yards CBA signatories all supported the project before signing on. One group, BUILD, has been shown to have repeatedly lied about the funding it received from the developer.
The known amount of total payments to CBA signatories from the developer is $538,000.
Controversy
In a ''Huffington Post'' blog, Daniel Goldstein called Pacific Park, then named Atlantic Yards, "a corrupt land grab," "a taxpayer ripoff", "a bait and switch
Bait-and-switch is a form of fraud used in retail sales but also employed in other contexts. First, customers are "baited" by merchants' advertising products or services at a low price, but when customers visit the store, they discover that the ...
of epic proportions", and "a complete failure of democracy." Goldstein, who co-founded Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and was the last remaining homeowner (the condominium apartment he owned is where the arena's center court is now located) had his home taken by eminent domain by New York State on March 1, 2010 after nearly 8 years of court battles. At that time the state took sole ownership of his home and moved to evict
Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortga ...
him, his wife and toddler daughter. At his eviction hearing on April 21, 2010 Brooklyn judge Abraham Gerges forced the Empire State Development Corporation and Mr. Goldstein to settle on an imminent eviction date (May 7) and the constitutionally required just compensation
Just compensation is a right enshrined in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (and counterpart state constitutions), which is invoked whenever private property is taken (also in some states damaged) by the government. Usually, the gove ...
for the home they had seized. The compensation was for $3 million, $760,000 of which went to Mr. Goldstein's attorney Mike Rikon.
FCR eventually boosted its bid to $100 million, and said the overall value of its bid was higher than the appraised value, which was validated by the courts.
Forest City Ratner offered the condo owners in 636 Pacific St. $850/sq. foot, the condo owners at 24 Sixth Ave (Spalding Buildings) $650/sq. foot and undisclosed amounts to renters. Sellers of condos signed a nondisclosure agreement, termed a "gag order" by opponents.
Further opposition
The most vocal opposition group was a nonprofit named Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, though other organizations are opposed to or seek to scale back the project. These organizations include: 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, Boerum Hill Association (BHA), Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), Committee For Environmentally Sound Development, Creative Industries Coalition (80 local businesses, galleries and collectives), Democracy for New York City (DFNYC). Other neighborhood organizations that are critical of the project are gathered under the banner of 'BrooklynSpeaks', which initially eschewed a litigation strategy but in 2009 finally went to court, in a case combined with one filed by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn charging that the Empire State Development Corporation
Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). T ...
(ESDC) failed to consider the impact of an additional fifteen years of construction on the surrounding neighborhood when it approved a renegotiated project plan in September 2009. In November 2010, New York State Supreme Court Judge Marcy Friedman ruled in favor of the petitioners, ordering the ESDC to either provide a justification for its continued use of the original ten-year construction schedule, or otherwise conduct a supplemental environmental impact study. BrooklynSpeaks and DDDB subsequently sought a stay of construction in advance of ESDC's response to the Court order.
In addition to these and a variety of well-established community groups in the area, the development has been opposed by now-New York Attorney General
The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...
Letitia James, formerly the New York City Council member for the district. Critics point to the lack of transparency of the project, the lack of democratic review of the process, mixed successes of Ratner's previous projects, the use of eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
to remove residents for a commercial interest. Under the project, 68 residential or business properties were to be seized and razed; it would also cause increased traffic congestion, light pollution
Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day ...
, gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
, and crowding.
Cory Booker
Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the junior United States senator from New Jersey since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Booker is the first African-American U.S. se ...
, then mayor of Newark, campaigned for the New Jersey Nets
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
to abandon plans to play at Pacific Park, and instead relocate permanently to the Prudential Center
Prudential Center is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the central business district of Newark, New Jersey. Opened in 2007, it is the home of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the men's basketball program of Seton Hal ...
in downtown Newark, already home to the New Jersey Devils and Seton Hall Pirates
The Seton Hall Pirates are the intercollegiate athletic sports teams representing Seton Hall University, located in South Orange, New Jersey. The Pirates compete as a member of the NCAA Division I level (non-football sub-level), primarily compet ...
; however, he later embraced the team's interim move to Newark, from fall 2010 to 2012.
On February 14, 2006, New York State Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead ruled in favor of the dismissal of attorney David Paget as the ESDC's outside counsel. Paget, who has been advising the ESDC in its environmental review of the Atlantic Yards project, had previously also worked for FCR companies until October 2005. Justice Edmead concluded that the appointment of Paget to the ESDC represented a conflict of interest, calling it "a severe, crippling appearance of impropriety
The appearance of impropriety is a phrase referring to a situation which to a layperson without knowledge of the specific circumstances might seem to raise ethics questions. For instance, although a person might regularly and reliably collect mone ...
." Furthermore, Justice Edmead gave the ESDC 45 days to find a new attorney to meet the standard of "objective public interest." On May 30, 2006, the Appellate Division, First Department, reversed Justice Edmead's the decision. "The motion court misapprehended material facts and misapplied the applicable law in granting the petition to the extent of disqualifying Paget and his law firm from representing ESDC," Justice Milton Williams wrote for a unanimous panel.
The 2007 documentary film ''Brooklyn Matters
''Brooklyn Matters'' is a 2007 documentary film, produced and directed by Isabel Hill and edited by Marian Sears Hunter.
The film describes the fight against the Atlantic Yards development project in Brooklyn, New York. Atlantic Yards is Bruce Rat ...
'' was one of several which took a critical look at the development project
Environmental impact
An issue concerning wastewater management was brought up during a preliminary environmental impact assessment of the project, catching the attention of Carroll Gardens
Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Taking up around 40 city blocks, it is bounded by Degraw and Warren Streets (north), Hoyt and Smith Streets (east), Ninth Street or the G ...
residents. According to ''The Brooklyn Paper
''Brooklyn Paper'' is a weekly newspaper that covers news related exclusively to the New York City borough of Brooklyn. ''Brooklyn Paper'' covers news and cultural events throughout the borough, using different mastheads for neighborhoods such as P ...
'', the sewage generated by the development would flow into the city's antiquated combined sewer, which overloads during large rain storms. Allegedly of untreated sewage would drain into waterways around the city each year, including 13 outfall
An outfall is the discharge point of a waste stream into a body of water; alternatively it may be the outlet of a river, drain or a sewer where it discharges into the sea, a lake or ocean.
In the United States, industrial facilities that discha ...
s on the Gowanus Canal
The Gowanus Canal (originally known as the Gowanus Creek) is a canal in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, on the westernmost portion of Long Island. Once a vital cargo transportation hub, the canal has seen decreasing use since the mid-2 ...
.
Lawsuit by community groups
In late October 2006 the above-mentioned community groups filed a lawsuit in federal court against Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki
George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...
, and Ratner of Forest City Ratner
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of Ne ...
to stop the project. The plaintiffs are charging that the project would not serve public use, and that this is required by legal precedent. The suit, ''Goldstein v. Pataki'', is being led by Matthew Brinkerhoff.
The lawsuit was prompted by an open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...
to the Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
, which appeared on the nolandgrab.org website. This letter stated that Justice Kennedy's Kelo concurring opinion could be used to attack eminent domain as a violation of minimum scrutiny, which says that government policy (including an eminent domain use) must be rationally related to a legitimate government purpose.
Support
The project was endorsed by the MTA and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has been strongly supported by former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz
Martin Markowitz (born February 14, 1945) is an American politician who served as the borough president of Brooklyn, New York City. He was first elected in 2001 after serving 23 years as a New York State Senator. His third and final term end ...
, who sees this project as the opportunity to finally produce the business district in Downtown Brooklyn that was intended with the construction of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower but was halted by the Great Depression. The project has also been endorsed by three former governors during its pendency since 2003 (George Pataki
George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...
, Eliot Spitzer, and David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. ...
), who control the state agencies— Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...
—that are key to the project. The most fervent public support had come from Markowitz, who saw the project as the opportunity to bring professional sports back to Brooklyn. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, and ...
, Congressman Gregory W. Meeks, former Congressmen Edolphus Towns
Edolphus "Ed" Towns Jr. (born July 21, 1934) is an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 2013. A Democrat from New York, Towns was Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ...
and Anthony Weiner, former State Senator Carl Kruger, and former Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. have also supported the project.
Job development in the boroughs outside of Manhattan was stated as part of former Mayor Bloomberg's agenda and, in this case especially, had been seen as a way to stem the tide of companies leaving New York City for New Jersey and other locations. While rents in Manhattan are prohibitive for some companies, offering lower rent office space in the boroughs was seen as a way to keep jobs in the city and maintain the tax base that sustains municipal services. Spearheaded by the then-mayor, the project has received the approval of the Empire State Development Corporation
Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). T ...
.
At least 30% of the project's units are reserved for low-, moderate- or middle-income tenants, so some people advocating affordable housing also supported the project. One of the more prominent members of this group was ACORN, which signed the Affordable Housing Memorandum of Understanding with Forest City Ratner
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of Ne ...
in 2005.
Construction workers have been another group of strong supporters for the project. Anchor of Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
's ''Good Day New York,'' Rosanna Scotto
Rosanna Scotto (born April 29, 1958) is an American news anchor. She is the Co-host of ''Good Day New York'', on Fox 5 NY WNYW in New York City. She formerly hosted with Greg Kelly. Previously, she anchored the 5 and 10 pm news with Ernie Ana ...
, a native of the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, is also a supporter.
See also
* Atlantic Terminal Mall
*Forest City Enterprises
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of New York Ci ...
*Hudson Yards (development)
Hudson Yards is a real estate development in the Hudson Yards area of Manhattan, New York City, between the Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen neighborhoods. Upon completion, 13 of the 16 planned structures on the West Side of Midtown South would ...
, a redevelopment project in Manhattan also over a LIRR yard
* MetroTech Center
References
External links
Pacific Park
website
*
Commentary websites:
Atlantic Yards Report
a watchdog
Watchdog or watch dog may refer to:
Animals
*Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence
* Portuguese Watch Dog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed
* Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet ...
site, written by journalist Norman Oder
''The New York Observer''s coverage
''New York Daily News'' coverage
The local weekly ''Brooklyn Paper''s coverage
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Economy of New York City
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Buildings and structures under construction in the United States
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