Post by musicradio77 on Sept 15, 2005 11:10:10 GMT -5
MTA on track for Nets
Green-lights Ratner arena complex plan
BY PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The MTA board cleared the tracks yesterday for Bruce Ratner to build a Brooklyn home for the Nets as part of a huge complex planned downtown.
The vote to work out a final $100 million contract for the 8.3-acre site atop the Atlantic Ave. railyards will now trigger environmental and other required regulatory reviews before the deal can close.
"Our hope is that we can have this whole thing wrapped up by the late spring or early summer of next year so that we can begin construction," said James Stuckey, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner Cos.
Development above the MTA tracks will total some 3.3 million square feet, or about 42% of Ratner's Atlantic Yards Project.
The full 21-acre project will include an 18,000-seat arena for the Ratner-owned Nets, 1.2 million square feet of office space and 6,000 units of housing scattered among 15 towers.
With yesterday's vote, Stuckey said, Forest City Ratner now has control or ownership of more than 80% of the property it needs and can start completing acquisitions that allow "the entire project to go forward."
Most of the 28 politicians, labor and community leaders who addressed the board before its vote voiced support for Ratner's plan.
"The Forest City Ratner offer benefits all concerned," said veteran political activist the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, whose House of the Lord Pentecostal Church is near the site.
Daughtry pointed to a 47-page community benefits agreement between Ratner and a coalition of neighborhood groups saying, "I have never witnessed any contract of this scope and of this diversity."
The one "no" vote was cast by Mitchell Pally, the Suffolk county executive's appointee, who faulted the deal for not giving the MTA "the most value."
Ratner's offer of $100 million is double what he first proposed, but well below the $150 million offer from Extell Development Co., or the $214.5 million value determined by an appraiser hired by the MTA.
"There was no $214 million bid," said board Chairman Peter Kalikow. He called Extell's proposal "incomplete" and said to Pally, "Mitch, you got to understand: I'm not going to be subject to what an appraiser says."
Green-lights Ratner arena complex plan
BY PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The MTA board cleared the tracks yesterday for Bruce Ratner to build a Brooklyn home for the Nets as part of a huge complex planned downtown.
The vote to work out a final $100 million contract for the 8.3-acre site atop the Atlantic Ave. railyards will now trigger environmental and other required regulatory reviews before the deal can close.
"Our hope is that we can have this whole thing wrapped up by the late spring or early summer of next year so that we can begin construction," said James Stuckey, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner Cos.
Development above the MTA tracks will total some 3.3 million square feet, or about 42% of Ratner's Atlantic Yards Project.
The full 21-acre project will include an 18,000-seat arena for the Ratner-owned Nets, 1.2 million square feet of office space and 6,000 units of housing scattered among 15 towers.
With yesterday's vote, Stuckey said, Forest City Ratner now has control or ownership of more than 80% of the property it needs and can start completing acquisitions that allow "the entire project to go forward."
Most of the 28 politicians, labor and community leaders who addressed the board before its vote voiced support for Ratner's plan.
"The Forest City Ratner offer benefits all concerned," said veteran political activist the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, whose House of the Lord Pentecostal Church is near the site.
Daughtry pointed to a 47-page community benefits agreement between Ratner and a coalition of neighborhood groups saying, "I have never witnessed any contract of this scope and of this diversity."
The one "no" vote was cast by Mitchell Pally, the Suffolk county executive's appointee, who faulted the deal for not giving the MTA "the most value."
Ratner's offer of $100 million is double what he first proposed, but well below the $150 million offer from Extell Development Co., or the $214.5 million value determined by an appraiser hired by the MTA.
"There was no $214 million bid," said board Chairman Peter Kalikow. He called Extell's proposal "incomplete" and said to Pally, "Mitch, you got to understand: I'm not going to be subject to what an appraiser says."