Fight for the Right to Build

Industry Must Show Support for $2.5 Billion Atlantic Yards Project

by Natalie Keith

With the fate of the proposed $2.5 billion Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project hanging in the balance, the project developer and others are urging the construction industry to voice its support.

Over the summer months, Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner Cos., led by president & CEO Bruce Ratner, will begin presenting plans for the project - the centerpiece of which is an arena for the New Jersey Nets - to the state agency that must approve the plans.

While Ratner has not been quiet about the plans - he publicly introduced architectural drawings for the 19,000-seat arena before winning the bid to purchase the basketball team - neither have the project's opponents.

"When we have public hearings on this project, it would be great to get your support," Ratner told the audience at a recent construction industry breakfast forum sponsored by New York Building Congress and New York Construction magazine.

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The Brooklyn Atlantic Yards will be developed as a general project plan of the state's Empire State Development Corp., which is subject to environmental review under the state's Environmental Quality Review Act. No public hearings have yet been scheduled for the project, but once the public approval begins, it will last about eight months, Ratner said.

He led a group of investors that reached an agreement to buy the National Basketball Association team for $300 million earlier this year. Upon approval of the contract, which Ratner expected to be finalized in May, Forest City Ratner will own approximately a 10 to 15 percent interest in the team.

Ratner admitted that he isn't "an amazing sports fan," but said purchasing the team was the only way to accomplishment his development goals.

The 800,000-sq.-ft. arena would be the focal point of the 7.7-million-sq.-ft. development that would also include 2.1 million sq. ft. of office space; 4.4 million sq. ft. or 4,500 units of affordable, moderate-income and high-end housing; 300,000 sq. ft. of retail space; six acres of parks and open space; and 3,000 parking spaces.

During phase one, the arena and its rooftop public park will be constructed along with 300,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, support space for the arena and possibly one residential building. The full development is projected to take approximately 10 years to complete.

The arena will sit on a three-block parcel of land at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, the same spot where Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had envisioned a stadium for the team a half century ago. The primary existing use of the site, owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is a rail storage year for the Long Island Railroad. The arena would be connected to the Atlantic Terminal transit station by a tunnel.

"This project will be a part of the unique urban fabric of Brooklyn - a dynamic commercial and recreational destination complementing vibrant residential neighborhoods," Ratner said in a statement regarding the project.

The project would create 15,000 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs and would attract more than two million visitors annually. The arena would be financed privately and through new incremental revenue generated in the area, Ratner said.

Ratner hired Gehry Partners LLC to design the master plan and other aspects of the project. Other members of the team selected thus far are landscape architects Olin Partnership; structural engineers Thornton-Tomasetti Group; and mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineers Flack + Kurtz.

Gehry Partners is based in Los Angeles, but the three other firms are based in New York.

"If you have any doubts about Gehry's ability, then go see the Disney Hall in Los Angeles. It will bring tears to your eyes," Ratner said.

The site would contain four office buildings surrounding the arena and 13 residential buildings that would vary in scale and height. The northernmost building of the site, an office building, will be set back slightly from Atlantic and Flatbush avenues to maintain the view of the Williamsburg Bank building.

The point of this triangle will become part of an "urban room," a new exterior space formed by raising the office building on "pilotis," which are columnar structures designed to raise the mass of the building off the ground, according to a company description of the project.

The roof of the arena will contain 52,000 sq. ft. of recreational space, with four lushly landscaped areas for passive recreation and a promenade along the outside edge of the roof. An outdoor ice skating rink for active recreation will connect the four gardens. In warmer months, the rink will be turned into a running track.

Neighborhood activists such as New York City Council Member Letitia James of the 35th District in Brooklyn have spoke against the plan, charging that it would require condemning more than two square blocks of private property and displacing anywhere from 400 to 800 residents and businesses. James, who believes the railyards should be developed but in a different way, held a workshop in March to foster discussion about alternative ideas for the site.

Later in the month, a rally against the project was held by an activist group called "Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn" and the group's attorney, Norman Siegel, who is also the former executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, urged industry members to show their support for the project in the coming months.

"We have to speak up because the other side is speaking up," said Anderson. "We're hearing from the naysayers but the industry knows how important these projects are to the city."

Ratner is staking his reputation for getting difficult projects completed in his bid to develop the Atlantic Yards. Forest City Ratner Cos., the New York affiliate of Forest City Enterprises Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, was founded in 1985 and has since completed 34 projects in all five New York City boroughs.

His downtown Brooklyn projects have included the Metro Tech Center, a 10-block, 16-acre urban office campus, and Atlantic Center, a 400,000-sq.-ft. retail complex.

The Atlantic Yards project is consistent with the Forest City Ratner's business strategy of concentrating on high-growth, high-barrier-to-entry urban markets.

"In ways the Atlantic Yards project isn't as difficult as Metro Tech," Ratner said. "Back then, people didn't believe in Brooklyn. Now, they do."

Frank Sciame Jr., chairman of the New York Building Congress, called Ratner "a critical player in the borough of Brooklyn."

"In many ways this could be the crowning jewel of his career at Forest City," Sciame added.