Despite the relentless stream of dire predictions for the Atlantic Yards project, Forest City Ratner just cleared another major hurdle. The New York Times reports today that "the city and the state have signed an agreement with the developer Bruce
C. Ratner to build a new home for the Nets basketball team and at least
4,500 apartments as part of a $2.5 billion project at the Atlantic
Yards in Brooklyn."
Of course, there are still plenty of obstacles that Ratner must pretend to be concerned about… The project "still must go through a lengthy environmental review,
condemnation proceedings, approval by the state Public Authorities
Control Board and possible lawsuits … The Empire State Development
Corporation would shepherd the project through the review process and
take control of any land the developer has not already acquired." PATTI HAGAN quoted: "This project is too big … We don’t want to supersize Brooklyn."