Atlantic Yards is stretching out — and into Park Slope.

The massive high-rise development has until now been described as stretching east into Prospect Heights from the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.

But at a City Council hearing last Thursday, a presentation by Forest City Ratner said the developer was considering plans to greatly increase the amount of housing on the site, both by scaling back the amount of office and retail space and by expanding the site westward — jumping over Flatbush Avenue to include plots now occupied by Modell’s and PC Richard & Son.

The presentation, shown at the May 26 hearing, indicated that the developer might increase the number of housing units from 4,500 to at least 6,000 or possibly 7,300, and include a 187,000-square-foot hotel in a 620-foot tower at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

Two-million one-hundred-thousand square feet of office space in three of four towers originally planned in the project’s design would be replaced with housing, reducing to 428,000 square feet the amount of office space. Street-level retail, originally projected for 307,000 square feet, would be reduced to 227,000, according to the plan.

The presentation was made by Forest City Ratner Executive Vice President James Stuckey and ACORN Executive Director Bertha Lewis. In a deal “sealed with a kiss,” ACORN was designated last week to process applications for the project’s low-, moderate- and middle-income units.

Ratner-booster Marie Louis, first vice-president of BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development), said after the hearing that she was not concerned that a reduction in office space could reduce employment opportunities for area residents.
“Our contentions continue to be that whatever is going there, there have to be opportunities for the community to take advantage of it,” she said.

©2005 Community Newspaper Group