Take my lawyer, please.
Facing an environmental review by a state agency, developer Bruce Ratner
recommended that the agency hire his law firm for the state’s assessment
of his Atlantic Yards mega-project.
Ratner suggested the firm of Sive, Paget Riesel in a letter that also
guaranteed the Empire State Development Corporation that he would pay
all the legal and consulting costs incurred during their environmental
review of his $3.5-billion arena, residential and commercial project.
David Paget, a partner in the firm, was working as Ratner’s lawyer
when the developer’s company wrote the recommendation in February,
2004. He stopped working for the developer shortly before he began counseling
the ESDC in September, according to the New York Observer, which obtained
the document through a Freedom of Information request.
A coalition of block associations and landowners spearheaded by Develop
Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) sued the ESDC and Ratner last week,
claiming Paget’s role tainted a decision made earlier this year to
allow the developer to tear down six buildings in his project’s footprint
before the project has been formally approved.
The ESDC refused to comment on the litigation.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead refused to grant a temporary
restraining order stopping Ratner from beginning his demolitions —
although the developer has said his wrecking balls will remain out of
sight until at least the next hearing, scheduled for Feb. 14.
