While developer Bruce Ratner is busy trying to promote a professional
basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets in the heart of Brooklyn, some
developers are crying foul.
That’s because if all goes as planned, the colossal, $2.5 billion
Atlantic Yards project at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues,
extending into Prospect Heights, would displace their buildings while
allowing an exception for one particular high-powered developer —
Shaya Boymelgreen.
In order to construct the sweeping, Frank Gehry-designed project, including
four soaring office towers and 13 residential and commercial buildings,
Ratner, widely known for the Metrotech office complex in Downtown Brooklyn,
would have to get acres of privately owned land seized by the state under
the statute of eminent domain — a power of the government to take
private property for the public good.
Included in that parcel is a 20,000-square-foot lot at Carlton Avenue
between Pacific and Dean streets owned by Henry Weinstein, a major property
owner in the area for the past 30 years.
“If I’ve been there all these years I don’t know why the
city has the right to give it to somebody else,” said Weinstein.
“It’s a slap in the face to all of the people who discovered
the area and invested in it,” he said. “Our properties should
be taken by eminent domain to benefit this guy who doesn’t pay any
real estate taxes!”
But Boymelgreen, principal of A.I. & Boymelgreen, who has kept quiet
on the Nets plan, stands to benefit from the deal.
The plans for the Ratner complex conspicuously exclude adjacent property
surrounding Boymelgreen’s recently converted Newswalk condominium,
a 170-unit, luxury development at 700 Pacific St. in an old Daily News
printing plant that is also home to the Boymelgreen company’s offices.
“It’s a phenomenal attraction that will be a boost to Brooklyn,”
Will Kim, the company’s director of retail development and marketing,
said about the proposed arena.
“We’re not just getting a stadium, we’re building local
stars,” he added.
But in addition to building stars, Boymelgreen might also be building
his real estate empire.
“Bruce is not doing this project alone,” Kim said about the
proposed plans. “We’re happy to be a part of it.”
Asked if Ratner had approached Boymelgreen prior to announcing the plans,
Kim said, “They’re friends, when people are friends there is
no clear date.”
Ratner spokesman Joe Deplasco declined to comment on whether Boymelgreen
was involved in the arena development, but said that Newswalk was given
no special consideration.
“That square area is not included because in the most current scheme
it isn’t needed for the overall development,” Deplasco said.
While Newswalk may be spared, Boymelgreen does stand to lose other properties.
But rather then being a detriment, that property offers a “significant
opportunity,” said Kim, who added that the company would be involved
in the development.
Councilwoman Letitia James, a fervent opponent of the arena, believes
the Newswalk block — between Sixth and Carlton avenues — was
“gerrymandered” out of the proposal, she said “because
of the relationship between the developers.”
“There exist certain courtesies between the developers,” said
James, whose district includes Fort Greene and Prospect Heights.
Far from just claiming blight, the eminent domain takings would include
other developments far less fortunate than Newswalk.
The Atlantic Art Building, a striking, nine-story condominium at 636 Pacific
St. that was converted from a storage facility just last year, would be
knocked down to make way for the arena.
The penthouse apartment, featured last year in Wallpaper, a British design
magazine, was described as “the foremost example in the minimalist
orientation of a design for the urban hip.”
Just down the block, the 22 apartments in the former A. G. Spalding building,
where ironically, the company that manufactures the official basketball
of the NBA was once quartered — would also be razed to make way for
the arena.
On Thursday night, residents gathered at the Spalding building, 24 Sixth
Ave., to meet with an attorney specializing in eminent domain.
Ever since Ratner announced the project in December , a group of vocal
opponents have banded together to fight those plans.
Ratner, according to reports this week, has a leading bid of $310 million
to buy the two-time NBA Eastern Conference champions.
New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine and developer Charles Kushner are also competing
to buy the team and keep them in New Jersey.
Ratner must also secure the air rights from the Metropolitan Transit Authority
to build over the Atlantic yards. He currently does not own any of the
land upon which the project would be built.
Protestors charge that the plan would displace more than 1,000 residents
and businesses and would require the state to take approximately 70 buildings
by eminent domain.
