Bruce Ratner’s demolition of buildings within the Atlantic Yards
footprint has begun — albeit one brick at a time.
On Wednesday, workers started dismantling the first of six Ratner-owned
buildings in the area of his proposed arena for the New Jersey Nets.
The first to fall will be a forlorn former food supply building at the
intersection of Pacific and Atlantic avenues long known by the name stenciled
across its back and sides: Samuel Underberg.
The building is too old to go down by wrecking ball, according to demolition
workers at the site, so it will be torn down brick by brick.
A moody work of 19th-century architecture immortalized in Jonathan Lethem’s
novel “Fortress of Solitude,” the Underberg Building stares
out at Ratner’s Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls —
two very 20th-century projects that typify Ratner’s prior work in
Downtown Brooklyn.
Forever looming over Atlantic Avenue’s traffic, the Underberg Building
had a cult status among nostalgia buffs and preservationists who appreciated
the contrast between its moody geometric outline and malls’ bright
flags.
On March 23, project opponents will return to Manhattan Supreme Court
to appeal last month’s ruling that paved the way for the demolition.
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) had challenged Ratner’s
right to take down the building before winning state approval for his
project. DDDB argued that by razing the building, the developer was actually
causing the very neighborhood blight that is required before the state
can exercise its power to seize property via eminent domain. The developer
had argued that the Underberg Building, and five others, was in danger
of imminent collapse.
At intersection of Flatbush, Atlantic and Fifth avenues, opponents of
the project reminded passing pedestrians that Atlantic Yards is not a
done deal, demolition or no demolition.
“This is not the beginning of the project,” said DDDB spokesman
Daniel Goldstein. “Until they have approval, their project is nothing
but a proposal.”
But Ratner is seeking to create a perception that the project is moving
forward, one building at a time. The developer, Forest City Ratner, says
it now owns 87 percent of the property within the 22-acre spread of the
entire project, including 91 percent of the condos, coops and owner-occupied
units, 75 percent of the rental buildings and 63 percent of the commercial
buildings.
Goldstein is one of two condo unit owners who have not sold to Ratner.
