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Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, a fervent champion of an embattled plan to build an ambitious $4.2 billion plan to build a Nets basketball arena, office towers and thousands of apartments in Brooklyn, has for the first time muted his enthusiasm for the development. Could this be the canary in the coalmine for the controversial project, which throughout 2008 struggled to gain momentum against repeated setbacks? Markowitz issued a statement this afternoon opining that, because of the economic tailspin and all, developer Bruce Ratner should conceive of a "sports and entertainment venue that is more economically feasible but provides the modern amenities our residents and visitors to Brooklyn demand and deserve."
Longtime critic Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, tells the Times that Markowitz's statement is "bewildering...We’re in the midst of the most severe recession since the Great Depression and he’s discussing what a publicly subsidized arena should look like? It is indefensible to subsidize a luxury housing project and an arena when so many other vital city services are being cut or going begging."
A source close to Ratner recently admitted that the developer would not be able to build the Nets arena at the proposed cost of $1 billion. Last month all work stopped at the site, despite Ratner's repeated vows to break ground in December, and architect Frank Gehry dismissed all his staff. Forest City is now trying to negotiate with the MTA over the Vanderbilt Yards, an essential part of the project site which the developer still hasn't paid for. According to the Times, Forest City wants to pay the $100 million for the property in installments. Come on MTA, you know Ratner's good for it; it's just a bad streak! He can win it all back! With interest!
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Like I said, The Prudential Center is great sports venue with reasonable prices. Maybe Newark is the new Brooklyn...
mawty mawkowitz! mawty mawkowitz! caw! caw!
Marty Markowitz can choke on a nice fat piece of Junior's cheese cake
this whole thing is idiotic, nothing should of been torn down, there was no need for an arena, this is just disgusting.
I did not realize from the name "Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn" that they were also so economy-savvy. What can't this headstrong group do?!
I hear Failcat paws...
Nice job preventing thousands of jobs from being created when we need them most, NIMBYs. The project might have been fully financed and well underway before the economy tanked if not for these people who think they own Brooklyn. Soon these same people will be crying about the spike in crime...crimes committed by people who would have been gainfully employed building and working in the new development.
Anywhere else in the world, a guy willing to invest $4 billion to convert a massive useless eyesore into a world-class urban center–partially designed by the world's most famous architect, no less–would be welcomed as a hero. In the alternate universe called New York, the people try to sue him out of business.
This happened recently in Astoria as well, albeit on a smaller scale. FedEx wanted to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and create thousands of jobs by building a shipping center on a long disused, ugly tract of Con Ed land. Terrified to death of a few dozen extra trucks on the streets, community groups and city council folks opposed it despite the location being sparsely populated. Rather than fight to the death like Ratner, FedEx threw in the towel. Why should they fight people who make it so difficult to build things that any other city would literally kill for?
Soon there will be no more Ratner's or FedEx's who even try to make such investments in New York. Soon New York will look much like Detroit, except with a few tall antique buildings and a big green statue. Soon the NIMBYs who spurned progress will themselves be forced to flee due as society crumbles thanks in large part to their shortsightedness.
longacre, this was a taxpayer-funded project to bring the Nets and unneeded primarily luxury apartments/offices to an already congested part of downtown Brooklyn. While services are being cut around the city, Marty wants this taxpayer-funded private development to go forward. Remember, eminent-domain by the city forced people out of their homes for this.
Compared to many developers in the city, Ratner is not a bad guy aside from the eminent domain thing. Although his Atlantic Center was a disaster, at least he apologized for its poor design after it was finished. And I will say that unlike many luxury developers, he actually hires union construction workers to build his buildings instead of 10 bucks an hour illegals from mexico.
Give the people forced out of their homes the right to move back in, cut the government tax-breaks and financing, and then Ratner can build a scaled-down development that he can actually afford.
I assume this sentimental Brooklyn Dodgers fanboy finally found closure. Took you long enough Marty.
@ longacre: Since when is Astoria "sparsely populated?" Since FedEx was just moving the distribution center from Maspeth, job creation would've be minimal. They were moving a distribution center from a space near the highway to a (yes, currently unused) tract of land that requires traveling through residential and retail neighborhoods. The residents weren't complaining about any use of the land, just that particular use. Who would kill for more trucks speeding by their front yard?
Doesn't matter - Marty and crew got their payoff checks cashed already.
figures