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Developer Bruce Ratner's embattled, $4.2 billion plan to build a Nets basketball arena, office towers and thousands of apartments in Brooklyn is staying alive, at least for now. This month was critical for Ratner because a $177 million loan from Gramercy Capital Corporation for the 22-acre property was due. Considering that the developer still hasn't paid the MTA some $100 million for the Vanderbilt Yards site, it seemed doubtful that he'd be able to make the nut.
And he hasn't! But the Times reports that Ratner's company Forest City has just bought more time from Gramercy Capital, working out a deal to make a $15 million payment immediately, as well as additional large payments in the future, in return for a two-year extension. Of course, many obstacles remain. Because of a recent ruling by the IRS, Forest City has only until the end of the year to use special tax-exempt bonds for the arena, which was originally pegged at $1 billion. Ratner's now leaning on designers to cut that cost in half because investors aren't coming forward to finance the thing.
He's also got another looming court date; on the 23rd the state Appellate Court will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the state’s use of eminent domain to seize private property for the project. But Ratner shows no sign of packing it in; opponents were outraged today when the Observer revealed that he's hired former Senator Alfonse D’Amato’s lobbying firm, Park Strategies, to acquire some of the stimulus money New York State will be getting from Washington.
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Yo Ratner, bend over I got your 'stimulus' right here!
The guy owes $277 mil and makes a $15 mil payment. How long do you think this guy would last if that was mafia money he borrowed?
All these rich guys do to get richer is suckle at the public teat, extracting subsidies and tax breaks at the expense of schools, infrastructure and other public necessities.
If these project can't be done with out corporate welfare they should be done.
If it's not Ratner it's Steinbrenner or some other fat cat looking to get fatter off tax payers and the working class.
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense
http://www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch-Wealthiest-Themselves-Government/dp/1591841917
This is the project from Hell that won't die an easy death. Ratner has some balls requesting a handout of taxpayer dollars for this project. Trump wouldn't even go that far. No shame. Damn you Pataki for doing your friend Ratner a favor.
Makes sense to me. Run up a huge debt, owe millions upon millions of dollars to creditors. Then go to the government for money-saving money of course to pay for a lobbyist to get the money. I say build the apartment buildings-if they don't sell the city will buy them up and turn them into affordable housing!!! Everyone wins! the cherry on top we get the New jersey Nets!!!!!
Is that what the scaled-back development is going to look like? Why don't we just tear down Madison Square Garden and ship it over to Brooklyn?
If you click on the photo credit link, there's more on what the Municipal Art Society predicts the site will look like if Ratner is able to move forward.
If you click on the photo credit link, there's more on what the Municipal Art Society predicts the site will look like if Ratner is able to move forward.
D'Amato's firm representing Ratner? What a surprise.
No. Just no.
After all that hassle and kicking people out of their homes we're looking at Ratner scaling back his grand project yet again. My guess is by April the project is going to be one huge parking lot with a couple of half-courts surrounded by a chain link fence. If the government handout comes in, there might be a weenie stand.
Could someone please come up with a $16 million payment to block Ratner from getting any more financing? In any event, here's a memo to Gramercy Capital and the MTA: HE'S BROKE,HE'S A DEADBEAT,AND YOU'LL NEVER LIVE TO SEE THAT MONEY.
He is the the lowest of the low. Pay it all back you dirt bag and give up the project. What an ass!
Maybe he can get the money by selling "Atlantic Yards Will Never Be Built" t-shirts and buttons.
Unfortunately, we are all just little people. Who would have thought that as the economy slides, the more opportunities Ratner might get to build this project. It seems that capitalism is dead, and corporate welfare is the new reality. I am so glad that people like Ratner, who do not have money to develop, can so easily take money from our tax dollars to make there dreams come true.
Wow...until this moment I critical of both Ratner and DDDB, but now after seeing the latest rendering and reading about the corporate panhandling...forget it, where's the pen, 'cause this boy's about to make his Faustian deal with DDDB if it means getting this public parasite out of our hair.
I hope the architect got paid for that fantastic vision, or should I call it revision. STUNNING, in a very understated way.
We may be just "little people" but there's ways of fighting back. Our organization out of Chicago called Citizens United Against Corporate Corruption has been battling the hated Forest City Enterprises for a while now. When their stock was at 40 last September we got their biggest shareholder (Columbia Wanger) to sell out and others to follow suit. In two months they went from 40 to 3. They're hanging on by a thread now. Now we need to write to your governor (which our members already have) and tell him that NOBODY will rent from these slumlords, if Atlantic Yards is built.
A few more things worth mentioning. Let's keep in mind that the internet serves as a resume for big companies.
When we bad-rap a company like Forest City Enterprises, Google will pick some of it up and give it a link. Newspaper chat rooms like this are a good source. Other good sources are "My complaint" "Yelp" & "Measured up." Posting bad reviews on their individual properties at places like "neulandlord.com" is also an excellent avenue. The beauty here is libel is not necessary. The truth is our ally.
Now everytime our organization reads about a new project of theirs, we simply contact their new clients and tell them to go on Google and put on their search engines, "Horrible Forest City Enterprises" "Forest City Enterprises Slumlords" or "Forest City Enterprises Complaints." This has worked well for us. If others join in, we can put these animals out of business for good!