Results tagged “forestcityratnercompanies”

The city and state have worked out their differences and will move forward on overhauling the 421-a tax abatement program for new development. The City Council had passed a version last year that would have increased the amount of affordable housing and limited how much of the subsidy could go towards luxury housing, but then the Legislature's version, passed in June, included more neighborhoods, more units available to people with even lower incomes, and $300 million in breaks to Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner Companies. The city wasn't sure about those additions and wanted changes.

The most charming weddings article in the NY Times today is not in the Styles section, but the City section: It's about the many Queens couples who get married at Queens Borough Hall, a three-and-a-half story brick building designed by William Gehron and Andrew J. Thomas. About 9,000 couples got married there last year, and after being married by a deputy city clerk, sometimes they pose in front of a retired Redbird Subway car that is in the courtyard. The Times has a cute slideshow, too.

One couple who got married this weekend had a leg up on many other brides and grooms: They know event planning. As Lauren Berger and Stuart Ruderfer's NY Times wedding announcement explains, Berger works for NYC Big Events, a city agency that works on landing and promoting high-profile events, while Ruderfer is the founder and CEO of Civic Entertainment Group, which creates marketing opportunities and events. And they met when Berger worked at Civic Entertainment, where they got to know each other.

As their feelings deepened, she said, “I realized it was probably better in terms of the company and the other employees that I look for another job.” She left in 2003.

Continue reading "Times Weddings Highlights: Wedding Planning Is As Easy as a Concert in the Park"

Today the NY Times introduces us to the man behind some of the city’s most boring buildings.

Public hearings tend to be impassioned and last night's Atlantic Yards gathering was no exception. With three community board hearings held simultaneously in different locales, we opted, sans body armor, for the homey confines of Community Board 6 (where we happen to live). And yet, sitting among a crowd of just 60 in the sterile Long Island College Hospital conference room with pale pink walls, a blank blackboard and a television with AV-style accouterments perched in the corner, we sensed an eerie quiet.

calendar. Looking more closely at the first page, however, I note that the Brooklyn Standard is "A Publication of Forest City Ratner Companies." Eureka! There is a publisher's note from Bruce Ratner that says, "Every month or so, we will try to put out a new edition where we can provide you with updated information about the Atlantic Yards and other news and events taking place in Brooklyn. We are not trying to compete with daily, weekly or local papers. Our goal is simple: to share information about Atlantic Yards with the people of Brooklyn and to create an even greater dialogue as we go forward." In other words: "I'm gonna paper the neighborhood with articles about how awesome my plan for a new Brooklyn is." Next, we expect Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn to pass out mimeographed packets while Extell furiously develops a competing free quarterly. Updated: Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn let us know (as did a reader) that Ratner's paper launched a few weeks ago and that the few community groups and the Downtown Brooklyn Leadership Coalition put out their own why-the-Ratner-plan-can't-work paper (a one time only pub, though).

Gothamist wonders what would be left to put in that shopping complex. A Lowe's? While we would love a Costco (the idea of five gallon containers of olive oil is pretty tantalizing - we would redistribute it to our friends), Gothamist doesn't really want a Sam's Club.