Results tagged “netsarena”

Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner's quid pro quo relationship with community organizing group ACORN is public knowledge, but now that the group is on the hot seat for those hidden camera humiliations, the Post takes another look. For years, ACORN has rallied its members to enthusiastically support the construction of Ratner's $4.9 billion NBA arena, and in exchange ACORN would help manage tenants for the 2,250 affordable-housing units still planned for Atlantic Yards, to be built someday in the unforeseeable future.

Just when you thought developer Bruce Ratner was about to turn the corner in the P.R. war over his proposed $800 million arena for the Nets in Brooklyn, along comes the city’s Independent Budget Office with a big bucket of ice water. A new analysis concludes that "over a 30-year period, the arena would cost the city nearly $40 million more in spending under current budget plans than it will generate in tax revenues (present value, 2009 dollars)." It also estimates that "for the developer, Forest City Ratner Companies, the mix of special government benefits result in total savings of $726 million."

The perpetually embattled Atlantic Yards project—now in the cross-hairs of the state's highest court—still has die hard supporters, but even some are confessing their disappointment. Developer Bruce Ratner's plans have been dramatically downsized from what was proposed back when he was first wooing allies in 2004, and it's unclear when the promised affordable housing and jobs will materialize. Rev. Herbert Daughtry of the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance still backs developer Bruce Ratner, but tells the Daily News he's come to accept the many shortcomings: "Everybody wishes it would be what was originally planned, but given the realities the project had to face, it's a wonder that it's still there. I think it's the best we can do at this point." Less tolerant is Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, "The promises made by this developer have disappeared like a house of cards." Last but not least is Councilman David Yassky, who initially supported the project but has since soured on it: "The MTA changing the deal just added insult to injury. This was already a bad deal for taxpayers and now it's an appallingly bad deal." Meanwhile, Ratner insists the underwhelming new renderings released last month were "premature."

State Senators held a public hearing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn on Friday to get a sense of where things stand for developer Bruce Ratner's $4.2 billion dollar dream of building a Nets arena and mixed-use towers on a 22-acre site that includes part of the MTA railyards. But it was difficult to get a sense of just how FUBAR the controversial project actually is, in part because the meeting was packed with hundreds of jeering construction workers wearing hard hats and "Atlantic Yards Now" buttons. At one point State Senator Bill Perkins futilely begged for silence, telling the crowd, "I think if we could eliminate some of the whistling and shouting..." But he was drowned out by cries of "Go, home Bill!"