NoLandGrab NoLandGrab's List: Construction

Fresh off dumping Frank Gehry from his planned Brooklyn Nets arena, Bruce Ratner appears to be putting his money where his mouth is, as the real estate developer plans to restart stalled construction work again on his $4 billion Atlantic Yards project.

OK, Forest City Ratner sounds serious, but if they're working through the end of the year, arena groundbreaking wouldn't happen until 2010--as the ESDC has already acknowledged--wouldn't it be delayed until 2012 at best?

How exactly did pending lawsuits stop Forest City Ratner from continuing the work? They didn't, as noted in past coverage. But the developer did have some cash-flow problems.

Forest City Ratner has moved two trailers into the space created after the demolition of the houses at 487 and 489 Dean Street, on the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue opposite Freddy's Bar & Backroom. There's a third trailer, not pictured, deeper in the lot.

They all seem a prelude to increased construction activities at the adjacent railyard and, should plans progress as developer Forest City Ratner intends, construction on the adjacent arena block. Keep in mind that the "blight" found in the 100 feet of land just east of Sixth Avenue is highly arbitrary, but FCR did say it needed the space for construction staging to build the arena.

Vanderbilt Rail Yard Pacific Street near Carlton Avenue Prospect Heights Brooklyn, New York Temporary rail yard construction work for Atlantic Yards.

Several union carpenters spoke, including Derrick Taylor, 41, of Carpenters Local 926, who compared the debate over the plans to crabs in a bucket.

“If you have 20 crabs in a bucket, none of them will ever get out because they will naturally pull each other down. This is the crab with buckets, and Ratner is a crab — let him out.” Mr. Taylor said that Ratner is offering the community an opportunity to flourish.

The Carlton Avenue Bridge, west of Vanderbilt Avenue, was closed in January 2008, and the DOT announced this year that construction on the bridge should be complete by January 2010. The Atlantic Yards Report points out, however, that the DOT has "quietly advanced" the completion date to January 2011. The Report also suspects that the date will in actuality be later still, due to details in the filed documents and communications regarding the bridge

4. Carlton Avenue Bridge will be closed for at least three years [Atlantic Yards Report]

The Post reports:
...“[Atlantic Yards is] not even on my radar,” says finance guy/Brooklyn blogger Kenny Eng, who bought a 1,450-square-foot three-bedroom in the Washington for $545,000 three years ago. “The part [of the Atlantic Yards site] that’s closer to me, on Vanderbilt, will probably be a parking lot for the construction workers, so I’m not too thrilled about that.”

After a moment, he adds: “That whole project is 10 to 15 years off, even more. Who knows? I could be gone by then.”

Actually, there might be a parking lot for construction workers very soon. But towers on the eastern end of the project site near Vanderbilt might indeed be a decade off, or longer.

Remember--today was supposed to be opening day for the Atlantic Yards arena, at least according to the construction schedule attached to the December 2006 approvals of the project by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC)

Flatbush Avenue at Dean Street Prospect Heights Brooklyn, New York Utility upgrade work continues in preparation for the proposed Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards development, although it's still uncertain if/when Atlantic Yards would be built. The three buildings in the foreground (left to right: 636 Pacific, 475 Dean, 473 Dean) would all be demolished, and the Barclays Center Arena for the NBA Nets basketball team would be built at this intersection. Two buildings, 636 Pacific and 473 Dean are still occupied.