Forest City Ratner Misleads Public on Construction Timeline; (Minimum) 15-Year Build Out Looms
Parent-Company CEO Says Barclay's Arena Won't Open Until 2010; "We
Are Terrible" in Estimating Time Needed for Construction
BROOKLYN, NY-- Forest City Ratner (FCRC) appears to be having trouble being honest with the public about its proposed "Atlantic Yards" project. And this time, they've been caught making misleading statements by the CEO of their parent company.
In comments Tuesday at the Citigroup 2007 Global Property CEO Conference in Naples, Florida, Forest City Enterprises (FCE) CEO Chuck Ratner said that the build out for the "Atlantic Yards" would last at least 15 years, and that the planned arena would open by the 2010 season at the earliest. Yet only two weeks ago, FCRC Executive VP Jim Stuckey told The New York Observer "we expect that it will take 10" years to complete construction, and just last week, FCRC CEO Bruce Ratner told The New York Times that "I think we can" open the arena in 2009.
"The memo from headquarters about the project's real timing appears to
have suffered the same mail delivery problems as the lease assignment for Henry
Weinstein's property," said Eric McClure, speaking on behalf of Develop
Don't Destroy Brooklyn. "These guys might want to start using the
telephone in order to keep their stories straight. We don't imagine that
Chuck Ratner is talking worst-case scenario, either; 20 years of construction -
and the truck traffic, noise, debris and disruption that accompanies it - is
probably more realistic."
Chuck Ratner's comments at the Citigroup conference were first reported
today by AtlanticYardsReport.com, which
analyzed a webcast of the FCE CEO's remarks. "I'm not at all confident
of how long it will take us to finish." Mr. Ratner said, while discussing
the timetable for "Atlantic Yards." He added, "we are
terrible - and we've been a developer for 50 years - on these big multi-use,
public-private urban developments, to be able to predict when it will go from
idea to reality."
The statements by Chuck Ratner further cloud the question of when the proposed
project's below-market-rate housing will be available. The great majority
of the below-market units are planned for later stages of construction.
In addition, the March issue of the real estate publication The Real Deal
is reporting slackening demand for
Brooklyn
office space, which
could further limit the "Atlantic Yards" project's already vastly
reduced promises of new jobs.
FCRC's misleading statements about construction timing are part of an emerging
pattern of inconsistencies. The developer had told the Empire State
Development Corporation that it "controlled" the property owned by
Mr. Weinstein in the footprint of the proposed "Atlantic Yards"
project during the state's review process, despite the fact that FCRC held only
a lease, at best, and had obtained that without Mr. Weinstein's required consent.
A state court ruled in Mr. Weinstein's favor on Tuesday in a lawsuit regarding
the property.
[To listen to the webcast of Chuck Ratner's comments at the Citigroup 2007
Global Property CEO Conference, please visit:
http://ir.forestcity.net
Comments relating to the "Atlantic Yards" project begin
just past the 27-minute mark of the webcast.]
SOURCE: DEVELOP DON'T DESTROY
BROOKLYN
leads a broad-based community coalition fighting for development that will unite our communities instead of dividing and destroying them
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