NEW YORK | Pacific Park Brooklyn (Atlantic Yards) | 15+ Towers

[Inkoumori]

The Boogie down already has the new Yanks, love to see new development there./..\ ?

[NYC2ATX]

Originally Posted by NYC4Life

So much activity in Brooklyn, surely rivals all the developments taking place in Manhattan.

Surely the activity in New York City rivals all other American cities at the level of development going on right now...and I absolutely LOVE IT!

[Rail>Auto]

Here's some videos the Nets sent to Asia to try to lure some more investors...

http://channel.pandora.tv/channel/video....ykim76&prgid=40736160&categid=all&page=1

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/sports/basketball/26nets.html

New Arena for the Nets Is Sprouting in Brooklyn



The Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn is expected to be completed in the summer of 2012.


By JONATHAN ABRAMS
January 25, 2011

Jason Kidd was the Nets’ All-Star point guard when he attended the naming ceremony for the organization’s new arena in Brooklyn four years ago. Since then, Kidd’s home has changed, and so has the Nets’ since they vacated the Izod Center in the Meadowlands after last season.

Last weekend he returned to New Jersey, as a point guard for the Dallas Mavericks, who played the Nets at their interim home at Prudential Center in Newark.

By now, Kidd had expected a building in Brooklyn to go along with its name. On Saturday, he said that players could not consider the long-planned Barclays Center an incentive to joining the Nets.

“Unless it’s built, you can’t believe it,” Kidd said. “Until it’s built, guys can’t, won’t believe it.”

Perhaps that reluctance influenced Carmelo Anthony, a Brooklyn native, in weighing the possibility of signing a contract extension with the Nets, a prerequisite to facilitating a trade from Denver. Those talks seemed to drag on for almost as long as the organization’s proposed move to Brooklyn until the Nets’ majority owner, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, broke off negotiations last week.

The developer Bruce C. Ratner sold his majority stake in the team to Prokhorov in 2010 after losing millions annually, but he remained as a minority owner. He is also the developer of the Barclays Center and the Atlantic Yards development, and said he understood Kidd’s doubts — even if they are now misguided.

After several years of legal wrangling and the economic downturn, the Barclays Center is finally and firmly on the way after ground was broken last year.

“It got delayed so much and there were so many false starts, ‘I think we’re there, I think we’re there,’ and then the economy got bad and this thing happened and that thing happened, so unless you read carefully, you don’t realize how far along it is and that it’s really on its way,” Ratner said.

He spoke Tuesday from the 14th floor of a bank building across the street from the construction in Prospect Heights as snow fell and workers pieced together parts of the upper bowl. The arena, which is expected to open in the summer of 2012, will also host boxing, tennis and other events. The Nets will attempt to tap into the Knicks’ stranglehold of New York City and have hired the marketing agency Translation, led by the former recording executive Steve Stoute, to promote the brand.

“I think Brooklyn has been waiting for this, really, since the Dodgers left,” Ratner said.

The opposition that clogged the arena’s path would probably disagree. Ratner — a development partner of The New York Times in building its current headquarters — once doubted that the arena would be built when the economy collapsed, but regained optimism once the Yankees gained financing for their new stadium.

Brett Yormark, the Nets’ chief executive, said he expected no further delays.

“None whatsoever, and I don’t have my blinders on because I’m open to see any and all obstacles,” he said. “But we’re full speed ahead all the way.”

For Yormark, the chance to pitch something tangible finally replaces the burden of selling a long-delayed vision.

“I agree with him,” he said of Kidd’s comments. “It’s got to be tangible, and now it is. It’s tangible. We’re going to Brooklyn. The arena is being constructed.”

After the protracted negotiations for Anthony fell through, and after the Nets failed to lure LeBron James, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh during last summer’s free agency, the building lacks a marquee name to open with. And the Nets, despite winning three of their last four games, are just 13-32.

But there is hope in the adage that if you (finally) build it, the players will come.

“Teams cycle in how good and bad they are,” Ratner said. “We had a very good period for six years. We made the playoffs for six years, and I think that the team will get good again because I think players will come to Brooklyn and to New York City.”

[NYguy]

junghay








gawillia

[Obey]

This is really great, it seems the snowstorms have not really slowed this project down.

[NYguy]

^ They want to have it completed by next summer, meaning it will be ready for the new 2012/13 season, likely officially opening before the season.

[NYguy]

Things really do seem to be picking up around town...

http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/...atlantic-yards-to-break-ground-this-year
First residential building at AY to break ground this year

February 09, 2011
By Candace Taylor

Within the year, Brooklyn may see the start of construction on the first residential building at the Atlantic Yards, the opening of a new outdoor market in Downtown Brooklyn and sales commencing at new residential condominium 20 Henry.

Members of the real estate community received these and other development updates yesterday at the first installment of the 2011 Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable series.

Speakers at the event, held at the Brooklyn Historical Society in Brooklyn Heights, included Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz; John Rhea, the chairman of the New York City Housing Authority; and MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president of commercial development and leasing at Forest City Ratner Companies, who gave an update on the Barclays Center Arena. David Ridini, managing director of Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, discussed the firm's investments in new condos Isabella and 20 Henry, and Paul Travis, managing partner at developer Washington Square Partners, talked about the City Point project in Downtown Brooklyn.

Markowitz started things off on a light-hearted note, talking excitedly about the impending arrival of the Nets basketball team, which is slated to play at the Barclays Center Arena beginning in the 2012-2013 season.

"I can't wait for the first game," Markowitz said.

He noted that when the Dodgers baseball team still called Brooklyn home, the players were affectionately nicknamed "bums."

"However the Brooklyn Nets do, they'll be our bums," he said.

Markowitz ended with a call for more affordable housing in the borough.

"We need as much affordable housing as you can build," he said to the audience of real estate professionals.

...Gilmartin emphasized the affordable housing elements of Forest City Ratner's master plan for the 22-acre Atlantic Yards site, calling it "one of the more ambitious" affordable housing initiatives the city has seen. The project is slated to eventually have more than 6,400 units of affordable, middle-income and market-rate housing.

The first residential building on the site will be a 50-30-20 project, she said, meaning 20 percent of the apartments will be reserved for low-income tenants, 30 percent for middle-income tenants and the rest for market-rate renters. She said Forest City Ratner hopes to begin construction this year.

In the meantime, the 18,000-seat Barclays arena is now under construction, and the curtain wall is scheduled for installation this summer, she said. There are already over 200 events planned for the stadium, she said, including the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and at least two tennis events.

A subway entrance on the site, currently dormant, is currently undergoing construction to make it useable, she said. Apple is reportedly eyeing potential retail spots in the area.

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2011/real-estate/shop-scores-first-apartment-building-atlantic-yards

SHoP Scores First Apartment Building at Atlantic Yards



SHoP will be designing the apartment tower in the foreground of this rendering.

By Matt Chaban
February 10, 2011

Back when Frank Gehry got bounced off Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, the new designs for the Nets' arena, created by Ellerbe Beckett, were said to be so loathed by certain city officials that the developer had to find another firm to dress things up. Ratner chose local hotshots SHoP, which had made its name designing hip, slightly cerebral housing, like the Porterhouse in the Meatpacking District, and the new designs for the East River Esplanade and South Street Seaport.

Back in September, when Ratner and SHoP principal Gregg Pasquarelli unveiled new designs for the public plaza at the foot of the Barclays Center arena, the architect said he would love to design some of the project's buildings, though his primary concern was executing the masterplan. "SHoP's goal is to make sure it's a beautiful and cohesive whole," he said at the time.

Well, it looks like Pasquarelli will be getting his wish after all, as The Observer has learned the firm has been tapped to design B2, the first apartment building planned for the site, along Dean Street on the southeast corner of the arena.

...Ratner had been more emphatic about apartments being built this year, though an official groundbreaking has still not been set.

This is in part because the project is still in the hunt for financing. Somewhat controversial efforts to find it in China have been going well, And it appears that SHoP's selection, and the design work the firm will undertake, should further help Forest City Ratner secure funding for the project.

Development projects in the city and beyond have all struggled with financing since the real estate bubble collapsed. This despite the fact that Forest City Ratner's nearby 80 DKLB is now 97 percent leased, as are many other rental buildings in Downtown Brooklyn.

Whenever and whatever gets built, this is yet another big project for the budding SHoP. Yesterday, the city announced the developer of the first phase of Hunter's Point South, and SHoP will be designing the two apartment towers and a school along with Ishmael Leyva.

[patriotizzy]

Very sweet news! This place is going to look great.

[Obey]

"Curtain wall". "This summer". OMG!!!!!!

[Rail>Auto]

Excellent news. Is Gehry's design for the "Miss Brooklyn" tower still a go or was it scrapped as well.

I seem to remember that when gehry was fired from the arena that Ratner said he would still remain on the AY side of the project.

[NYguy]

^ It's still to be decided. Earlier photo of the site buried in snow from the website...
http://www.atlanticyards.com/

[ESB/WTC fan]

Taken today

[JSsocal]

There's a very good webcam on the project website. I didn't know about it, so if it has been posted before I'm sorry.

http://www.barclayscenter.com/about/construction_update.shtml

Correction: it may be frozen

[Obey]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Wait what...?

[uakoops]

Originally Posted by JSsocal

There's a very good webcam on the project website. I didn't know about it, so if it has been posted before I'm sorry.

http://www.barclayscenter.com/about/construction_update.shtml

Correction: it may be frozen

It's showing daytime right now so it probably is...

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by ESB/WTC fan

Taken today

And still there are people who doubt the arena will be built. When I tell people it's already above ground, they are astounded.



http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/brooklyn/brooklyn_arena_architect_yards_design_C48Ifyi7RsLztmQtsQjN3M
Brooklyn arena architect to design first residential tower at Atlantic Yards

February 10, 2011
By RICH CALDER

A hot Manhattan architectural firm has been tapped to design the first residential tower for Brooklyn’s long-delayed Atlantic Yards project – although officials confirmed they still lack the financing to build it.

As developer Forest City Ratner continues construction on the project’s NBA arena in the hopes of moving the Nets there by Fall 2012, company officials confirmed today that SHoP Architects would design the 400-unit building slated to go up next door at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street.

Jane Marshall, a senior VP for FCR, said during a project meeting at Borough Hall that SHoP was selected in part to ensure the new construction blends with the arena.

SHoP was already hired to redesign the arena and design its public plaza. This was after star architect Frank Gehry was fired to cut costs, and new arena renderings produced by Kansas City-based Ellerbe Becket received poor reviews.

Marshall said she expects the residential tower design to be complete by June and hopes to break ground on it by the end of the year.

However, she said financing still isn’t secure for the tower – although the hope is that producing designs will generate interest from lenders to fund it. The rest of the project’s 16 residential and commercial towers remain on hold because of the slumping economy.

SHoP’s other current high-profile jobs include designing apartment towers and a school at the Hunters Point South project in Long Island City and a mixed-use complex at the South Street Seaport.

The meeting was also highlighted by Councilwoman Leticia James (D-Brooklyn) calling out the Empire State Development Corp. and Long Island Rail Road for failing to maintain property it controls within the 22-acre Atlantic Yards footprint.

James pointed out that some sidewalks are garbage strewn and covered in snow from recent storms, but both LIRR and ESDC officials pointed fingers at the other organization for being responsible.

James said for the most part she feels FCR has lived up to its commitment to maintain the land it controls.

Peter Krashes, president of the Dean Street Block Association, later said the worst stretch is Pacific Street between Sixth and Carlton avenues (where there have been various reports of serious rat problems).

He said the sidewalks there are cracked and regularly filled with weeds.

Other highlights of the meeting include:

•FCR unveiled a new project website that will provide project information and photos, construction updates and contact information to ask questions.

•Although the press was not shut out of the meeting, the 90-minute session was not advertised as is required under the state’s Open Public Meetings Law. But Arana Hankin, who oversees the project for ESDC, claimed her agency’s lawyers “determined” Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meetings are “ad hoc committee” meetings and not subject to public meeting laws. The only reason the public knew of the meeting is because blogger Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report was tipped off about it and posted some information about it on his website. Oder, while allowed to take notes, was told he could not take video footage of the meeting when he arrived.

•After the district managers of community boards 2 and 6 called for having more Cabinet meetings, Carlo Scissura, chief of staff for Borough President Marty Markowitz and the Cabinet chairperson, agreed to hold meetings six times a year rather than four. The next meeting, he said, would be in the second week of April.

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/broo...rds_dream_real__after_7yr_nightmare.html

Atlantic Yards and the Nets Barclays Arena dream real for Bruce Ratner - after 7-yr. nightmare



Developer Bruce Ratner in his office above Atlantic Yards, where Barclays Arena is being built after a seven year battle.


Denis Hamill
February 17th 2011

The first time I met him he was 59, and I walked with him along Dean St., where he explained his dream of building a sports arena for the "Brooklyn Nets" basketball team on this place called Atlantic Yards.

Today Bruce Ratner is 66, and seven years, 35 lawsuits, two architects and one economic meltdown later, he's sold off 80% of the Nets and 45% of the arena. But standing at a window 13 stories above the zigzagging yellow bulldozers and swinging boom cranes in the steel armature of the under-construction Barclays Arena, he says: "It's real."

Yes, it is, and next year Brooklyn will have its first professional sports team since the Dodgers left in 1957. The 18,500-seat Barclays Center will host more than 200 events, including big-name concerts, pro boxing promoted by Oscar de la Hoya, tennis, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus and Disney on Ice.

Was there a time when Ratner didn't think it ever would be real?

"Yeah, in October of '08," he says. "Like a lot of people, I didn't know if we'd all be on breadlines. Goldman Sachs and Barclays Bank were always our underwriters. Greg Carey at Goldman, always a very optimistic guy, told me in October and November there was no financing available at all."

He says Carey was working on getting the Yankees financing for their new stadium and told Ratner that if that happened, the Barclays Center had a chance.

"When the Yankees got financed in January '09, it was the first glimmer of hope that we'd get financed," Ratner says. "This arena we're looking at being built required $500million in financing. A billion in total costs, including interest, land and architecture."

But Ratner was still battling lawsuits that scared investors in 2009.

They included one brought by a vocal holdout resident who could have traded his slogan of Develop Don't Destroy for Deposit Don't Annoy when he banked Ratner's check for $3million for his condo.

The condo, which he'd lived in for less than a year when Ratner first petitioned for eminent domain for the rail yards and the mostly barren surrounding land to build his arena and a 16-building complex of affordable and market value housing.

I asked Ratner how he'd feel if someone wanted to glom his home in eminent domain.

"That's a good question," Ratner says, coincidentally watching a backloader scoop dirt where the final resident once lived. "I wouldn't be happy. On the other hand, you get paid fair market value. It's not the same as being foreclosed on and losing your equity.

"Still it's not the greatest thing. But we all move plenty of times in our lives. It's not perfect. Not ideal. But it's part of urban development. Without eminent domain, I wouldn't have been able to build Metro Tech, which created 22,000 jobs in Brooklyn."

In November of 2009, the judges on the State Court of Appeals gave their final decision that the last holdout had to move.

Ratner's company quickly sold $500 million in bonds. "We had three times as many orders," he says. "We broke ground last year. So it's never easy. After I built the Atlantic Center here, I couldn't get retail stores like Target and Kmart to come in the late '90s, when everybody was riding high.

"Finally, Target came, and today it's one of the top 10 Targets in the country. I knew there was a need here for retail. There's also a need in Brooklyn for affordable and middle-income housing. And for a professional Brooklyn sports team. That's why I've stuck with it. Now it's real . ..."

[Rail>Auto]

^^^ another article that talks about Ratner believing this project was dead in 08...

http://www.netsdaily.com/2011/2/17/1999287/ratner-in-08-i-thought-arena-was-dead

I was very nervous that it was dead in 08 as well.