“Quick Change” Developing

A novel approach to encouraging neighborhood-friendly developments (.pdf):

Bruce Ratner would get hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds if he builds less at Atlantic Yards, under a new state Assembly bill.

Assemblyman Jim Brennan (D-Park Slope) has proposed capping the total size of Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development at 5.85 million square feet — down from the 8.7 million square feet in the current project, which features 17 skyscrapers, 6,900 units of housing, retail and office space, a hotel and a 19,000-seat arena for the relocated New Jersey Nets.

To compensate Ratner for the smaller project, Brennan’s bill would give the developer the Atlantic Yards site for free, rather than charging him $100 million for it. The MTA had appraised the site at $214 million.

In addition, Brennan’s bill would relieve Ratner of his obligation to renovate the Long Island Rail Road yard, saving him another $200 million, the assemblyman said.

Brennan’s bill would also require the state — rather than Ratner himself — to subsidize the 50-percent of the project that Ratner agreed to set aside as affordable housing.

“This bill is like negotiating with a hijacker,” said
Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for the anti-Atlantic
Yards group, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.

“Brennan is saying, ‘OK, OK, here’s some money. Just don’t build it so big!’ He’s throwing money at a developer to not build something he hasn’t even gotten the right to build yet.”

(That’s how that all works . . .)