Every Good Development Deserves A Holdout

In the same way as the great cities have pie-shaped buildings, every development worth its salt has at least one quirky holdout that serves to humble ego-driven architects and pointy-headed planners. So will Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project get its very own version of Hurley’s? The courts are paving the way for that possibility:

A property owner threatened by the Atlantic Yards project enjoyed a victory after a judge ruled that two of his leases were improperly acquired by the developer, Forest City Ratner.

Property owner Henry Weinstein can keep his six-story building and a parking lot on Carlton Ave., Supreme Court judge Ira Harkavy ruled Tuesday.

But it was unclear how the ruling would affect the project, which broke ground last month.

“The leases in question clearly and unambiguously required tenants to first obtain the written consent of the landlords before any assignment of the leases,” Harkavy ruled in an 18-page decision invalidating both leases.

Weinstein leased his property to Brooklyn developer Shaya Boymelgreen in 1999, but he didn’t expect Boymelgreen to sell the leases to Forest City Ratner, Weinstein said.

Weinstein, a critic of the Atlantic Yards project, never gave consent to the deal between Boymelgreen and Ratner, which would have allowed the latter to hold onto the leases until 2048.

“We believed from the beginning that Ratner and Boymelgreen had no right to do what they did, so this decision is no surprise,” said Candace Carponter, a member of the opposition group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. “As far as I’m concerned, this decision is unassailable upon appeal.”

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.

See also: Architectural Holdouts.