Just who's in charge here?

Forest City Ratner Tells Real Estate Industry It “Controls the Pace” of Atlantic Yards

Contradicts New York State’s Claim That It Is In Control

BROOKLYN, NY — The Empire State Development Corporation says that it is in charge of the timetable for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.

But the project's developer doesn’t see it that way.

Forest City Enterprises (FCE), parent of Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner, is telling the real estate industry that Atlantic Yards is among "Active Large Scale Projects Where We Control the Pace."

On his Atlantic Yards Report Norman Oder points to the developer’s message found within an FCE PowerPoint presentation for the 2008 NAREIT (National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts) Annual Convention this week in San Diego.

It is further evidence that every aspect of the Atlantic Yards project, including the timetable for construction, is in the hands of the developer, rather than the sponsoring public agency presumably in place to represent New York taxpayers.

“Ratner says he is in control of the pace of his project. The Empire State Development Corporation has said it is in charge. We’d like to hear the ESDC repudiate the Ratner claim of control and take back control of the project for which they continue to stay in the back seat,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “New York State can no longer allow Ratner to engineer the train wreck otherwise known as Atlantic Yards.”