Bruce Ratner Says: “Atlantic Yards Isn’t a Public Project”

NEW YORK, NY — “Atlantic Yards isn’t a public project,” Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner has stated in a November 8 Crain's New York Business profile.

Crain’s reporter Theresa Agovino writes:

Yet [Ratner] doesn't know when many elements of the plan will progress, and he's agitated by questions about them. In light of a financial crisis that has hobbled many developers, Mr. Ratner refuses to discuss what the project will look like, whether or not it will include an office building and even who will design the first residential tower, which he's slated to break ground on early next year…

He has no intention of sharing the designs for the complex. “Why should people get to see plans?” he demands. “This isn't a public project. We will follow the guidelines.”

In courtrooms Ratner’s and the Empire State Development Corporation’s attorneys have argued, vehemently, that the project’s proposed basketball arena is publicly owned because New York state would “lease” it to Ratner for $1 per year. But Bruce Ratner is vehement, even angry, when he tells Crain's “Atlantic Yards isn't a public project."

“If Atlantic Yards 'isn’t a public project,' as Ratner now proudly claims, then he should return the public's money and renounce his attempt to seize properties, like my home and my neighbors’ homes, that, until today's sudden and uncharacteristic brush with honesty, Ratner always said he was taking for 'public use,'" said Daniel Goldstein, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman and lead plaintiff in the legal challenge to the abuse of eminent domain for Atlantic Yards.