Because "progressives" love Bruce Ratner

From Atlantic Yards Report:

As part of his 60-member volunteer transition team, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio yesterday named MaryAnne Gilmartin, President and CEO, Forest City Ratner Companies and Bertha Lewis, President and Founder, The Black Institute--and, more importantly, Forest City Ratner's partner on the Atlantic Yards affordable housing since she headed New York ACORN.

de Blasio has long had a relationship with Lewis--he owes her and the associated Working Families Party big-time for his entire political career. And it's understandable that he'd have a relationship with Gilmartin, given the importance he's placed in getting Atlantic Yards affordable housing done.

But her prominence confirms just how important that relationship is--one I suspect will pay off with carrots, not sticks, regarding Atlantic Yards.

His transition office issued a news release:

Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio today announced the appointment of 60 experienced leaders and experts to his transition committee that will assist him in building a progressive, competent and diverse city government.

“These leaders are volunteering their expertise in every issue and area of municipal affairs,” said Mayor-Elect de Blasio. “Together, they will join Transition NYC Co-Chairs Carl Weisbrod and Jennifer Jones Austin in helping me to assemble a team that’s devoted to building one great city where everyone shares in our prosperity.”

“My charge to the transition team is to identify women and men from every part of our city and walk of life that share a commitment to progressive and competent city government,” said de Blasio. “They will be advising me based on their wealth of experience and knowledge of specific issue areas and government agencies.”

I'm not sure Forest City Ratner's "commitment to progressive and competent city government" trumps it's commitment to a "responsive and accommodating city government."

Ratner eyeing Queens projects

From Crains:

MaryAnne Gilmartin took over as president and chief executive of Forest City Ratner, one of the city's most prolific developers, on Wednesday. She succeeds the company's long-time Chief Executive Bruce Ratner, who had announced he would step down earlier this year.

In her new role Ms. Gilmartin will take over one of the city's most ambitious developments, Atlantic Yards on the edge of downtown Brooklyn where Forest City Ratner finished work on the Barclays Center in September and in December began building a rental apartment building next door, the first of up to 15 such properties it plans to raise at the site.

In addition, she said she will also work to build up a new pipeline of development sites, particularly in Queens, and will work to make the Metrotech Center, a complex of office buildings Forest City Ratner began building along Flatbush Avenue in downtown Brooklyn in the late 1980s, appealing to technology and creative companies. Originally, it was pitched as ideal back office space for major Wall Street firms.

While many developers have focused on areas like Manhattan's far West Side, Ms. Gilmartin said she is looking to create new projects in Queens, though she declined to specify what neighborhoods she would focus on.

"The West Side is crowded," Ms. Gilmartin said. "I like the East Side and Queens."

Greeeeaaaattt.

It's easy to run a company like FC Ratner when the City is throwing millions of dollars in corporate welfare at you.