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Brooklyn Tech pledge appears, with major caveat, in State Funding Agreement

Remember Forest City Ratner's 12/20/06 pledge, upon the approval of Atlantic Yards by the Public Authorities Control Board, to build a new Brooklyn Tech High School?

The Daily News overhyped that pledge into a speculative story headlined Nets go High Tech: Ratner throws in new home for elite Brooklyn HS in arena deal.

Well, the pledge does appear, sort of, in the State Funding Agreement signed last September by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), but it contains a big caveat implied but not spelled out in the developer's initial pledge.

Initially, the developer stated, "FCRC will also work with the City, State and the United Federation of Teachers on the creation of a new 21st Century Brooklyn Tech High School, at a yet to be determined location in the borough."

Alumni fight back

Given alumni concerns that Forest City Ratner wanted the Brooklyn Tech building, well located adjacent to Fort Greene Park, city school officials last April insisted that the building would remain a school, and Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco backpedaled from any pledge.

State document

The document (Part 34) states:
Developer shall agree to work with the City, State and the United Federation of Teachers on the creation of a brand new 21st Century Brooklyn Tech High School, to the extent the City and the Department of Education elect to build such a school.
(Emphasis added)

Now they tell us.

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