Forest City Ratner executive MaryAnne Gilmartin, the developer’s point person on Atlantic Yards, was honored last night by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) New York chapter at its Heritage Ball , and on Monday night, she spoke in detail about a less controversial but hardly uncomplicated Frank Gehry project also announced in 2003: the in-construction Beekman Tower in Lower Manhattan. Yesterday, I suggested that her take-away quote, “every deal dies three times,” also applies to Atlantic Yards, which is going through even more gyrations. Lessons for AY But there are some other hints and lessons from her talk. While the Beekman Tower is less a model for Atlantic Yards housing than the under-construction tower at 80 DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn, Gilmartin’s explanation of why Beekman contains rental units, not condos, may cast further doubt on the developer’s plans for 1930 condos in the Atlantic Yards project. If the condo market is currently saturated, and the develope...
This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, concerns the $6B project to build the Barclays Center arena & 15-16 towers at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland USA bought a 70% stake going forward. In 2018, once the arena & four towers were built, Greenland bought out most of Forest City's stake, then sold three leases to other companies.