Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

So, original Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is helping--a bit--to "Fix the City," the super PAC backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for Mayor, and raising money from various corporate bigwigs. The former Forest City Ratner CEO and Chairman, now known more as a philanthropist and advocate , nonetheless identified himself as a real-estate developer in his May 8 contribution of $36,000.  Why that unusual figure? Probably because it's "twice chai."   It's well less than that contributed by others, many of whom have active business in the city. Why'd he even give? Well, he's not out of the real-estate game, given personal holdings, and as Chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where Cuomo is listed as an Honorary Chair, it's wise to stay connected. Update : Ratner has a history of support for Cuomo. For example, in 2014,, Ratner and his then-wife, Pamela Lipkin, gave a total of $29,000 to Gov. Cuomo's re-election campaign. After all, he ...

The rebranding of Bruce Ratner, previously real estate developer and philanthropist, clearly now adds author and health advocate. Even if Ratner, billed as the co-author of Early Detection: Catching Cancer While It's Curable , did less of the work than his scientifically grounded co-author, it seems to be a worthy cause, and he's putting his (tax-deductible) money where his mouth is, this past week establishing the Ratner Early Detection Initiative at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, or MSK. (More below.) But it's still mind-boggling to see how complaisant interviewers, surely prepped by a press kit, confirm the reframing of Ratner's career as a steady progressive pursuit.  I previously wrote about how the one interviewer who went beyond the book, WNYC's Brian Lehrer, elicited Ratner's blasé attitude toward not finishing Atlantic Yards.  I noted that the  Community Benefits Agreement hyped by Ratner's firm aspired to “maximize the benefits of the P...

WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on May 1 hosted Bruce Ratner on Early Cancer Screening : Bruce Ratner , real estate developer, philanthropist, founder of the Michael D. Ratner Center For Early Detection of Cancer (CEDC), and co-author of Early Detection: Catching Cancer When It’s Curable (OR Books, 2024), argues for earlier and more equitable cancer screening. In the last three minutes of  the show , however, Lehrer turned to Atlantic Yards, and generated a rather cavalier and evasive response from Ratner regarding the project's unfinished state, 20 years after its announcement, with 3,212 of 6,430 approved apartments built, and missing income-targeted affordable housing. (Of 2,250 promised units, 876 remain, or 38.9%.) Ratner on Inside City Hall Asked if criticism of broken promises was fair, Ratner responded," It's fine to say. First of all, we did build 3,000 units of which 30% were affordable."  What do you mean, "we"? Forest City, either by itself or ...

Photos: Norman Oder Well, now.  The Brooklyn Public Library, likely executing a plan long contemplated, has extended The Book of HOV, the Roc Nation-produced "tribute" to company founder Jay-Z, to Dec. 4, which just happens to be Jay's birthday.  And Monday, the Central Library will again--as with a summer shindig previewing the exhibit, per Hell Gate -- close early, for the library annual gala, likely to reap more in donations than previous efforts. After all, they're honoring Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and his mother Gloria Carter, and the significant list of supporters--including corporate names like Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Google--suggests some deep pockets. Then again, the library has already compromised itself by hosting, with no editorial control, an exhibit that mythologizes Jay-Z, and two weeks ago even allowed a Lexus used in a famed video--another Jay-Z "artifact"--to be mounted on its lawn, complete with its own security guard. The library...

Barclays Center, Book of Hov online Do read Adlan Jackson's necessary essay in HellGate,  Is ‘The Book of Hov’ Really for Anyone but Jay-Z? , subtitled "The Brooklyn Public Library exhibition glorifies Jay-Z and advertises his products—but we’re being told it’s for the people." He writes: There's just not much here for you to engage with unless you're a Jay-Z superfan, and want to look at a jacket he wore once. If that's you, that's fine, but even you might wonder why on earth it's in the middle of the fucking library. And do read Theodore Hamm's 7/18/23 essay in Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Public Library Has 99 Problems but Jay-Z Ain’t One , subtitled "Should a struggling public library be used as a shrine to a billionaire’s glamorous life?" Photos by Norman Oder Who else is it for? For now, let me add that the exhibit, at least in one way, is "for" some others beyond Jay-Z: the arena developer, Bruce Ratner, and the arena designer...

I wrote yesterday about how Bruce Ratner's cousins had formed two separate real-estate ventures, The Max Collaborative and Uplands, organized on familial lines, after their nationally traded, family-controlled company, Forest City Realty Trust (originally Forest City Enterprises), was absorbed in 2018 by the conglomerate Brookfield Asset Management. It's notable how the history of Forest City Enterprises, as told  by The Max Collaborative (TMC), diminishes and obscures Bruce Ratner's role as head of the New York subsidiary, Forest City Ratner Companies (later Forest City New York), responsible for some of the nationally-traded company's signature achievements, in its largest market.. As shown in the screenshot at right, TMC makes just one mention of Bruce--his departure from the corporate board. He's almost disappeared. The dis seems deliberate. I can only speculate why. Partly it may be to emphasize the collective achievements of those currently running TMC, thus ...

The 370-unit Broadleaf is a collaboration between Uplands and The Max Collaborative  If Bruce Ratner is retired from the real-estate business, concentrating on philanthropy as Chairman (since June 2014) of the  Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust)  and a board member of the Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer, his cousins and their progeny have taken the assets they got from the 2018 sale of Forest City Realty Trust (formerly Forest City Enterprises) and deployed them back into real estate. (Bruce Ratner's children didn't go into real estate, and his longtime deputy and successor as Forest City Ratner/Forest City New York CEO, MaryAnne Gilmartin, formed her own company,  MAG Partners , with several former colleagues.)  The descendants of Max Ratner, one of the first-generation members of the clan in Cleveland, have formed Shaker Heights, OH-based  The Max Collaborative , while the progeny of second-generation Albert Ratner (s...

From The Real Deal's 20th Anniversary issue, excerpts from "The Closing" interviews: Henry Elghanayan Rockrose Development (2013)  Do you need to have a certain amount of ego to be a successful developer in New York City? You must not only have an ego, you must have a super-optimistic view of life. I have an unnaturally optimistic view on life — it’s a sickness. If you understood the real dangers involved in doing a project, you would never do one. That echoes a 2016 valedictory quote from Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, who told Crain's New York Business, in the publication's paraphrase, "If he knew the true economics [of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park] at the outset, he said, he would probably have passed." But he surely knew some of them. And with what might be called an "unnaturally optimistic view" or perhaps a "completely unfounded view," Ratner claimed , in a May 2008 New York Daily News op-ed, "We anticipate finishi...

A headline in New York YIMBY today,  Museum Of Jewish Heritage Reviews Plans For Genealogy Research Center In Battery Park City, Manhattan : The Museum of Jewish Heritage is currently reviewing plans to build a new genealogy research center at its facility at 36 Battery Place in Battery Park City . Named the Peter and Mary Kalikow Genealogy Research Center, the waterfront expansion will provide visitors with Jewish genealogy resources through JewishGen, a non-profit organization and affiliate of the museum. There's no real news, so I suspect it's based on the same press release that led Patch 2/17/23 to report : Plans are moving ahead to create the Peter and Mary Kalikow Genealogy Research Center at Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust following a visit by Peter Kalikow and his daughter, Kathryn Kalikow, with Museum President and CEO Jack Kliger. But there's a connection here, one I cited last month while writing about Atlantic Yards developer Br...