Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

From Brooklyn Public Library Well, here's one way to put it: Bruce Ratner, who did so much business and made so much money in Brooklyn, finally moved to the borough--or, at least, bought an apartment. Another way" Brooklyn has a new power couple: "developer and philanthropist"  Ratner and Brooklyn Public Library CEO Linda Johnson, living in a very tony address, the Pierhouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park. More on that below. Also, maybe: The Brooklyn Public Library, whose CEO aims to raise money, now might have access to another stratum of potential donors. The library & the arena All that makes it... interesting that the library's next fundraiser, Ball for Brooklyn , will be held May 22 at the Barclays Center. That's a reference to both the soiree and the fact that basketball's played there, plus, perhaps, an unconscious riff on the film title  Battle for Brooklyn . The honorees are: Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith, founders of Ample H...

Who doesn't love BRIC, which supports Celebrate Brooklyn and many other free arts events? The page for the annual BRIC Gala , held 10/25/16, tells us the co-chairs are Ashley C. Cotton and Jessie McClintock Kelly. Cotton is Forest City Ratner's Chief of Staff and Kelly is a Columbia University fundraiser and former president of the Brooklyn Historical Society. There's nothing wrong with Forest City Ratner executives helping raise money for worthy non-profits, and surely they'd be criticized if they avoided charity work. But it also means that Forest City gets close to major Brooklyn institutions--the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Public Library, among others, have all received major support. Sometimes Forest City executives have been honored. It's a cousin to lobbying. That doesn't necessarily rule decisions made by these institutions, but, then again, I w...

Another good cause meets an inevitable suck-up strategy. A press release yesterday, Brooklyn Community Services 150th Anniversary Kick-Off Gala on June 6 Honors First Lady of NYC Chirlane McCray, Philanthropists Charles J. and Irene Hamm and Forest City Ratner Companies : BROOKLYN, N.Y., June 3, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Brooklyn Community Services (BCS) 150th Anniversary Kick-Off Gala on Monday, June 6 will honor Brooklyn trailblazers: NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray, philanthropists Charles J. and Irene Hamm and corporate leader Forest City Ratner at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, 333 Adams Street in Brooklyn, from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm. The emcee is ABC's The Chew co-host Carla Hall. ...BCS Corporate Leadership Award: Forest City Ratner Companies has built with a deep seated belief in Brooklyn and its people--from the MetroTech Center to Atlantic Center to Barclays Center. Accepting the award: Bruce C. Ratner, Executive Chairman and former BCS Board me...

An email message  today from the Barclays Center offered an invitation: This is your chance to take the ice at Barclays Center when the home of the New York Islanders hosts its first ever Brooklyn Open Skate on Monday, January 18. There a two sessions to choose from: Session 1: 9:00AM - 10:45AM Session 2: 11:15AM - 1:00PM **Arena doors will open at 8:30AM** Passes can be obtained online with a $5 donation by clicking here , or at the American Express Box Office at Barclays Center starting Thursday at noon with all proceeds benefiting the BEC Foundation. Inventory is limited, so secure your place on the ice now. PLEASE NOTE: Attendees must provide their own skates. That was an interesting way to announced the presence of the heretofore unknown Brooklyn Events Center (BEC) Foundation, named for the arena operating company. The foundation, according to Guidestar , got its IRS approval in 2014. The New York State Department of State says it was formed in 2013, headquartered a...

Borough President Adams bestows proclamation, via DBNA This is late, but let's look at the inaugural round of donations--more than $100,000--to community groups in underserved areas of Brooklyn, by the Atlantic Yards/Nets/DBNA Community Foundation . The money surely does good, but also represents part of the developer's community strategy. The donations were announced in a ceremony at Brooklyn Borough Hall on 7/30/15, with Borough President Eric Adams bestowing a proclamation. The DBNA is the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance, led by the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, largely (if not exclusively) funded by Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park original developer Forest City Ratner, and long a vigorous cheerleader for the project. Since the Barclays Center opened, the DBNA has distributed free tickets to arena events via community groups, promised in the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). Last year, it was to  finally begin a CBA-promised program in which commu...

Yes, it may seem churlish to look critically at the Brooklyn Nets' recent charity/media event, helping give out Thanksgiving turkeys and other food to needy families via the Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger. After all, it does short-term good, helping hundreds of needy families, and shows the basketball players in unselfish mode. But really, do you think the Nets would do this without the reciprocal promise and expectation of significant media coverage (aka "earned media" )? After all, this event, which surely cost the Brooklyn Nets more in organizational time than money--partner Key Food supplied all the food--generated coverage on their own web site (and video ), television coverage via WPIX (a Barclays Center partner!) and  News12 , an article in the Brooklyn Paper (a Forest City Ratner tenant!), and blog mentions in Kings County Politics , the Brooklyn Reader , and NetsDaily . (And maybe more.) Above right is a telling screenshot from the Brooklyn Reader ...

Roots musician John Pinamonti once sang , "It makes me sad/yeah it's such a pity/they're trying to rename Brooklyn/Forest City." Well, in one extension of that, executives at the developer have been racking up awards. Not just the controversial Jacqueline Onassis Medal last year to Chairman Bruce Ratner and CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin. Not just honorary degrees ( Long Island University , Medgar Evers College ) to Ratner. Nor the Brooklyn Museum award to Ratner. Honoring Forest City's Berliner Now comes the Celebrate Brooklyn Opening Night Gala & Concert, coming this Wednesday, 6/3/15, featuring a performance by Chaka Khan and honoring Forest City Ratner Chief Operating Officer David Berliner. (The Gala is sold out; the concert itself is free--donation expected--and open to the public.) Berliner is in certain ways a worthy honoree--he has brought art to public places, including the Barclays Center. But surely the honor is associated with the recogn...

Isn't that a wonderful coincidence. When Medgar Evers College of City University of New York holds its commencement exercises at the Barclays Center, on June 2 at 10 am , arena developer Bruce Ratner will get an honorary degree , Doctorate of Humane Letters. (He got an honorary degree from Long Island University in 2013, as well as one from CUNY's Brooklyn College in 1999 .) During the same event, the other honorary doctorate will be bestowed posthumously to the college's namesake, civil rights hero Evers, with his widow Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams accepting it. (Here's an extensive press release regarding the honor to Evers.) Apparently no one at Medgar Evers bothered to research how Ratner's firm failed to hire the Independent Compliance Monitor required as part of the much-promoted Community Benefits Agreement or is the subject of a l ingering lawsuit by trainees--from the college's core Central Brooklyn catchment arena--regarding the failure to provi...

There's a new foundation associated with the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Brooklyn project, as promised in the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signed in 2005. The Atlantic Yards/Nets/DBNA Community Foundation is an initiative of the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA), the CBA signatory best known for its role distributing free tickets to Barclays Center events. (It also administers the program in which community organizations get discount use of the arena. While organizations have been selected, no events have been announced.) The new foundation will give grants of $5,000 to Brooklyn-based community organizations, which work under the following categories: fostering economic self-sufficiency prisoner re-entry initiatives youth and child programs health programs environmental sustainability Applications are due by 4/1/15, and grantees notified by 6/30/15. (The application is here .) Details about the foundation murky Nearly two mo...

Last year, on 3/13/13, the Camp Brooklyn Community Service Award Gala, which raised money for Borough President Marty Markowitz's summer camp program, was held at the Barclays Center's 40/40 Club, honoring, among other people, Bruce Ratner. This past week, the Camp Brooklyn Fund gala was held again at the arena's 40/40 Club, this time honoring Markowitz, who continues the charity--and corporate sponsorship--while out of office. Of course it was not publicly announced by the arena. It's impressive, on one level, that Markowitz can still raise money for a worthy cause while out of office. But a lot of people and companies owe him thanks for his help in making them money.

As John Pinamonti famously sang, in his elegy/anthem "The Burrow"  (bottom), "It makes me sad/yeah, it's such a pity/they're trying to rename Brooklyn "Forest City." I was reminded of that at Community Board 8 monthly general meeting on Thursday night 10/9/14, held at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. The picture at right, indicating the Forest City Ratner Cafe,  is a reminder of Forest City Ratner's widespread philanthropy in Brooklyn (often through its shadowy foundation ), which is now joined by other philanthropic heavyweights like the Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets. It's always hard to tease out strategy from generosity. And corporate gifts do have tendency to quiet dissent and/or generate excess enthusiasm (see: BAM). Such enthusiasm in turn can enable tax breaks and other public support for Forest City, thus enabling more generosity. A virtuous cycle or a virtuous circle ? Gilmartin on WNYC The news emerged on Twitter...

From the Capital Real Estate newsletter : RATNER MAKES THE CUT — “McCray picks developers, donors for Mayor’s Fund board,” by Capital’s Sally Goldenberg: “A mix of real estate executives, union representatives and celebrities comprise the new board of advisors to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, according to a full roster provided by a spokeswoman… Among the 58 board members are several of the city's high-profile real estate developers, including Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner, Bill Rudin of Rudin Management, and Jerry Speyer and Rob Speyer, both of Tishman Speyer.” http://bit.ly/TKgb5j (subscription required) —That’s interesting because when Mayor Bill de Blasio was a Park Slope councilman, he was a staunch supporter of Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. Ratner, in turn, raised a good deal of money on de Blasio’s behalf. Chirlane McCray, de Blasio’s wife, now heads the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, which raises money from private citizens for public ends...

It all depends on whose ox is being gored, doesn't it. Once upon a time, in 2005, the Forest City Ratner "publication," the  Brooklyn Standard , promoted a rather meager gesture, the developer's decision to deposit--not give--$1 million in the black-owned Carver Federal Savings Bank, calling it "investing in the community." Beaming along with Bruce Ratner and a giant oversized check was Bertha Lewis, then of ACORN, along with two other Community Benefits Agreement signatories, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry and James Caldwell. Forest City not only supported the CBA signatories but bailed out national ACORN at Lewis's behest, before it declared bankruptcy. Now, a protest Now Lewis, along with many others, has been protesting checks written by a less accommodating (and partnership oriented) corporate charity. From the 6/5/14 Capital Real Estate newsletter : BLOOD MONEY — Walmart trying to ‘buy influence’ in city, council members claim: Twenty se...

Guess what: despite the conviction of nonprofit executive William Rapfogel, who admitted to stealing more than $1 million from the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, developer Bruce Ratner--who hired a Rapfogel son--remains a major donor. As reported in the Forward's  Can Met Council on Jewish Poverty Recover From William Rapfogel Scandal? , Ratner was listed as a benefactor in a recent Food for Life fundraiser, which raised $350,000 and, in contrast with past events, did not feature gladhanding local politicians. At that point, Rapfogel had yet to plead guilty. So, is Ratner really a generous guy, committed to helping an organization that serves a broad, needy constituency? Maybe. But there's often calculation behind charity, and surely Ratner wants to maintain good relations with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, long close to the charity. (Silver has since cut ties with Willie Rapfogel; the latter's wife Judy Rapfogel remains Silver's chief of staff.) ...

From the New York Post, 6/21/13, Ace is honored: A Yiddish-Spanish word was created when the New York Board of Rabbis honored Panamanian pitcherMariano Rivera at its Humanitarian Awards at Capitale this week. The Yankee was named “el menscho of the year” — a term coined for just the occasion — while developer Bruce Ratner was named “mensch of the year.” The event drew more than 400, including Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, Roy White, Timothy Cardinal Dolanand John Starks. Michael Kay emceed, and special recognition was given to Bruce Mosler and Joseph Coppotelli. James Orphanides and Michael Stolerco-chaired the evening. As part of the honor, Mariano will visit Israel with the board’s Joseph Potasnik. How exactly does that square with that front-page New York Times profile of Ratner last September, headlined Nets Helped Clear Path for Builder in Brooklyn , which cited "his reputation for promising anything to get a deal, only to renegotiate relentlessly for more fa...

Atlantic Yards/Barclays Center developer Forest City Ratner has become the 800-pound gorilla of local philanthropy, offering not just relatively deep pockets but also an event space for certain groups. The Brooklyn Hospital Center is a corporate partner  of the arena, the latter presumably involving payments from the former in exchange for promotion. Now the hospital on June 12 will hold its 2013 Founders Ball at the arena. Patch  reported  5/15/13 that more than $1.3 million from the event will help modernize the hospital's emergency room, with all 840 tickets sold. (The event last year , held at Steiner Studios, raised $908,000.) Gilmartin honored The lead honoree? Forest City's new CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin, who'll receive the 2013 Founders Medal for "Voluntarism, Philanthropy, and Service to the Community." A co-chair of the event is Brett Yormark, CEO Barclays Center & Brooklyn Nets, and surely the arena, team, and company will be making signifi...