Weekly Digest #20: Blasé Bruce Ratner Deflects Atlantic Yards Blame
Project buildings finally sign retail tenants, though space nearest delayed "park" lags.
This digest offers a way for people to keep up with my Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report blog, as well as my other coverage in this newsletter.
Original Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, now equally hailed as a philanthropist, is also an author—er, co-author—and has been making the rounds to discuss Early Detection: Catching Cancer When It’s Curable, which seems like a worthy message.
At the end of his interview with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, Ratner was asked about Atlantic Yards, providing a cavalier and evasive response regarding the project’s unfinished status after 20 years.
“Yes, we sold our company in '18,” Ratner said. "What happened is the Chinese company that bought it wasn't able to finish it. And that's a shame. It's not the end of the world, though. There were 3,000 units. We did get a Barclays Center, and sure, I'm unhappy that they didn't finish it. But, y’know, that really isn't the problem."
Getting evasive
"The problem we have in this city is just not enough low-income housing, period," he continued. "That's really where the focus ought to be, instead of worrying about whether the [Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park] units got finished."
Of course, "whether the units got finished" means the units Ratner promised and purportedly guaranteed through a much-hyped 2005 Community Benefits Agreement, as I wrote. Or touted via the slogan “Jobs, Housing, & Hoops.”
Notably, of the 900 low-income apartments promised as part of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, so far, only 254 have been built, and the base for calculating income-targeted units keeps rising. That means low-income units cost more than double what they were projected to cost back in 2005.
In just a quick search, I found two examples in which Ratner, on video, talked up Atlantic Yards affordable housing, calling it “the most important” part of the project.
Also, six of the seven remaining parcels are development sites over the Vanderbilt Yard, the “blight” of which was a justification for eminent domain.
Ratner’s “consumer hat”
Ratner traced his book’s genesis to the death of his brother Michael and his subsequent outrage that the medical establishment and government do too little for early detection.
He also connected it to his early career as New York City’s Consumer Affairs Commissioner: “It's honestly, again, putting my consumer hat on, I'm angry about it, and it really has to be changed."
As I wrote, fair enough, but Ratner had no trouble taking off his "consumer hat" when it comes to Atlantic Yards.
From: Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report
April 29: Finally, a tenant for major corner space at 38 Sixth Avenue, at southeast corner of arena block: Heart of Chelsea Veterinary Hospital.
April 30: Remaining 550 Vanderbilt retail space up for rent. Once leased as construction field office, off (awkward, for now) Pacific Street stub someday (?) to be corridor to "Pacific Park."
May 1: Barclays Center releases May 2024 calendar: eight ticketed events, plus free APPI Night Market on May 13. Unmentioned: (at least) five graduation ceremonies.
May 2: At 535 Carlton, Studio Pilates is open. Last retail space, at demapped Pacific St., would border construction staging & ultimately "Pacific Park" plaza & corridor.
May 3: Bruce Ratner says unfinished Atlantic Yards is "not the end of the world." Deflecting past promises, he says it's government's job to build affordable housing.
May 4: 461 Dean tower finally getting a second (and final) retail tenant: juice bar Pure Green, adjacent to Barclays Center's Dean Street entrance.
