After years of delays and legal objections, Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner says he will break ground on his controversial megaproject on March 11. The announcement comes after a judge ruled that state officials can use eminent domain to evict Brooklyn residents who live in the footprint of the $4.9 billion development, which calls for high-rises and a basketball arena on the border of Fort Greene and Prospect Heights. "Today's court ruling marks the transition from the obstruction to the construction phase," said Forest City Ratner executive vice president Bruce Bender.
According to the Daily News, an official groundbreaking will take place next week, though work could begin at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues before then. Project opponent Daniel Goldstein, who will lose his Pacific Street condo to make way for the development, isn't happy about the news. "It feels like I live in a state run by crooks," said Goldstein, who was offered $80,000 less for his property than he spent to buy it in 2003. "Our state government ... has bent over backwards to give Bruce Ratner whatever he wants, including my home, and the homes of other citizens."
Regulars at Freddy's Bar, who have already built a PBR guillotine and chained themselves to the bar to protest the pending demolition of their watering hole, said they won't give up without a fight. "There's chains on the bar and a lot of people will be buying handcuffs," said project opponent Steve de Seve. It's unclear if they'll also try to use those handcuffs to arrest Ratner, as they planned to do last month.
A spokesperson for the Empire State Development Corporation told the Brooklyn Paper that the agency "will continue to work with occupants to relocate them [in] an orderly relocation over the course of the next few months."
