Atlantic Yards Every developers dream is to build in the Big Apple, the City of New York. A major project involves expenses and a lot of time consuming wait and paper work. If a developer wants to have a successful project within the City of New York they have to show the different amenities that will benefit both the city and the community. Without these benefits into the community, developers can have a hard time trying to surpass the hurdles of opposition which involve millions and millions of dollars. Plans for development by Developer Forest City Ratner on Atlantic Yards were unveiled on December 10th, 2003. The plans consisted on building Barclays Center and sixteen (16) high rise buildings to accommodate both market rate and affordable housing. The project was projected to be built on 22 acres of combined private property and City owned property. In which 8 of the 22 acres where the Developer planned to build on consisted of private property that belonged to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority which is known as the Vanderbilt rail yards. After the plan was introduced in 2002, MTA later announced in 2003 that they would sell their property to FCRC. MTA later backed out on the statement that they would sell the rail yards. This lead MTA to issue a Request for Proposal for potential buyers which also were required a submission of a 20 year profit and loss projections. FCRC submitted their bid which held a value of $50 million and no projections. EXTELL who is FCRC’s competitor offered MTA $150 million. This was an offer three times the amount that FCRC had offered and also completed their profit and loss projections as the MTA had asked for. EXTELL’s proposal was turned down by the MTA. They sold their property to FCRC and this pushed back the project by 7 months. A year and a half later, FCRC’s project was formerly introduced to the public, on December 2003. The sale of the rail yards wasn’t announced by the MTA until September 2005, giving the developer access to develop their project.
Forest City Ratner Company in June 2009 revised the MTA payment on the Vanderbilt rail yards. This new payment consists of a payment of $20 million upfront and $80 million in payments and interests for the next 21 years. This revision also reduced funds for the construction of the new rail yards for the Long Island Rail Road. The officials of the MTA board approved the revisions made by the FCRC. When the developer overcame one hurdle, another one opposing the beginning of the development was the home and property owners, and the people that lived in the area. People were refusing to leave and vacate the property. Goldstein represented the community of those who didn’t want to leave and filed a law suit in 2006 suing New York State officials, New York City officials, and Forest City Ratner developer. They were claiming an improper use of eminent domain under the United States Constitution and New York State Law. A District Court dismissed Goldstein’s and the other property owner’s claims. The courts dismissed Mr. Goldstein’s claim and others supporting him because the property around the Atlantic Yards was labeled by the state to be a blighted community. When the state labels a neighborhood into this condition it is best to vacate the property set for demolition. Many of the developers know what neighborhoods to attack being that its best to build everything from scratch to meet the newer state and city standards. Many consider this a tactic to obtain the property of those against major developmental projects. The officials supporting the project want to get this completed with no further opposition. The official’s only way out is using the backdoor exit of the eminent domain law to consider the property as a blighted neighborhood. This forces owners that are against the development to vacate the property as the government seizes their land. Goldstein and the opposing property owners started to