vandyard_14110909.jpgWhile the Atlantic Yards’ eminent domain case begins in court today, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and four elected officials filed another suit in the state’s Supreme Court yesterday against the Metropolitan Transit Authority, claiming that its sale of land to developer Forest City Ratner violates state law. Specifically, they charge that the M.T.A. violated the Public Authorities Accountability Act of 2005 when, in June 2009, it sold the 8.5-acre Vanderbilt Yard at Flatbush and Atlantic to the developer in a $100 million deal without first getting an independent appraisal of the yard and opening the parcel to competing offers. According to DDDB, “an annulment [of the sale] would disallow the transfer of the property, which the developer requires for its project, including its proposed basketball arena, until the M.T.A. complied with the law.” The M.T.A. declined to speak with The New York Times regarding the lawsuit, but the lead plaintiff, state Senator Velmanette Montgomery, said: “While the M.T.A. is forcing service cuts and fare increases on the people of New York, they are giving Forest City Ratner just about a free ride. We have laws in this state which forbid these kinds of sweetheart deals.”
Suit Challenges Sale of Land to Atlantic Yards Developer [NY Times]
Elected Officials and Two Orgs Sue MTA for Sweetheart Deal [DDDB]
Photo by Tracy Collins


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Let me give fsrg the prize for today’s humorous hyperbole. He or she is saying that giving a billionaire developer MTA land for 1/10 the appraised value is the moral equivalent to helping every American get healthcare. He or she is saying that the MTA should decide which developers should get $100 million or so in subsidies to build luxury housing at a time when the MTA is suffering severe cash flow problems. Obama was elected because the American people were tired of Bush’s back room deals that led to things like the Iraq war and huge profits for Halliburton or Blackwater. Now fsrg thinks that Obama stands for taking money out of the pockets of MTA riders and workers to increase the profits of a developer. All for a project with no clears costs or benefits.

    I am very proud of the Straphangers for standing up for all New York. If there ever was an example of how handouts to Ratner are hurting the NY economy, it’s this one. The MTA broke the law. It has a fiduciary responsibility to look out for itself, not to Forest City Ratner’s stockholders.

  2. And by the way, even with the sweetheart deal, the MTA is now allowing Ratner to pay off the purchase for small change over 30 years. The needed revenue for current MTA shortfalls will trickle in, a very poor arrangement clearly against taxpayers interests. Let’s hope the courts agree!

  3. There are way more than one DDDB members — come out and see many of us at Saturday’s walk-a-thon. And using the courts to defend our rights as taxpayers is way different from spreading lies about health care reform.