Judge Rules Forest Ratner Acquired Building Illegally
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The developer of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project hit an obstacle yesterday when a judge stripped the company of an acre of land.
A New York Supreme Court judge ruled that the firm Forest City Ratner wrongly acquired the lease on a large concrete office building on the site of the planned $4 billion mixed-use project. The tenant of the commercial space, Brooklyn developer Jeshayahu Boymelgreen, was faulted for transferring the long-term lease to Forest City without approval from the building owner.
“They knew going in that they were committing an illegal act,” building owner Henry Weinstein, who is also a plaintiff in a federal suit against Forest City Ratner, said.
An attorney for Forest City, Jeffrey Braun, said in a statement that the decision will not change plans for the project, which includes thousands of housing units and a Frank Gehry-designed basketball arena for the Nets.
“We do not believe that this decision will have any impact on the project and are continuing with the preparatory work begun last week,” he said, referring to planned demolitions of existing property.
Representatives for Mr. Boymelgreen could not be reached.
