A lawsuit filed by two Brooklyn legislators is forcing the public release of long-awaited documents regarding finances surrounding the Atlantic Yards project.

An ESDC spokeswoman told The New York Sun it now intends to release the documents to Mr. Brennan, likely this week, which include development company Forest City Ratner’s business plan for the $4.2 billion project in Brooklyn. Assemblyman James Brennan, joined by state Senator Velmanette Montgomery, filed a lawsuit Monday against the Empire State Development Corporation alleging that the agency was improperly withholding documents detailing the project’s finances.

Critics of the project for at least two years have been attempting to determine the amount developer Bruce Ratner stands to profit, and they say the hundreds of millions in city and state subsidies should justify its status as public information.

“Ratner’s basic premise for having to build this so large and so dense was that it has to be to make this financially feasible,” a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, Candace Carponter, said. Without knowing Mr. Ratner’s potential profit, the public has been unable to properly evaluate his claims, Ms. Carponter said.

Neighborhood groups and community leaders both in favor of and against the project have long been calling for greater transparency from the state and city with regard to the planned Nets basketball arena and the 6,000-plus housing units that are planned for the Brooklyn complex. Due to the large amount of state land on the site, the project is not going through the city’s land-use review process, which allows for greater public understanding and input, community groups say.

“A lot of us thought that if there were community input were involved, we would have better design, we wouldn’t have the street closings; we would have renovated existing buildings,” the president of the Brooklyn Heights Association, Judith Stanton, said.

In an effort to better evaluate the project, Mr. Brennan said he submitted a freedom of information request with the ESDC in the fall that was rejected on the grounds that it involved discussions or communications that are exempted under the Freedom of Information Law. After being denied an appeal in November and receiving an indication from the new administration this year that the rejection would not be overturned, Mr. Brennan filed his lawsuit against the ESDC.

Mr. Brennan said the ESDC had not yet contacted him about the release of the data as of yesterday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for the ESDC Jessica Copen, said the decision comes as a result of the new administration reevaluating the decision, first made while Governor Pataki was in office.

A spokeswoman for Forest City Ratner said the company had no comment regarding the lawsuit, and has complied with government agencies in the public approval process.