The Battle For Ground Zero, Part X

Will Collier of Vodkapundit comes across something that I've been meaning to write for the past few weeks. He does so far more succinctly than I could have. He writes about the Forest City Ratner real estate development group, which operates nationwide. They are deeply involved in many big-name real estate projects around the country, and have more than a few high profile projects in the city.

[ed: links removed - see original link to access background] Forest City is a publicly-traded development and real estate conglomerate run by the Ratner family of Cleveland, Ohio. Led by the Ratners, Forest City is a player in major developments on both coasts (and many places in between), including some of the hottest hot spots in eminent domain seizures.

The biggest, or at least the most publicized, involves a huge tract of Brooklyn in New York City. The Ratners are proposing to turn it into a condo-shopping-basketball-arena complex; Bruce Ratner of Forest Park is the owner of the New Jersey Nets. The Ratners are lobbying the city and state of New York to exercise eminent domain powers to seize properties in Brooklyn for this project.

(Incidentally, Bruce Ratner's brother Michael runs the far-left humanrightsnow.org website, and is president of the George Soros-funded "Center for Constitutional Rights," and is one of the major legal players trying to free the terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Quite a family there.)

In addition to the Uptown Project in Oakland, Forest City is a prime contractor in a gigantic shopping mall project in San Francisco which involves eminent domain seizures of private property. The company is also partnered with the New York Times to build the Times' new headquarters in Manhattan--on a site that was seized especially for the Times by New York City. Small surprise then that the Times is (thus far) second only to Nancy Pelosi in cheerleading for the Kelo decision.

Here in NYC, they have built Metrotech Center in Brooklyn, are planning to build the Nets Arena near Atlantic Center, which is another one of their projects, and have built the New York Times headquarters building. The Brooklyn arena would be built atop railyards, just as the Jets stadium project would have. The Brooklyn plan would require eminent domain proceedings to proceed against property owners adjacent to the yards, significantly enlarging the size and scope of the project. An alternative developer, Extell, has come forth offering to build a smaller version of the project, with towers of up to 20 stories (Ratner was looking to build several 60 story towers), and would be confined to the area over the rail yards. Ratner is a very connected group - as all major real estate developers have to be in order to get many of their projects approved and built.

It is no surprise that Ratner has benefitted from eminent domain proceedings - that is the kind of thing that developers hope to gain. They happen to have an inside track, plus support from the Times. Sometimes politics and real estate is personal - and nothing is more personal than making sure your opponents can't get their projects done, which I suspect is going on with Ground Zero.

UPDATE:
The museum plans will likely be revised to provide more space to the memorial.

A controversial museum slated for Ground Zero would be scaled down in size and would include stronger ties to the attacks on the World Trade Center under a new plan for the site.

"In the wake of recent criticisms and concerns regarding the International Freedom Center . . . we have taken a step back to examine how best to meet the high standards that all who are involved at Ground Zero remain committed to meet," wrote the center's chairman, Tom Bernstein, and vice-chair, Paula Berry.

The letter to Lower Manhattan Development Corp. President Stefan Pryor called for scaling back the size of the museum building so that there would be more space between the building and the memorial, up from 25 feet to 45 feet.

The fate of The Drawing Center, a SoHo gallery slated to move to Ground Zero, is unclear under the new proposal. The center has come under fire for anti-American exhibits.

Officials familiar with the proposal could not say how much smaller the museum building would be after the changes. It is now proposed to be 250,000 square feet.

I don't think the scaling back of the museum would be sufficient to placate Burlingame, Take Back The Memorial, or most Americans who would be offended by anyone seeking to blame the victims for the attacks, which is precisely what those involved in the Drawing Center and IFC have stated in the past.

UPDATE II:
Design by Committee looks at the revised Freedom Tower and thinks it is better than earlier incarnations.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower.