At Monday’s Coney Island charrette kick-off, hosted by the Municipal Art Society, a number of stakeholders from the area gave presentations to the design team to help them form ideas for leading the charrette in a few weeks. (To share your own, visit the imagineconey.com, which just launched today.)
One of the presentations was given by Jon Benguiat, the director of planning and development for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who spoke about Asser Levy Park, a small outdoor amphitheater and park across Surf Avenue from the aquarium, which is getting a dramatic $64 million retractable roof courtesy of Grimshaw. (More on that soon, we hope.)
As with all these things, there was a Power Point presentation, and as with all Power Point presentations, the whole thing took some time to boot up. In the interim, Benguiat decided to tell the story of how he became Marty’s planning direct, during which he let some shocking news about the Atlantic Yards, or at least the fate of the Brooklyn Nets, slide.
But first a caveat: We had considered letting this news go on Monday, in light of the off-hand circumstances and the fact that AN is not one for “gotcha journalism.” After all, it would not come as a surprise to most people following the project that it is in trouble, what with Forect City’s stock plummeting, its credit rating following suit, and, speaking of suit’s, DDDB’s got picked up by the state appeals court. Granted the IRS ruled in Bruce Ratner’s favor on some tax-exempt bonds, but that’s got to be small consolation.
However, when reports about the possible sale or relocation of the Nets began to circulate the past two days, as Atlantic Yards watchdog Norman Oder has pointed out, we felt it out duty to relay Benguiat’s words.
Waiting on Monday for the projector to warm up, Benguiat told the crowd that, when Marty got elected, he had served as the previous borough president’s director of land use. Asking if Markowitz was looking for one, the beep-to-be said no, but he did need a director of planning. “Without even thinking about it, I said yes,” Benguiat said. “Then I spent the whole night fretting, wondering what I’d gotten myself into.”
Benguiat said his anxiety only grew when he showed up for the first day of work and Markowitz rattled off the list of initiatives he hoped to pursue: the revival of Coney Island, return of pro sports to the borough, realization of Brooklyn Bridge Park, and redevelopment of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg waterfront. “I won’t repeat all the expletives I spewed when I heard this,” Benguiat said. “But here we are, nearly all of them complete. I’m not sure if we’re going to get the Nets or not. We should have groundbreaking in December, but we’ll see.”
How much Benguiat knows–even Ratner has admitted that the groundbreaking will likely be pushed back due to the lawsuit–is uncertain, but his statement is one of the most dire to come out of the Markowitz administration, which is uniformly unwavering in its support for the project, no matter the legal or financial circumstances.
Asked to clarify his comments afterwards, Benguiat declined to comment, instead directing AN to the borough president’s press office, which released the following statement from Markowitz:
The current state of the American economy underscores the importance of moving ahead with projects like Atlantic Yards, and I am confident the project will happen. It will create union jobs and much-needed affordable housing, as well as bring professional sports back to Downtown Brooklyn—becoming just the kind of investment magnet that Brooklyn and New York City need right now
Now that the team is in doubt, would the Atlantic Yards project still enjoy the full support of the borough president without one of its foremost reasons for being? Markowitz’s office has yet to respond on that front. No word yet from Forest City Ratner, either.
