The yards as they once were.

The battle over the Atlantic Yards has been a punishing experience even for the most dedicated community activist. It has been long and unrewarding and now, with the opening of the arena, many are finally calling it quits, The New York Times reports.

Losing the fight over eminent domain was the first straw and after years of sifting through documents, plans and financial filings, many saw Jay-Z's first concert there as the last straw. The arena is a fait accompli and while the huge housing towers that helped Forest City Ratner secure so much government funding have yet to materialize, nitpicking the plans for the next half-decade is not something a lot of the opponents can stomach.

Nor do they want to.

“I never realized how angry I was during those years,” musician Scott M.X. Turner told The Times. “Now my life is not being angry all the time.”

People neglected careers, friends and families to devote 20 or more hours to the battle against Barclays. Opposing the project became an all-consuming passion for many and one that they no longer want to devote themselves to.

Candance Carponter, the real estate lawyer behind Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, admitted to exhaustion, but said that she was proud for fighting for what she believed in, even if she hadn't won the fight.

Many who plan to, or have already thrown in the towel, have also moved on physically, taking up residence in new neighborhoods or states. Others, particularly those who must live with the new arena, vow to continue.

“The fight isn’t over,” graphic designer Jon Crow, who is involved with a nearby community garden, told The Times. “We’ve got a neighborhood to protect.”

kvelsey@observer.com

A passerby to his 31-unit building at 636 Pacific Street every night will see just one apartment light on, surrounded by a sea of black windows that stand in the footprint for a new arena for the New Jersey Nets. Condo board meetings consist of himself and executives with Forest City Ratner, the developer trying to build the arena that bought out the rest of his building.

And for half a decade, he has been the face of opposition to Bruce Ratner and his planned $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project, protesting every step of the way, pointing out flaws with every step of the project, and working with other opponents to file lawsuit after lawsuit to stop the development.

As of Wednesday, he is a holdout no longer.

With the state intending to use eminent domain to take his property within a matter of weeks or months, Mr. Goldstein agreed to a deal with Forest City Ratner to sell his apartment for $3 million, according to two people familiar with the deal. This is considerably more than the appraised value by the state ($510,000), as well as the amount he paid for it in 2003 ($590,000). Under the terms of the agreement, he must leave the apartment by May 7. Following a settlement with tenants of a neighboring building, there are no more holdouts living in the footprint.

Of course, Mr. Goldstein had Forest City Ratner in something of a tough spot: He would presumably have delayed arena construction enough to frustrate Forest City's efforts to build the arena for the 2012 NBA season, so long as a judge ruled he could have stayed in his property. Forest City likely thought that by paying more than he would have gotten through the courts, they could once and for all rid themselves of a man who has been such a persistent thorn in their sides.

Still, it does offer something of a lesson to wavering holdouts in similar eminent domain situations: If you wait until the end, the payout might indeed be more lucrative.

Mr. Goldstein did agree to concessions: he will have to step aside as spokesman for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and not actively protest the project. He may still remain a member of DDDB and say what he likes about the project, a point he held strong on in negotiations, according to his attorney, Micheal Rikon.  

"He is allowed to make any statements that he wants and exercise his First Amendment rights—which was, believe it or not, a key point in the final negotiations," Mr. Rikon said. "He was perfectly willing to walk away from the settlement if it meant stopping him from expressing his opinions."

Mr. Goldstein and other residents proved effective in holding up the project for at least a year more than Forest City ever expected with a string of lawsuits. The use of eminent domain was challenged in federal and state courts--an unusual approach that added months onto the process.

But ever since the state's top court threw out the eminent domain case, the property takings have seemed a foregone conclusion, particularly after Forest City Ratner secured financing on the arena in December.

The last significant piece of the puzzle is the NBA approval of Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's purchase of the Nets, and the related closing of his deal with Forest City to take the team and invest in the project. 

ebrown@observer.com

Following a surprise court decision last week that ruled as unconstitutional the use of eminent domain for Columbia University's West Harlem expansion, opponents of the giant Brooklyn development Thursday appealed again to the state's top court. The group of Brooklyn landowners and tenants asked the court to rehear their own eminent domain case, which the court dismissed in November, allowing the state to proceed with eminent domain.

The move is a last-ditch motion for the landowners, who have sought to portray the Columbia decision as breathing new life into their opposition efforts.

"The Appellate Division - confronted with a materially identical blight record," the landowners' motion to reargue said, "rejected a strikingly similar condemnation determination."

The lawsuit is below.

Motion Tore Argue

On Monday morning, a series of Brooklyn neighborhood and community groups announced they had filed a suit challenging the approval of the $4.9 billion mega-project, an action that comes as the clock ticks ever closer to a Dec. 31 financing deadline that developer Forest City Ratner must meet.

The lawsuit--which challenges the approval process when the state re-approved a modified version of the project in September--is now the fifth major suit brought or organized by the main group opposing the plan, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. There have been two eminent domain suits, the second of which was heard at the state's top court last week; an environmental review lawsuit; and a recently filed lawsuit challenging the re-approval by the M.T.A., which owns much of the site.

Of course, it's not clear that any of these lawsuits stands in the way of Bruce Ratner's firm as it tries to sell $700 million in bonds to finance the centerpiece Nets basketball arena before the end of the year. Mr. Ratner has said he is seeking a setup where investors buying the bonds would put money into escrow, and would be able to get their money back should the lawsuits ultimately topple the project--a prospect considered unlikely at this point by many attorneys familiar with development litigation.

Mr. Ratner is indeed scrambling to pull all the pieces together, rounding up more cash and sped-up subsidies, and trying to get his bonds rated so they can be marketed and then, he hopes, bought by investors. Whether or not the timid bond market will take them is the big question for the project.

This most recent lawsuit essentially claims that the project changed so much between the initial approval, late 2006, and the new approval in September that the state's development agency should have done a new environmental review document, among other issues.

Further, the M.T.A., in its separate approval, effectively acknowledged a 25-year likely timeline for the project, far more than was in the Modified General Project Plan approved in September (which said the whole 22-acre mixed-use project could be done in 10 years). With a longer construction period, the state should have done a separate environmental review of the impacts that would have, the lawsuit charges.

The new General Project Plan also does not discuss a need for housing subsidies in order for the below-market rate housing to be built, the lawsuit says. 

ebrown@observer.com

More from Eliot Brown on Atlantic Yards:

Atlantic Yards at New York's High Court

State Consultant: Ratner’s Assumptions at Atlantic Yards 'Moderately Aggressive'

When Bruce Met Mikhail: The Backstory on the Nets-Atlantic Yards Deal

The decision by the Court of Appeals was not expected by the project’s developer—Bruce Ratner and his Forest City Ratner—at least based on its public statements and actions. After a year and a half of stagnation, the development seemed to gain new momentum in recent weeks after an appellate court ruled against opponents. Mr. Ratner had been pushing for new public approvals and renegotiated deals with the stated intent of breaking ground on the arena this fall.

Mr. Ratner already confronts a tight schedule in securing $530 million in tax-free financing for the arena. Based on a Dec. 31 I.R.S. deadline for the financing, the cost of the arena would jump by tens of millions of dollars without a tax exemption, and the task of securing financing would grow substantially harder (the broader real estate financing market is more inclement than the tax-free bond market). Thus the viability of the project seems to depend in large part on how fast the court can turn around a ruling.

In a letter that landowners and tenants’ attorneys received Monday (by standard mail), the court said it would hear the case in its October session, failing to honor a request by the state to hear the case “no later than September 9.” From there, the court acts on its own timeline to issue a decision, so it’s unclear whether or not a ruling would be issued before Mr. Ratner's year-end deadline for tax-free arena financing.

Just after the appellate court decision last month in the developer’s favor, Forest City seemed to be working under the assumption that the project opponents would be unsuccessful in their final appeal. Hours after the appellate decision was announced, Mr. Ratner broke months of press silence and told reporters that he would break ground on the arena later in the year.

At the time, in response to a set of questions I had for Forest City, the developer’s spokesman characterized the opponent’s chances as slim.

“The decision was pretty definitive—in fact, unanimous and strongly written,” the spokesman, Joe DePlasco, said in an email at the time. “They can seek to appeal but it is unlikely it will be granted and we are proceeding based on the victory that we won.

“We are proceeding with the financing. While ESDC [the Empire State Development Corporation] will handle eminent domain issues, we believe that we can finance this deal even if there is an appeal—but we do not anticipate an appeal.”

Based on the prior victory, last week, the developer renegotiated a deal with the M.T.A. to pay about $180 million less up front for the rights to build the project, and it is in the process of gaining new approval from the state.

On Tuesday, in a statement, Mr. DePlasco expressed confidence again:

The Appellate Division ruled unanimously in May in favor of the use of eminent domain because of the public benefits associated with Atlantic Yards. We’re confident that the Court of Appeals will come to the same conclusion.  We are moving forward aggressively following last week’s approval by the MTA and authorization by the Empire State Development Corporation. We intend to be in construction before the end of the year.

ebrown@observer.com

The IFC Media Project, made up of producers who worked on Michael Moore films, will air an episode that devotes 10 minutes to Atlantic Yards, according to the series’ Web site.

The film's take on print journalism's Atlantic Yards coverage seems less than laudatory:

The episode airs Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. on IFC. Check out a review of the series here.

The amount is just slightly less than the $50,000 it reported at the event last year, but less than half the $100,000 it reported in the heat of the battle in 2006.

The money goes toward the legal challenge, which is currently focused on the use of eminent domain at the Prospect Heights site. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a federal lawsuit brought by the group, prompting a separate suit in state court, which will be heard next year, as a state judge recently rejected an attempt to dismiss the challenge.

Opposition group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn put out a release today announcing the lawsuit, filed Friday, which claims the development was approved to benefit a private developer (Bruce Ratner) as opposed to benefit the public (which would justify the use of eminent domain), among other charges.

"Far from emerging from a legitimate democratic process where the public interest is identified and articulated," the suit says, "the Project is the product of a developer's dream-and a conscious effort to bypass City procedures mandating meaningful local review, planning, democratic oversight and community input."

If anything else, the lawsuits thus far seem to have delayed the start of the more than $4 billion planned project, which calls for a new basketball arena for the Nets, and over 6,000 apartments. Now, more than a year and a half since the Atlantic Yards project received state approval, a host of clouds circle over developer Forest City Ratner, which once anticipated building the entire first phase (which includes the arena, an office tower and at least 1,000 units of housing) by 2010. The once-lush climate for financing has turned to an arid desert, tax-free housing bonds are in short supply given soaring demand, and the financing mechanism by which the company was to get tax-free bonds for the arena is under fire by the I.R.S., threatening to drive up costs by more than $100 million.

But if the landowners had an uphill climb challenging eminent domain in federal court, the ascent in New York state court is generally regarded as a particularly daunting one, given the relatively generous treatment to the state by New York's eminent domain law.

We're waiting on a statement from Forest City, but if history is any guide, the company will point out (correctly) that the courts have tossed all the lawsuits challenging the project to date.

Release below.

[Update 2:30 p.m. Forest City statement added below]

The plaintiffs in the suit are now pledging to take the case to state court, a route they initially avoided as eminent domain laws in New York tend to be relatively favorable to the state.

In the federal suit, the landowners and tenants charged that the state’s use of eminent domain was improper as it was intended for a private gain of developer Bruce Ratner, who sought to move the Nets basketball team to a new arena on the site and build over 6,000 apartments. The suit was tossed out before reaching the trial phase.

“Now we will turn to the state courts to vindicate our rights. We will soon file an action in New York state court under state law as we were expressly permitted to do by the rulings of the federal courts,” the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Matthew Brinckerhoff, said in a statement.

In an interesting twist, the folks at Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn point out that today is the third anniversary of the landmark Kelo v. New London decision by the Supreme Court, a case that cleared the way for states to use eminent domain for economic development.

Update 12:05 p.m.

Statement from Bruce Ratner, chairman of developer Forest City Ratner

A rally is scheduled for Saturday.

In a group of electeds that seems a bit larger than usual, those slated to attend (according to Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn) include: Councilman Bill DeBlasio, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, Councilwoman Letitia James, Councilman David Yassky, and Councilman Tony Avella.

Also of note, The Real Deal put an article on its site Friday evening that reported on an effort by Newark-based officials and investors to woo the Nets to the newly-built Prudential Center arena. Newark has never been too happy about losing the Nets to Brooklyn, and a second professional team in the arena could clearly help its financial viability. With that said, Forest City stressed in the article that they are committed to bringing the Nets to Brooklyn.