Elizabeth Fine became General Counsel and Executive Vice-President of the Empire State Development Corporation in 2014 after a long career of government service. Fine grew up in New Haven, Washington D.C., and Lima, Peru. Her family eventually settled in the Boston area, where Fine graduated Brookline High School. Jonathan Fine, Elizabeth’s father, had worked in Lima for the Agency for International Development while her mother, Edith W. Fine, was an administrator for the Peace Corp. Afterwards Fine’s mother worked as an attorney for Boston’s Corporation Counsel and later became a judge of the Boston Municipal Court, then rising to the Massachusetts Superior Court and the Massachusetts Court of Appeals. Fine’s father eventually became the Boston’s Deputy Commissioner of Health and founded the non-profit “Physicians for Human Rights.” (more…)

ESDC’s determination upheld that three blocks outside urban renewal area were blighted. In 2003, Forest City Ratner proposed to redevelop a 22-acre site in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The site included portions of the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area and portions of three privately-owned blocks outside the renewal area. After Ratner’s proposal was accepted, the Empire State Development Corporation designated itself as lead agency for the project under state environmental law. ESDC prepared an environmental impact statement and a blight study, and later approved the findings in both documents, including the finding that portions of the three privately-owned blocks were blighted. A coalition of local business owners and residents challenged ESDC’s blight finding in the non-renewal area and the sufficiency of the environmental impact statement. Supreme Court Judge Joan A. Madden rejected the challenge, and the decision was appealed. 5 CityLand 16 (Feb. 15, 2008).

On appeal, the coalition argued, among other things, that ESDC arbtrarily selected build years that distorted the project’s potential environmental impacts. The coalition also argued that ESDC’s failure to consider the positive real estate trends in the non-renewal area led it to unreasonably conclude that the proposed project was uniquely capable of alleviating blight in the non-renewal area. The coalition further claimed that ESDC’s finding of blight for the non-renewal area was unsubstantiated. (more…)

Residents argued that the project’s public uses were illegitimate. The $4 billion Atlantic Yards project calls for an 18,000-seat arena for the Nets professional basketball team, a 180- room hotel, at least 16 high-rise apartment and office buildings, and eight acres of open space. The project site includes the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area, as well as surrounding areas developed by commercial and residential structures. The project calls for the Empire State Development Corporation to condemn private land for the project by eminent domain. 5 CityLand 16 (Feb. 15, 2008).

Brooklyn residents filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing that the proposed condemnation would not serve a public use because it would benefit private developer Forest City Ratner. (more…)

Residents failed to show ESDC acted without rational basis. Brooklyn residents sued the Empire State Development Corporation, the MTA and the State Public Authorities Control Board, arguing that the agencies wrongfully approved the $4 billion project to redevelop the Atlantic Terminal area. The project would replace residential and commercial structures with a mixed-use development that would include an 18,000-seat arena designed by Frank Gehry for the Nets professional basketball team, a 180-room hotel, 16 high-rise apartment and office buildings, and eight acres of open space. 3 CityLand135 (Oct. 15, 2006).

Residents claimed that ESDC violated the Urban Development Corporation Act, or UDCA, and the state environmental review process, or SEQRA, when it approved the project. They argued that ESDC is not authorized under the UDCA to undertake the project because ESDC wrongfully designated it as a “civic project” even though the sports facility would mainly serve a for-profit, private entity. Similarly, the residents claimed that ESDC violated the UDCA when it designated the project as a “land improvement project” to address blight, arguing that the project site includes areas “in the midst of a residential real estate boom” as owners are converting industrial buildings to residences to meet growing demand. Lastly, the residents accused ESDC of violating SEQRA by failing to take the requisite “hard look” at certain environmental concerns, such as the risk of a terrorist attack. (more…)

Mayor Eric Adams. Photo Credit: facebook.com/NYCMayor

On January 6, 2023, Mayor Eric Adams and Corporation Counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix announced the filing of two lawsuits against Alma Realty Corp. and Empire Management America Corp. for the failure to fix thousands of code violations which created dangerous living conditions for tenants. Additionally, the city announced a settlement with Sentinel Real Estate Corporation to establish a timeline for repairs. (more…)