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 … <Read More>
Empire State Development Corporation
Court affirms dismissal of Atlantic Yards challenge
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 … <Read More>
Commission modifies CB9 and Columbia plans
Commission signs off on Columbia’s eminent domain option despite vocal opposition. On November 26, 2007, the Planning Commission modified and approved both Columbia University’s campus expansion plan and Community Board 9’s 197-a plan. The two plans must now go before the City Council for their review.
Columbia’s plan called for rezoning 35 acres of Manhattanville, a section of West Harlem primarily zoned for manufacturing, to facilitate construction of a 17-acre academic mixed-use development roughly bounded … <Read More>
Maritime school to move to Governors Island
New York Harbor School will occupy former Army barracks. Landmarks voted to approve the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation’s plan to move New York Harbor School, a Brooklyn-based public high school with a strong maritime focus, into a former military barracks building located in the Governors Island Historic District.
GIPEC is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation created to develop civic spaces on Governors Island after the federal government handed control of … <Read More>
ESDC unveils vision for Moynihan Station
- ESDC plans to convert the James A. Farley Post Office complex into Moynihan Station West. Photo: Regional Plan Association.
Plan includes multiple development projects. On October 23, 2007, the Empire State Development Corporation released its draft environmental scope document for the Moynihan Station project. The project, first proposed by Senator Patrick Moynihan 15 years ago, would create a new train station within the historic James A. Farley Post Office complex, renovate the current Penn Station, … <Read More>