By Dennis Holt
Senior Editor

It is not known how many specific dates in Brooklyn developer Bruce Ratner might recall favorably over the 20-plus years he has been changing the face of the downtown Brooklyn area.

One probably is the date in 1989 when ground was broken for the first building in MetroTech. Another clearly has to be Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Ratner enjoyed a more-or-less meaningful hat trick on that date. In that day’s issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, real estate editor Linda Collins ran a photo of the leasing team for Ratner’s new residential building on DeKalb Avenue.

This is Forest City’s first residential building in Brooklyn and its architectural quality seems to have surprised a lot of people. Designed by Costas Kondylis & Partners, it joins the ranks of the few really quality new buildings in downtown Brooklyn.

Another reason the date might mean a lot to Ratner is that the Empire State Development Corporation hosted a morning meeting in Manhattan of the directors of the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation, a local development corporation created under state law for the Atlantic Yards project.

This organization will deal with the prominent issue of tax-exempt bonds to help build the arena for the Nets. The exact purpose of the meeting was stated: “Authorization to issue bonds and take related actions with respect to the Atlantic Yards land use improvement and civic project.�

But the most important part of that date is that on November 24 the New York State Court of Appeals in a 60-page documnent ruled by a 6 to 1 vote that the state was correct in its decision to acquire property in the Atlantic Yards site by eminent domain.

Although there are other lawsuits, and new suits are being filed it seems like every week, this telling decision pretty much wraps up the critical question of land and property acquisition. It means that the bond issue can now go forward without any basis point penalties and is legally proper to be issued.

It also clears the decks for announcement of other financing decisions, and Forest City can keep its promise to break ground before the end of the year.

One would like to be able to say with firmness that finally this long-delayed project is operating in unfettered air. But the other lawsuits, although maybe trivial, still have to be adjudicated and hope does spring eternal. There will be all kinds of commentary and second-guessing, but one bottom line needs noting. Because of the intransigence of project opponents and their clear desire to take no prisoners, the opponents would not negotiate or deal with the developer or his plans all this time.

They have come away with no concessions because they didn’t try. The whole thing may wind up as one of the most one-sided (i.e. least modified by a compromise) major development projects in the city’s history.

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