Stribling & Associates founder Elizabeth Ann Stribling-Kivlan and 384 Atlantic Avenue (Building photo via StreetEasy)

Stribling & Associates is expanding into Brooklyn, but its pick for the new office, in Boerum Hill near the Barclays Center, is somewhat unusual: a former furniture shop at 384 Atlantic Avenue, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The brokerage has opened in a neighborhood where housing prices are not soaring, a contrast to where many of its contemporaries, such as Douglas Elliman and the Corcoran Group, have set up in Brooklyn. [more]

From left: John Catsimatidis, Bruce Ratner and Bill Thompson

Several New York City mayoral candidates threatened to penalize Forest City Ratner for delaying the construction of housing at Atlantic Yards, the Brooklyn Paper reported. [more]

Barclays Center

Mayor Michael Bloomberg highlighted the 2,000 jobs created by the Barclays Center in his State of the City speech yesterday, but the bulk of these positions are part-time and without benefits, DNAinfo reported. In fact, only 100 are full-time. However, most Barclays Center employees are union members of SEIU 32BJ, according to Forest City Ratner spokesperson Ashley Cotton. “There are no health benefits because they’re part-time employees,” Cotton told DNAinfo. “However, we feel, and hopefully they do too, that there’s a benefit to being part of a union.” [more]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivering the 2013 State of the City address at Barclay’s Center (Image courtesy of Frank Franklin II/Beaumont Enterprise)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his final State of the City address, applauded the role that real
estate developers have had in shaping what he referred to as “the big city of big dreams,”
and pointed out that megaprojects such as Hudson Yards, One World Trade Center and the
redevelopment of the South Street Seaport would revitalize the economy and ensure that New
York will remain a major player on the world stage. … [more]

From left: Barclays Center and Robert Sanna

Some bolts that fasten the Barclays Center’s steel panels to the structure have proved weak, and have had to be replaced, the New York Times reported. Engineers have found that about 8 percent of the 23,351 weaker bolts total — some 1,768 bolts — need replacement. [more]

From left: WTC,  the cast of MDLNY (top), the dangling crane atop One57 (bottom) and Barclays Center.

In 2012, One57 rose, and Dewey & LeBoeuf collapsed. The World Trade Center topped out, and Manhattan Apartments bottomed out. The Barclays Center brought stars to Brooklyn, and Bravo TV made celebrities of a trio of telegenic brokers. Read on for our choices for the top 10 real estate stories of the year. [more]

Bruce Ratner and Councilwoman Letitia James

Forest City Ratner should pay subway fares for Barclays Center patrons, as promised, as well as ferry service from New Jersey to Fulton Ferry, a new Brooklyn transportation report argues. City Councilwoman Letitia James, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and three local civic groups released the “Brooklyn gateway transportation vision,” arguing for congestion pricing, residential parking permits and more bike lanes, specifically around the stadium, Capital New York reported. [more]

Barclays Center

At least seven separate construction companies that helped build the Barclays Center have previously been caught for bribery, fraud and other wrongdoings, DNAinfo reported. The subcontractors are now on New York City’s caution list, which provides warnings about past problems with contract bidders.

A total of four were on the caution list while they worked on Barclays, but private developers are not required to consult the list before making hires for a project. [more]

Rendering of the B2 modular tower at Atlantic Yards (source: SHoP Architects)

The 17 tenants who accepted a relocation deal to leave their homes on the site of what is now the Barclays Center may soon be moving back home. But seven years later, some of those displaced residents are still fuming, the New York Daily News reported.

Under the unique deal, Forest City promised tenants living within the blueprint of the new Nets stadium affordable units in the B2, the new 32-story residential complex in Atlantic Yards, when completed in the summer of 2014. In the interim, tenants got nearby apartments at the same rent, in return for moving. [more]

Bruce Ratner and Barclays Center

A lawsuit filed against the city by Brooklyn Events Center, a subsidiary of Barclays Center developer Forest City Ratner, over a $741 million property tax appraisal for the stadium has been dropped, the New York Post reported.

Last month, the Ratner-affiliated organization went to New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn arguing that the city’s appraisal of the music venue and Nets basketball team home was off base. The developer suggested that the stadium’s actual value was closer to $111 million — despite not owing property taxes on the site under its current deal with the city and receiving some $761 million in subsidies and tax breaks to develop the 22-acre Atlantic Yards site. [more]