Prospects for Prospect Heights unclear

Last month, 28-year-old Simon Ramsey moved even closer to the Nets. He moved down Underhill Avenue to a new home on Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights, a few blocks from the site where developer Forest City Ratner wants to construct at 19,000-seat arena.

But it’s not the attraction of the Nets, or the planned 6.5 million square feet of residential and commercial space alongside the arena, that excites Ramsey about his new home. Ramsey, a photographer, loves Brooklyn’s trees.

“The trees along the streets of Brooklyn are incredible,” he said on a sunny June Saturday as he lugged suitcases down Underhill Avenue and stood in the shade of a Brooklyn tree. “It’s so hard to find trees like that in the city.”

Prospect Heights sits inside, and adjacent to, the Nets development in Brooklyn, known as Atlantic Yards. No other neighborhood will be potentially helped more, or hurt, by the barrage of construction. Altogether, there would be 4,500 housing units, 2.1 million square feet of office space, 300,000 square feet of retail space, 3,000 parking spots and six acres of public open space. The stadium, at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, will sit atop the Long Island Rail Road rail yard.

Opposition to the development is loud, but it’s not clear whether it’s enough to stop it. On the day that Ramsey moved down Underhill Avenue, there was an anti-Ratner rally on Pacific Street, where buildings on land needed for the development would be taken by eminent domain. The rally filled most of the block, and was a cross between old-time block party and lefty protest. One sign read, “We Love Mom & Pop Brooklyn” and another read in bold black letters, “Our Communities. Our Taxes. Our Choice.”

“This is nothing more than a land grab for the rich,” City Council member Letitia James told an energized crowd.

What the Ratner development would mean for Prospect Heights real estate is unclear, several agents said in interviews. They said it depends on how it’s built, how it looks, the amenities for the area, and whether residents decide to compromise with developer Bruce Ratner.

“I think it’s a bit of an unknown,” said Teri Cavanaugh, sales agent for Brooklyn Properties and a Prospect Heights resident. “A lot of it depends on how the stadium looks and how friendly it is to the surrounding area.”

“If it’s like MetroTech [16-acre commercial complex also built by Ratner in the area], it won’t be so great, because the construction of MetroTech is not so beautiful,” she said. “If they are sensitive to the area and have it blend into the area, and if Ratner is friendly to the neighborhood around it and helps them develop commercially, it would be a good thing.”

Concerns center on the high-rise buildings that would accompany the arena, said Jim Kerby, a Douglas Elliman agent and Prospect Heights resident.

“Right now, it seems they are proposing a severe line between a low-rise neighborhood and the buildings,” he said.

In many ways, agents said the proposed site for the Nets arena doesn’t have a parallel in New York. There is no neighborhood like Prospect Heights next to Madison Square Garden. Columbia University’s plan to redevelop a section of West Harlem is similar, one agent said, but not on the same scale.

Following the resurgence and gentrification of Park Slope, Prospect Heights has gone through a real estate surge during the last decade, agents said. Brownstones in the area now sell for between $800,000 and $1.5 or $1.6 million, depending on the block and condition.

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Industrial buildings have been converted to condominiums, including the former Daily News printing plant on Pacific Street, now called Newswalk. Last month, a 1,149-square-foot unit in that building was selling for $735,000. A three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,200 square foot co-op in a prewar building on Grand Army Plaza sold late last year for $575,000.

Prospect Heights’ schools don’t attract young families the way they do in Park Slope, but the tree-lined streets, relative quiet and transportation access provide plenty of incentives. “It’s a very neat neighborhood,” said Kerby. “It’s essentially just the mirror neighborhood of Park Slope across Flatbush Avenue.”

Forest City Ratner executives say their project will be a boon to the neighborhood. Atlantic Yards will meet vital city needs, with mixed-income housing, 25,000 construction and permanent jobs and public space, said Barry Baum, a company spokesman, who released a prepared statement. “There is no doubt that Atlantic Yards will be a tremendous public benefit to Brooklyn and the city.” The developer declined to comment further for this article.

In neighborhood interviews, several residents agreed that those benefits make Atlantic Yards attractive, even as they fret about traffic and eminent domain.

“It’s all right. I’m for it,” said Alexis Davis, 18. “But it’s a shame that people would have to move out.”

It’s also too bad, she added, that this wasn’t proposed years ago when the blocks around the rail yards were far less desirable than they are now.

Opponents say the plan would mean displacement of around 350 people, a 400-person capacity homeless shelter and 33 businesses with 235 employees, according to The Village Voice.

The opposition calls Atlantic Yards overdevelopment, plain and simple.

“This community is not like a city,” said Kara Yeargans, 50, a Fort Greene resident who attended the anti-Ratner rally on Pacific Street. “There are a lot of mom-and-pop stores.” The arena will destroy that small-scale neighborhood feel, Yeargans said.

“It’s not what I came here for. It’s like Manhattan,” she said. And she said the development’s job promises are empty. “Young people look at this as a way to get jobs, but that didn’t happen at MetroTech.”

Still, real estate turnover in Prospect Heights remains low, agents said.

“It doesn’t seem like people are running away,” Kerby said.

The concern about prices may be more in the short-term during construction, and as people wait to see how the development fight shakes out. Kerby said he sees signs of hesitancy from buyers, and some may be looking at Park Slope, Fort Greene and Boerum Hill before Prospect Heights.

“People may just be more inclined, if they have to buy a house, to buy a house there,” he said.

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