Metro

Last Atlantic Yards holdout cuts $3M deal to go

Holding out against the biggest land development in Brooklyn has paid off neatly for the man who’s name and face were synonymous with the effort to kill the Atlantic Yards project.

After stonewalling Bruce Ratner’s plan to build skyscrapers and a new arena for the NBA’s Nets for seven years, Daniel Goldstein — the last property-owner holdout — finally cut a deal with the developer for a cool $3 million.

The payout was nearly $2 million more than he was could have accepted six years ago to get out of the way.

Goldstein, the most public face of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the group that nearly broke the project’s back through mounting litigation, reached the deal today to sell his three-bedroom Prospect Heights apartment to Ratner.

Goldstein paid $590,000 for the condo in 2003 — only months before Ratner presented his Atlantic Yards project, which besides the 18,000 seat arena, is set to include 16 skyscrapers of residential and commercial space.

Ratner, who bought the Nets and used his pitch of bringing the team to Brooklyn to help get approval for his 22-acre plan, is waiting for NBA approval to sell a majority stake in the team to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who will follow through on the dream of returning professional sports to Brooklyn.

Goldstein’s buyout was finalized in court as he was fighting eviction proceedings by the state, which previously seized his apartment and other private land for the project through eminent domain.

While Goldstein might have lost the fight to block Atlantic Yards, he certainly doesn’t walk away a loser.

When the other 29 condo owners in his building were bought out in 2004, Ratner shelled out about $850 a square foot to them — which would have translated into $1.1 million for Goldstein’s 1,290-square-foot apartment.

The state had recently tried to low-ball Goldstein by determining that his condo is worth $510,000 — or $395 per square foot.

Goldstein said the $3 million deal was “acceptable” and that he would use the cash to relocate with his wife and young daughter to a new home in Brooklyn. They have to be out by May 7.

“It’s a lot of money and it will make it easier to find a new place but a lot of it has to go toward paying off legal fees,” Goldstein said. He also said his decision to fight Ratner was never about getting a better deal but fighting what he and others believe is an unconstitutional eminent domain law.

The settlement doesn’t prevent Goldstein from speaking out against Atlantic Yards, and Goldstein said that while he believes the arena will be built he still has serious doubts that most the project’s affordable units that Ratner promised will be built.

Before cutting the deal with Goldstein, Ratner’s company announced that the last seven renters within the project site have also signed agreements to get out of the way. Renters were provided an option to move into a yet-to-be-built building at Atlantic Yards with the developer covering the difference in rent or an average lump sum payment of $80,000 plus $5,000 to assist with relocation.