Selling Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park condos in China: amenities include public school, "public park"; Brooklyn said to be "home to major finance firms," "coolest city"

Some questions that lingered after the hearing last week on the school planned for the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project were:

• why the B15 site between Dean and Pacific streets, so close to the arena and to planned construction at the B4 and B5 sites?
• what about the impact of a loading dock around the corner on Dean Street?
• what about the plans to shift arena entrances to the east side of the building during construction (not yet announced) of the B1 tower over the temporary plaza?
• what about the impacts of fire and police operations?

It was hard not to think that a lot more discussion is necessary. I queried the Department of Education, for example, to ask if there was any precedent in operating a school so close to a major sports facility, but have not yet gotten a response.

After all, the state had to override city zoning barring such facilities within 200 feet of a residential district. (Yes, the arena events are mostly at night, but there are school events at night too, and arena crowds gather during the day.)

School as selling point

But it's clear the public school is seen by developer Greenland Forest City Partners as a selling point for the luxury condos in 550 Vanderbilt (starting at $550,000), the first condo building under construction.

As shown in the excerpt below from a PowerPoint presentation (bottom) shown to potential buyers in China, "a New York City Public School" comes first on the list of amenities. Remember, Chinese investors are often very concerned about getting their children educated in the United States.

That said, they also may see that school as an important feature should they rent out their condos.

A "public park"

Note that, in marketing 550 Vanderbilt in English, they call the 8 acres "green space," and on the Pacific Park web site they call it "Brooklyn's newest park." In China--see above--they more boldly they call it a "lush new 8-acre public park."

Brooklyn = "Coolest City?

Yet again, project promoters have distorted praise from GQ magazine, which called Brooklyn "the Coolest City on the Planet," since they left out the rest of the headline in the original article, "An Eater's Guide."

"Brooklyn is Business"

Also note how the slide show claims that Brooklyn is "home to major finance firms like JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley."

More accurately, of course, it's that Brooklyn houses back-office operations for such firms.

550 Vanderbilt Powerpoint Distributed in China, Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park