Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

The agenda for the 1/28/20 Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life Meeting was circulated yesterday by Empire State Development, the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project.

And while the agenda was typically thin--a mere list of presenters--it did include something new: a New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) representative is expected to be in attendance.

That's a response to concerns raised about traffic chaos on certain Barclays Center event days, as well as during project construction, especially near Sixth Avenue between Dean Street and Atlantic Avenue.

Now that construction is expected to ramp up along Dean Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues for the B12 and B13 towers, constraining a passageway that's supposed to accommodate buses and bikes along with business and post office operations, residents have questions.

Other questions

Of course there are other significant questions for the meeting, such as the expected progress for the pla…

On Tuesday 1/28/20 is the bimonthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, where attendees often get an update on project plans, and get to hear from representatives of the state and the developer, plus--occasionally--other city agencies.

One big question: when will the B12 and B13 towers start?

A bigger question: what's the plan to build the platform over Block 1120, between Sixth and Carlton avenues and Pacific Street and Atlantic Avenue? It's supposed to start this year, but we don't have a schedule nor a time estimate (though I reported in November that documents estimated the first phase of the platform would take three years).

Another big question: does developer Greenland Forest City Partners plan to meet the requirement to build 2250 units of affordable housing by 2025 by building three 50% affordable towers, as one state document indicates? If not, does it plan a 100% affordable tower?

And how do they plan to fund that housing, and the platform, as G…

The NBA is a star's league. As explained on Nets Daily, not only are stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant 10th and 12th in the league, respectively, in individual jersey sales--despite Durant being out for the year and Irving mjissing many games--the team is now tenth in the league in total merchandise sales.
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant’s new Brooklyn Nets jerseys are the 10th and 12th best sellers, respectively, in the NBA.

Nets as a team sit 10th. pic.twitter.com/Dk5LEfIUWS — Billy Reinhardt (@BillyReinhardt) January 17, 2020 The Nets as a team were last in the top ten in 2014, not long after their 2012 debut, when they had some stars and were a playoffs team.

That suggests that the 2020-21 Nets, assuming Durant's back and plays well, will do even better.

About The Block

In The fight for New York's next generation of fans starts in Barclays Center's lower bowl, ESPN today describes how Section 114 of Barclays Center has become home to "The Block: a section of 96…

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning Monday, Jan. 20, was circulated Friday Jan. 17 at 5:01 pm (lead time) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners.

Newly planned is overnight work, from 6 pm to 6 at the Vanderbilt Yard: "Contractor plans to work second shift to sawcut/trench/excavate, install train servicing equipment, and install yard lighting structures... pending LIRR support availability. Limited demolition work on yard road base may also occur." It's unclear if that also includes weekends.

Ramping up at two tower sites

Also, work is ramping up at the two main construction sites, where excavation for towers has been continuing.
At B15 (664 or 662 Pacific), "Large steel trusses and the equipment needed to install them will be delivered and erected on site," according to the document. That means "Steel will be delivered overnight and stored in th…

Backing EB-5 power players is always bi-partisan, isn't it? In Graham Backs a Bill Friendly to Real-Estate Industry, the Wall Street Journal's Konrad Putzier reported 1/14/20 that not only is Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) a co-sponsor of a new bill, but so too are Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

The pending bill would essentially restore primacy for immigrant investor projects in major cities like New York. As I reported 10/31/19, new program rules raised the minimum investment from $500,000 to $900,000 (but not $1.35 million, as originally proposed), as long as the project is in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA), which is a rural area or an area of high unemployment. 
The non-TEA investment, generally ignored in recent years, increased from $1 million to $1.8 million, and it also made it much harder to define such a TEA, long gerrymandered by developers, the middlemen known as regional centers, and local governments eager to attract low-cost capital.
Ne…