Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Gotham Gazette 10/16/18 published In Need of Partners: Affordability Gap Too Large for New York City to Cover Alone, by Sean Campion of the Citizens Budget Commission, who wrote:
A new report from Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) indicates rental burdens have not improved since 2014, and are most severe for low-income single households, particularly single seniors. The most effective programs for providing low-income, affordable housing have been federally funded; the city cannot handle the affordability problem on its own.
CBC analysis of data from the 2017 Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS) shows more than 921,000 renter households in New York City, or 44 percent of all renters, pay at least 30 percent of their income in rent.... Twenty-two percent of households – more than 462,000 families and single adults – are severely rent burdened, which means they pay 50 percent or more of their income in rent. How to fix it? The op-ed notes that two-thirds of poor households that are not rent-burde…

This is the sixth and last post concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The first post concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the second post was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard; the third post concerned contracts for future project monitors; the fourth post concerned plans for the B4 tower at the northeast corner of the arena block; the fifth post was about the other three towers planned soon. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting.

So when might Pacific Park be finished? Despite a recent document targeting 2035 that was filed by the project developer--as I wrote for The Bridge--residents posing pointed questions at the recent meeting faced obfuscation, misdirection, and denial from representatives of the developer and the state.

The project formerly known as Atlantic Yards was long supposed to have a ten-ye…

This is the fifth among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The first post concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the second post was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard; the third post concerned contracts for future project monitors; the fourth post concerned plans for the B4 tower at the northeast corner of the arena block. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting.

Greenland USA project manager Scott Solish said his firm was were "proud to be be partnering" with developers TF Cornerstone and The Brodsky Organization, which were "ideal partners" with "deep roots in New York City."

Unmentioned were the terms of the deals that Greenland Forest City Partners--controlled since June 95% going forward by Greenland USA--struck with the two family-owned firms.

The sale was …

This is the fourth among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The first post concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the second post was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard; the third post concerned contracts for future project monitors and the Site 5 tower. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting (and the slide presentation). 

So, there was a presentation about plans for B4, aka 18 Sixth Avenue, the giant tower slated for the northeast corner of the arena block, with more images than the one released a few weeks ago, as described below..

Greenland USA project manager Scott Solish introduced  Michael Lew, a principal at the architecture firm Perkins Eastman, who's leading the design.

Lew noted that his firm is large, with 1,000 employees worldwide and 58 in New York, with 14 different practice…

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning Monday, Oct. 15 was circulated at 3:10 pm yesterday (late) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners.

There are a few changes from the previous update, notably extended hours of work on the railyard's East Portal, including evening, night, and weekend work.

Not only will demolition of the East Portal structure continue near Atlantic and Vanderbilt avenues, to expedite the work, the contractor will extend the weekday work hours within approved permit stipulations (7 am to 5:30 pm) until the end of November.

The contractor also will work between 8 am and 5:30 pm on Saturdays. In both cases, the timeline will be reevaluated in November. Appropriate noise and dust mitigation measures should be in place, but are not detailed.

Also, the contractor plans to perform East Portal abatement activities--asbestos? it's unspecified-- during Night…

This is the third among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The first post concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the second post was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting. 

Questions about the state's monitoring of Pacific Park were again deferred until when an expected seismic change in the project plan surfaces.

As ESD's Atlantic Yards project manager  Tobi Jaiyesimi noted, the state authority's contracts with environmental monitor, the firm HDR, and an owners’ representative, STV, were extended earlier this year with no change in the scope of work.
"And we anticipate that those contracts will be put out for an RFP [Request for Propsoal], as we discussed in conversations with [former Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation] Dire…

From Gothamist, 10/11/18, Hudson Yards Has $4.5 Billion In Taxpayer Money. Will We Ever See It Again?:
"Whether large-scale projects like Hudson Yards or Atlantic Yards pay for themselves is difficult to assess," concludes Doug Turetsky, chief of staff for the IBO [Independent Budget Office], which has conductedseveralstudies of aspects of Hudson Yards financing but has never dared to attempt calculating a total public cost figure. Well, it's true that the IBO's pre-project Atlantic Yards calculations were based on assumptions that have not panned out, like a steady buildout. Also, the developer's projections, both for themselves and for the public, were also based on unrealistic assumptions.

Also worth considering is what development would've happened anyway, without Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, or whether a different, more realistic project might have delivered more (and faster) public benefit, as well as more certain private benefit.

A building across from the southeast block of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park--where two residential (plus retail) towers are completed and the other two likely to be finished or make significant progress in two or three years--is now on sale for $8.7 million, positioned for office and retail use.
From Real Estate Weekly, 10/11/18:
TerraCRG has been retained to sell 646 Dean Street, an 18,800 s/f conversion opportunity in Prospect Heights. Ofer Cohen, Dan Marks, Daniel Lebor and Mike Hernandez, along with their investment sales team, are marketing the property. Located between Vanderbilt and Carlton Avenue, directly across the street from Pacific Park, the four-story, M1-1 zoned building can be delivered vacant. The location and zoning make the asset ideal for creative office and retail use. Brooklyn-focused TerraCRG, by the way, is located just a few doors down, at 634 Dean Street.
The TerraCRG listing sets the price at $8.7 million:
TerraCRG has been retained to exclusively represent ow…