Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

This is the second of three articles on Greenland USA finances related to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. The first concerned Greenland's large impairment (loss in value).  A Forest City Realty Trust press release June 28, 2018, Forest City, Greenland Close Restructuring of Pacific Park Brooklyn Partnership , indicated, that, as previously announced, Greenland USA would acquire all but 5% of Forest City Ratner/Forest City Realty Trust's ownership interest in Pacific Park going forward. No price was announced. While some, including me, unwisely used the term "buy," the press release didn't specify a sale, or a price. As I describe below, evidence--neither confirmed nor denied--suggests that Forest City simply gave it away, to avoid further losses. That press release carefully cited a "restructuring" that took "Greenland USA's ownership interest in the venture from 70 percent to 95 percent going forward, and Forest City's interest from 30 percen

This is the first of three articles on Greenland USA finances related to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.  An audit of Greenland Holding Group, the Shanghai-based parent of Greenland USA, indicates that, as of the end of 2023, the firm recognized an impairment--a loss in value--of nearly $391 million from its investment in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. That indicates the impact of project delays and helps explain why there's been no revenue, or cushion, to pay back outstanding loans, now facing foreclosure, under the EB-5 investor visa program.  Though the impairment is substantial, it's little more than half of the $732 million in impairments, as detailed below, suffered by original developer Forest City Enterprises/Forest City Realty Trust on the project. The new total comes from a machine translation of this 2023  audit report , by Daxin Certified Public Accountants, dated April 30, 2024, according to its URL. (I asked Greenland for comment on the numbers, but didn't hear bac

I have an article in City Limits today about 38 Sixth Avenue (B3), which has been subject to numerous complaints from tenants about basic services like hot water and a working front door, and a belated response from landlord Avanath. Avanath bought the building two years ago from Greenland Forest City Partners, which developed it on a 70/30 basis, with 70% contributed by Greenland USA and 30% by joint-venture partner Forest City Ratner, the project's original developer. The headline is Despite New Owner’s Promised Upgrades, ‘100% Affordable’ Atlantic Yards Building Endures Hot Water Outages, Broken Door, Even Bees . Some context At a  meeting  last month of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), a lawyer for the parent Empire State Development (ESD) defended the project against criticism from longtime advocacy planner and academic Ron Shiffman, an AY CDC Director, who said the developers "have not delivered for at least 15 years." Shiffman

Could NY State Leverage that Neon Art (or Advertising?) Installation to Get Tsai to Pay for the Plaza? ( link ) Empire State Development doesn't have to sign off on an automatic extension after three years, does it?

So, the "You Belong Here"/"We Belong Here" neon art installation over the Barclays Center transit hub was unveiled Oct. 23, 2021 for at least three years, as I reported . Will Tavares Strachan's artwork, part of "Belong/Brooklyn," an initiative of the the Joe & Clara Tsai Foundation's Social Justice Fund (SJF), stay longer? Well, it's permitted through the end of the year, not 36 months, as I'd supposed. And while state officials told me no renewal request has been received and the SJF didn't respond to my query, I wouldn't bet against it. Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the larger project, told me that, if/when a request for extension is received, approval is an internal matter, not subject to public comment. That suggests an easy process. Upon the installation, the SJF stated , it "will be on long-term view at the entrance of Barclays Center, atop the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays C

Getting Up to Speed on Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park ( link ). Because my FAQ is way too long, some key articles and concepts.

 Weekly Digest: Questions Swirl Around Future of (Tsai's) Plaza, Greenland's Role in Larger Project ( link )

Nearly twelve years ago, I wrote  A Brand Called Brooklyn  for The Brooklyn Rail, a publication that, with the departure of co-founder Theodore Hamm in 2013, would no longer publish tough coverage of Brooklyn issues. With the advent of the Barclays Center, I wrote, developer and arena operator Forest City was doing its best to "exploit [Brooklyn's]s reputation as a world-class destination." Well, the current arena operator, BSE Global, is now doing more. After all, the acronym comes from "Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment." Notably, the formerly-indie Brooklyn Magazine --mostly a web presence, plus a good podcast --has joined BSE Global, the holding company owned by Joe Tsai (and the Julia Koch family) that includes the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty, and Barclays Center operating company. It's apparently part of a larger effort to grow an enterprise called Brooklyn Media, focusing on "sports, music, fashion and sneakers, and food," as embodied