Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

When I did a walk Aug. 5 around the arena block, I took two photos of Block 1129, the southeast block of the project, where B12 & B13 (615 Dean St. & 595 Dean St.) have topped out and are nearly fully enclosed, headed for a mid-2023 opening.  The block is bounded by Dean and Pacific streets, and Sixth and Carlton Avenues. But it all depends on perspective. The first photo below, taken from Carlton Avenue south of Atlantic Avenue, shows the four towers--including the already completed B11 (550 Vanderbilt Ave., far left) and B14 (535 Carlton Ave., far right)--without much perspective on what's left to do. Photos: Aug. 5, 2022 The second photo, looking east over the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, shows the towers only fractionally. The railyard block is bounded by Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Streets, and Sixth and Carlton Avenues. A large and expensive platform must be built to support three towers (B8/B9/B10), and that's the second phase of a two-phase project that hasn't

We Need to Keep Building Houses, Even if No One Wants to Buy , a New York Times news analysis told us 7/23/22: The United States has a deep, decades-old housing shortage. Also, at the moment, homebuilders across the country are pulling back on development because they can’t sell enough homes. How can both of these things be true? That riddle is at the heart of the boom-bust nature of housing, where an excess of regulation and the mixed incentives of the market mean there is never a supply that lines up with demand. One way or the other, solving it will require more building during downturns, and, most likely, some sort of public program to subsidize it. The article does not assess New York City, which may be something of a special case, though certainly part of the problem cited--NIMBYism--applies to the suburban communities that have failed to accept there share of growth, even near public transit stations.  (And who exactly is "we"? I'll mention the social housing alter

It's been two straight setbacks for Greenland Holding Group (aka Greenland Holdings Group) in Forbes magazine's Global 2000 listing. After rising to 307 two years ago, last year it  dropped  to 372 and this year continued sliding, to  415 . That contrasts with Greenland's steady rise on the Fortune Global 500 ranking,  noted yesterday , to 125.  The two rankings are not the same. Forbes  bases  its assessment on four broad metrics: a composite score assessing sales (revenue), profits, assets, and market value.  The better-known Fortune ranking relies solely on revenue in the past fiscal year. Neither takes notice of Greenland's significant debts, which have caused its credit rating to plunge to Selective Default, as per S&P, before  recovering slightly . Drilling down As shown in the screenshot below, Forbes ranks Greenland far higher than its overall metric in sales and assets, but well behind in profits and market value. Its market cap (total value of shares) of $

Fortune magazine on 8/3/22 released its annual Global 500 list, with Greenland Holding Group, parent of the main Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer Greenland USA,  rising to #125 from #142. That mostly steady ascent that nonetheless lags behind previously  stated  (in 2014) ambition to reach the top 100 by 2020. The well-known Fortune Global 500 ranking relies solely on revenue in the past fiscal year. The lesser-known Forbes Global 2000  bases  its assessment on four broad metrics: a composite score assessing sales (revenue), profits, assets, and market value. (I'll have more on that tomorrow.) Neither takes notice of Greenland's significant debts, which have caused its credit rating to plunge to Selective Default, as per S&P, before  recovering slightly . And its stock price is down . Looking at the numbers Screenshots from Fortune The company information shown at right obscures some significant differences between the report a year earlier. For example, while revenu

Well, Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP) still doesn't sound completely confident that work on the first phase of the platform, crucial to the construction of three towers, will start in the second half of this year. That's according to the latest six-month look-ahead (bottom), covering the second half of 2022, that the master developer is supposed to file with Empire State Development (ESD), which oversees/shepherds the project. Also, GFCP does not say that any specific work on the B5 tower--700 Atlantic Avenue, also bordered by Sixth Avenue and Pacific Street--would start in this half of the year, according to the document. That said, the developer has said B5 wouldn't rise until next year, and it's not unlikely some of the work announced contributes to that parcel, even if the tower isn't mentioned. That document, dated 6/9/22,  again says--as it did in three previous iterations --that "Platform construction may commence during the reporting period."

The Barclays Center operating company made an $18 million profit, of sorts, in the first six months of calendar year 2022, according to financial documents recently disclosed to bondholders. See screenshot at right. But that result, coupled with a stagnant first half of the 2022 fiscal year, won't be enough to cover the arena's construction debt in FY 2022, which ended June 30. So that means that owner Joe Tsai will have to dip into his pocketbook to cover the payments, as he has pledged . Limited schedule So even a busy season for the Brooklyn Nets, with high ticket prices, didn't make up for a slow schedule for other events, including concerts. As I wrote in February, the arena company barely broke even in the first half of the fiscal year--see screenshot at left--but needs some $37.8 million for required PILOTs, or payments in lieu of taxes , of which $26.2 million goes toward debt service on arena construction bonds. Most of the rest goes back to the arena company to b

Aug. 5, 2022 The escalators at the arena plaza have been out since at least July 22, as I wrote , but I couldn't get any explanation from the arena operator as to how long or why. Was it associated with plaza repair work? That seems unlikely. Rather, it's just another example of faulty equipment and/or maintenance. On Friday, Aug. 5, when I walked by, the escalators were under repair. In fact, the down escalator was running, albeit without any access, apparently as part of a test run. The up escalator was getting worked on. So maybe they'll both be running soon, (Or who knows, maybe they fixed the problems by the end of the day.) But this shouldn't be the realm of speculation. A responsible operator--the arena company operates the escalator, as it controls the plaza--should make it easier to find out when the escalators (and elevator) are out of operation, when work is scheduled, and when the problem is expected to be fixed--and fixed. It shouldn't be that complicat