Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

I'm still wondering about an issue raised last year at the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation regarding the U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF), the "regional center" (or loan packager) that recruited immigrant investors under the EB-5 investor visa program. The USIF is one participant in the joint venture expected to take over development rights for six towers over the Vanderbilt Yard.  A USIF affiliate, thanks to advantageous contract language, manages and controls the investment fund that was not repaid by developer Greenland USA, leading to the oft-postponed foreclosure process , win another auction supposedly scheduled for Jan. 27. Chinese investors, who each invested $500,000 (plus fees) for a purportedly job-creating project, actually put up the money but have little sway. From USIF 2022 video The question: does USIF founder and Chairman Nicholas Mastroianni II, whose criminal record includes an arrest on felony drug charges, prohibit the joint venture from ...

Maybe it's nothing.  After all, the announced foreclosure auction of developer Greenland USA's interest in six towers over the Vanderbilt Yard, once scheduled for Jan. 11, 2024, has been postponed so many times I've stopped tracking it. But I will point out, for the record, that the auction, with six tower sites as collateral, has recently been rescheduled for Jan. 27, 2025, according to a notice in the Wall Street Journal. Technically there are two foreclosures: one on a loan (from AYB Funding 100) which has the sites B5-B8 as collateral, and the other (from AYB Funding 200) which has the sites B9-B10 as collateral. Both funds are creations of the U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF), a "regional center" that recruits immigrant investors under the federal EB-5 program. (About $286 million has remained unpaid, from $349 million borrowed.) The USIF, as manager, controls the funds, though it didn't put the money up, and has reportedly organized a joint venture, involv...

Did 461 Dean, the "World’s Tallest Modular Building,” Save 20% on Construction? No. ( link ) Despite sunny rhetoric claiming phantom gains, the building was misconceived and delayed. Industry observer: "a hard-won lesson in tolerance accumulation."

So, remember FullStack Modular, the company that succeeded took over the ill-fated factory business-- FC+S Modular, then FC Modular--set up to build modules for Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, which, after problems in building the B2 (461 Dean) project, original project developer Forest City ultimately sold to its former executive Roger Krulak? (Note: the company was originally called Full Stack Modular, but at some point became FullStack Modular.) As I observed  in June 2017, FullStack's announcement of a $6 million investment struck me as substantial but also not huge in terms of being used to "scale production" at the modular factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Well, they've since found greener pastures, relocating in 2023 to just outside New Haven, Conn., and last year establishing another factory outside Los Angeles, as described below. The projects they describe conform to Krulak's October 2016  prediction  (in FastCo.Design) that they wouldn't aim as tall...

Weekly Digest: A Switcheroo in Philly, Drilling Down on Affordable Housing Numbers ( link ) Are arena negotiations just about leverage? Also, low-income rents (and qualifying incomes) in Brooklyn have risen. The Brooklyn Nets go promotional.

In October 2023, I  reported  on an upcoming ice rink at Brooklyn Bridge Park in DUMBO, a new project from BSE Global, parent of Barclays Center operating company and the Brooklyn Nets. Glide Brooklyn would be operated in partnership with the sports management company IMG. Well, that lasted a season.  It's unclear whether Brooklyn Bridge Park was frustrated or whether the partners didn't think it was worth it, but Brooklyn Bridge Park, working with an operator, is now running the rink itself. "Same rink size and layout – lower cost to skate,"  said  BBP in a tweet.   Details Indeed, Glide Brooklyn last year set adult admission as $15 during off-peak hours and $25 during peak hours  (Friday-Sunday, and holidays), while Roebling Rink--on Emily Warren Roebling Plaza--charges $10.By the way, tickets to skate at Rockefeller Center start at $21 . Glide offered daily discounted tickets--fewer than 800 per week--to New York City residents, while Roebling Rink...

You know the Brooklyn Nets are struggling. They're losing games ( "worst defeat in franchise history" ) and tanking, aiming to get a better chance in the loaded 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, which could reset the franchise with new talent, and make it a lure for free agents.  (As columnist Steve Lichtenstein put it,  Nets Mid-Term Grades Won’t Be Displayed Proudly .) So they're offering various promotions to fill the seats, such as no fees on single-game tickets, or a free ticket with a coat donation. In their three previous home games, the announced attendance was: Jan. 4:  Philadelphia 76ers , 17,926 Jan 6: Indiana Pacers , 16,088 Jan. 8: Detroit Pistons , 16,098 Note that attendance doesn't mean gate count, nor does it mean tickets sold. It means tickets distributed. The Barclays Center official holds 17,732 for basketball, so exceeding that means standing room. The team is averaging 17,480 at home as of now, according to ESPN , but the trend line--at least against l...

Is the deal with Related Companies, as part of a joint venture with the U.S. Immigration Fund and the Fortress Investment Group, to take over the six tower sites over the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, already done? Well, that's one interpretation of Related's November/December 2024 lobbying report , which excludes mention of Atlantic Yards. (Another is that the report has a lapse.) As I reported in November, Related amped up engagement in September and October, indicating that it not only lobbied four executives at Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, it also lobbied New York City Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer.  Is Related asking the city for housing subsidies? As I wrote, it's hard to imagine Related would enter the project without having negotiated, at least partly, the scale of the project, the affordable housing obligation (and deadlines), and more. After all, longtime master developer Greenland USA,...