Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Modell's, Dec. 2024. Photo: Norman Oder As first announced last September ( link ), BSE Global--owner of the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty, and the Barclays Center operating company--will transform empty ex-Modell's store across from arena for its Brooklyn Basketball youth programs, at least until new towers are built. Modell's closed in the late summer of 2020, after the parent faced bankruptcy. A plan for two large towers at the parcel known as Site 5, which still has the operating P.C. Richard store, has gotten support from Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards. The BSE Global rendering is suspiciously traffic-free However, that requires a new public process for approval, given the transfer of bulk from the unbuilt B-1 tower once slated to loom over the arena, and likely is entangled in the larger negotiation over the fate of the six railyard development sites. In other words, it's several years off. So this tr...

Bi-Weekly Digest: BrooklynSpeaks Frustration over Penalties; Quiet MTA Renegotiations ( link ) The lesson from Atlantic Yards, Borough President Reynoso warns city officials pushing the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Plan, is that commitments don't get enforced. 

The Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD) has released its  2025 Housing Risk Chart, How is Affordable Housing Threatened in Your Neighborhood .  (The ANHD is a membership organization of New York City neighborhood-based community groups, community development corporations (CDCs), affordable housing developers, supportive housing providers, community organizers, and economic development providers.) I've highlighted the sections involving the four Community Districts in Brooklyn--CDs 2, 3, 6, and 8--in the orbit of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project and in which local residents get a preference in affordable housing lotteries, at least for city-sponsored units (as opposed to those solely relying on a state tax break). CD's 3 and 8 are also the location of the sites in the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan. Chart goals The chart, according to the ANHD, highlights and ranks 18 indicators of demographics and housing risk to inform targeted...

Sometime in the last week, the updated 2025 New York City Area Affordable Monthly Rents surfaced on the website  of the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), with an increase of about 4.3% over 2024 figures, correlating with the rise in Area Median Income, or AMI. See more on this below (I wrote about the rise in AMI April 28.) Bottom line: for low-income units at 60% of AMI, which is the average affordable unit required under the 485-x tax break (likely for the next Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park towers) and under Mandatory Inclusionary Housing Option 1 in the recently-passed Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan (AAMUP), the 2025 maximum rents would be: studio: $1,701, up from $1,640 1-BR: $1,822, up from $1,747 2-BR: $2,187, up from $2,097 3-BR: $2,527, up from $2,422 HPD notes that those are the maximum rents, while specific rent amounts may vary by program. So it's likely those rent ceilings may not correlate to most or all of the units rented this year at 60...

A new development team is emerging to take over the remaining sites in the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project, including the six sites over the Vanderbilt Yard.  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has a key role, even though the project is overseen/shepherded by the (also) gubernatorially-controlled Empire State Development (ESD). According to Gib Veconi of BrooklynSpeaks, who's been partially briefed on the emerging plan, ESD is evaluating the proposal that has been made by a joint venture led by Cirrus Real Estate, "and has asked that Cirrus receive approval from the MTA by June 30.” I asked the MTA to clarify for me what needs to be approved: --the Cirrus joint venture's general qualifications to work with the MTA? --a plan to build the platform, including performance bonds, over the Vanderbilt Yard while preserving MTA/Long Island Rail Road operations? --a Cirrus takeover of the current payment plan for Vanderbilt Yard development rights? --a revised paym...

So immigrant investors seeking green cards under the EB-5 investor visa program are supposed to have $800,000 available--when Atlantic Yards was raising low-cost EB-5 funding, it was $500,000--to plunk down for five to seven years before (maybe) getting their money back. In reality, according to leading investment packager Nicholas Mastroianni II, founder of the U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF, which raised money for the second and third Atlantic Yards EB-5 rounds, currently facing foreclosure),  investors "cobble together their savings from family or friends, according to the Real Deal's summary. Enter new financing In April, I noted an emerging tactic to make fundraising easier. The program for an investment immigration trade show in India quoted his son, Nicholas Mastroianni III as saying that USIF projects now "provide investors access to the Opportunity Fund Lender EB-5 financing program," which helps investors finance part of their development. From  IREX Residenc...

There's another sign--beyond my previous coverage ( link )--of front-running mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo's alliance with union labor and Cirrus Real Estate, and thus with an expected emerging new plan for Atlantic Yards. Why did Andrew Cuomo’s campaign hire the carpenters union’s political director? , The Real Deal reported June 2, noting that the hiring of Kevin Elkins means an alliance with perhaps the most forceful construction union in the city. The Carpenters Union, advocating for union jobs, has sometimes taken on "a role once occupied by the Building and Construction Trades Council as public-facing antagonist to the Real Estate Board of New York," according to the publication. Developers, of course, might want to avoid unions, or at least union-set wages as part of a state tax break. Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park has long been promised as union construction, though project-specific labor agreements might adjust wages. The Real Deal noted: But even if Elkins is...