Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

What Will New York Real Estate Look Like Next Year?, states a New York Times article, suggesting that the next primary election will help shape things.

There's a new recognition that more equity is necessary, but the power brokers want to push back on anti-development sentiment:
“This is not the time to double down on the narrative that business is bad, that development is bad,” said [former Deputy Mayor Alicia] Glen, who recently started a development firm, M Squared, which builds mixed-income housing in cities across the country. “We can’t play to the cheap seats of being against everything and everybody.”And one result is a new push to put affordable housing in affluent neighborhoods like SoHo, with a rezoning on tap.
Trusting the real-estate establishment
One problem, from my perspective is the issue of trust. The Times reported: A large expansion of Brooklyn’s Industry City complex, which developers said would create 20,000 new jobs, was quashed last month by opponents who doubted…

From Newsday, 10/23/20, New renderings of UBS Arena luxury spaces released by Islanders:
UBS Arena, slated to hold 17,113 for Islanders games, will have 55 suites, which is significantly fewer than most recent arenas. Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, for example, the most recently built in the metropolitan area, has 101 suites.

Instead, the Islanders and their arena partners — arena development company Oak View Group and outgoing Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon — focused their premium experience around the arena’s 1,995 club seats.They'd been cagy about the number of suites, last month saying about 50.

Newsday's Randi Marshall, in a 10/9/20 column Inside the Islanders' new Belmont Arena, wrote:Taking shape inside the arena’s frame are concourses that are double the size of Nassau Coliseum’s, 25,000 square feet of space just for the Islanders’ locker rooms, 56 suites and eight additional club spaces. 

...Will the investment pay off? [Tim] Leiweke said that so far, more than…

Clause in Citi Field Lease Could Impede Steve Cohen’s Mets Purchase, the New York Times reported 10/21/20, noting that "Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office notified the Mets and Major League Baseball on Friday that they were looking into whether the team could be legally sold to Cohen."
At issue is a clause in the lease between the New York Mets and the city, which technically owns Citi Field (to enable tax-exempt bond financing), and rules out “prohibited” persons as potential owners. 
That definition encompasses a felon or a person who has “controlled” a felon. And while Cohen himself has no cirminal record, one of his subordinates was convicted of insider trading, and his company, SAC Capital Partners, paid $1.8 billion in fines for insider trading. Such securities fraud is a felony.
My guess is that the city won't intervene in the sale--wouldn't they want the team to have a deep-pocketed owner at a time when fans can't attend?--but might use this to leverage some sort…

A contentious online kickoff meeting last night regarding affordable housing plans for underutilized city-owned parcels 542 Dean Street and 516 Bergen Street in Prospect Heights, hosted by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), generated more heat than light, drawing some 140 attendees.

At issue was an announced city plan to upzone the Dean Street parcel (Site B, a parking lot), doubling the bulk to allow a larger building to accommodate more affordable housing for seniors, and to upzone the Bergen Street parcel (Site A, a low-slung commercial building) to allow another, unspecified, affordable housing plan.
The difference, at the Dean Street site at least, is between 58 units that could be built at current zoning, maxing at 55 feet tall (R6B zoning), and at least 80 units, maxing at 85-95 feet (R7A zoning).

Some attendees, notably those galvanized by the YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) group Open NY, peppered the chat—no non-official was allowed to speak…

I wrote yesterday about the unfulfilled plans for 225 senior units at Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. So let's look at the city's proposal for at least 80 units of affordable senior housing nearby on an underutilized city-owned site in Prospect Heights, 542 Dean Street, and unspecified plans for "another population in need" at a similar city-owned site, 516 Bergen Street. 
Both are between Sixth and Carlton avenues quite close to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.
As I noted, such affordable housing is welcomed by neighbors, but not necessarily at that scale. The North Prospect Heights Association (NPHA) has called for development at existing zoning--rather than doubling the allowable square footage and enabling nine-story buildings instead of five-story ones--and warned that this sets a precedent for upzoning other parcels nearby.
The proposal at Dean Street, rather than offer required open space, "uses the site to bring additional density to an already overtaxed neighborho…

More than two years ago, I wrote The "affordable housing crisis for seniors" and the vague plans for 225 senior units at Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.
There are still no plans for such senior housing at the project, despite 2005-era promises. 
But the city has new plans for at least 80 units of affordable senior housing nearby on an underutilized city-owned site in Prospect Heights, 542 Dean Street, and unspecified plans for "another population in need" at a similar city-owned site, 516 Bergen Street.
While such affordable housing is welcomed by neighbors, if not necessarily at that scale, some neighbors are concerned such plans--which involve doubling the allowable square footage--set a precedent for upzoning other parcels near the larger, still unfinished project.
An online public meeting is scheduled for tomorrow at 6:30 pm to kick off the plans for the two sites. I'll write separately about the complicated issue of context, but first want to remind readers about…

On 8/31/20, I reported on what seemed to be another snag in the long-gestating (since 2015) plans by the developer of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park to move the bulk from the unbuilt "Miss Brooklyn" tower at the arena block across to Site 5, long home to Modell's and P.C. Richard, creating a giant two-tower project. 
In a win for retailer P.C. Richard, hoping to stay at Site 5 and gain a replacement store at a future project there, a state Supreme Court judge agreed to stay a state condemnation action while a separate, related case proceeds, in which original developer Forest City Ratner appeals a decision awarding P.C. Richard that replacement space.
But the developer Greenland Forest City Partners and state have gained crucial momentum, with permission to start the approval process, likely to take at least a year, to modify the guiding General Project Plan and allow that shift of bulk.
This is the last remaining parcel on the 22-acre site which remains in contention. (The de…

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning Monday, 10/19/20, was circulated Friday, 10/16/20 at 2:41 pm (lead time) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners.

There's a significant change from the previous update regarding after-hours work at the B4 (18 Sixth Ave.) and B15 (37 Sixth Ave., 662-664 Pacific St.) sites. While previously work lasted until 7 pm on weekdays, now it officially ends at 6 pm--but an after-hours variance allows work until 9 pm.

Similarly, while the weekday work officially starts at 7 am, an after-hours variance allows deliveries, garbage removal, hoist and crane operation to start as early as 6 am.

One adjustment slightly limits specially permitted weekend work. On Saturdays, instead of work starting at 8 am, it will start at 9 am, again lasting until 5 pm.

Construction progress Also, the update indicates some benchmarks. The exterior brick facade of B15 and wi…