Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

This is the first of three articles about the Feb. 7. 2023 Quality of Life meeting, Subsequent articles will address plans for 595 Dean St. and changes at the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC). Last night's belatedly rescheduled Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting--which is supposed to be held bi-monthly but hadn't been held since September 2022--lasted barely half an hour, attracted only 25 people, and disclosed little new information. But what wasn't said, and who wasn't there, were in their own way telling, as was the suggestion that the looming penalty over unbuilt affordable housing might be optional rather than mandatory. Missing meetings What happened to the meeting scheduled for November 15, 2022, and then the (presumed) next meeting two months later in January? "Due to a scheduling conflict on the 15th, that meeting did not occur as tentatively scheduled," said meeting host Tobi Jaiyesimi, of Empire State Devel

Feb. 4, 2023 The Brooklyn Nets' ill-fated drive for a superstar-driven superteam is now clearly over, albeit not without a serious chance at playoff contention. It started when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in July 2019 chose Brooklyn as free agents, seeking a franchise they could help steer and, according to Irving, returning to the team of his New Jersey roots. It was then seemingly bolstered when superstar James Harden wangled his way to the Nets.  It was upended first by Harden's departure a year ago (in a trade for once-star Ben Simmons). And it was ended by the trade of Irving this week to the Dallas Mavericks.  Much drama In between there were injuries, Irving's unexplained absences, Irving's refusal to get vaccinated (and partial return), and Irving's suspension from the team, after posting a link to an anti-Semitic film. Also: Irving's opting into a Feb. 4, 2023 one-year contract extension, after testing the waters for a sign-and-trade, and KD's req

There's an important clue in the agenda (below), just circulated this afternoon, for tomorrow's Quality of Life meeting. (My preview here .)  There will be presentations, likely by Tobi Jaiyesimi of Empire State Development (ESD), on both the ESD and the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation. There will be a presentation by a representative of the Barclays Center. And there will be a presentation by a representative of TF Cornerstone, surely about progress on 595 Dean (B12/B13), perhaps keyed to the launch of market-rate rentals and/or the affordable housing lottery. But there will be no representative of master developer Greenland Forest City Partners, dominated by  Greenland USA. That means Greenland will get to avoid the obvious questions: why haven't they started the platform, which was supposed to launch in mid-2022? if there's no plan to build 876 new affordable units to meet the 2025 affordable housing deadline, are they asking for an extensio

Update 4:45 pm: here's the agenda , which suggests Greenland USA will be absent and thus will avoid the big questions. There's no agenda yet  posted/circulated  for belatedly-scheduled Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting that will be held at 6 pm tomorrow and provide some updates on the project: https://zoom.us/j/96256411661 Dial In: 646-558-8656 || Passcode: 962 5641 1661# Meeting ID: 962 5641 1661 Project-related questions and suggested agenda items may be sent to  atlanticyards@esd.ny.gov . Among other things, I'll ask why the previous meetings weren't held. Such meetings were steadily held bi-monthly through September 2022, but meetings in November 2022 and then January 2023 were not scheduled, with no explanation. No 2023 schedule was released at the end of 2022. They offer limited but sometimes useful transparency; the virtual nature of the meetings, since the pandemic, means that attendees can't tell who else is in the meeting, can't see o

For the WNBA's New York Liberty , who play at the Barclays Center May through September and have under-achieved in both the standings and attendance, the tide may have turned, thanks to free agent signings that may be the WNBA equivalent of the "Clean Sweep" that brought Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and (uh, their aging friend) DeAndre Jordan to the Brooklyn Nets. (Of course the news came just before Irving's reported trade request upended the Nets. By next Thursday we'll know if that truly was non-negotiable or whether it was a bargaining tactic of sorts.) On the morning of 2/2/23, basketball writer Tom Ziller wrote , "Meet the NEW New York Liberty: Breanna Stewart picks the Liberty, joining a good team that ALSO added Jonquel Jones. Incredible." Stewart is one of the league's top two players, and Jones one of the top seven, at least. Later that day, the Liberty signed All-Star Courtney Vandersloot. So the Liberty now have a starting five of All-St

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning Monday, Feb. 6, was circulated at 5:21 pm yesterday (lead time) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP), which is dominated by Greenland USA. There's little change compared with the  previous update , except that announced plans to begin sidewalk and curb restoration work along Dean Street, outside the B12/B13 site (595 Dean, between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues), have indeed begun. The work is going west towards Carlton Avenue. Pedestrian access along Dean St. will be temporarily relocated to the parking lane, on the south side of Dean, while this work is on-going. Parking lanes along the south side of Dean will be temporarily reduced and/or eliminated while this work is being performed. Bike lanes are not expected to be impacted. Also, along with the ongoing scaffold drops along Dean Street for façade work, the western half o

In her proposed FY 2024 Executive Budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul, among her housing proposals , has offered real estate developers a significant benefit, with an extension of the construction deadline for projects fueled by the 421-a tax break for more than 4.5 years:  In order to unlock thousands of units of housing currently under construction, the Executive Budget extends the 421-A construction deadline through 2030. The Budget also expands HCR’s Tenant Protection Unit as part of a multi-year investment to provide targeted support for tenants in upstate New York. Of course "currently under construction" is a bit of a dodge, since many developers simply did preliminary work on foundations by June 15, 2022 to qualify for the tax break--and may not have proceeded since then. There are many reasons for delay, but one, as the Real Deal has reported , is that the June 15, 2026 deadline for construction was getting tenuous, since lenders wanted the buildings completed a year early. If

So, what do recent lobbying filings regarding Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park tell us? Not much, but they do hint that master developer Greenland Forest City Partners is trying to remove some roadblocks to progress. The state lobbying database  indicates  that the lobbying powerhouse Kasirer expects to be lobbying state and local public authorities and local development corporations--the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation?--as well as the New York City Department of Buildings.  The latter may--I speculate--be a stumbling block in the announced by long-delayed plan to start building a platform over the Vanderbilt Yard. Other reports from 2022 indicate contact with Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, perhaps--I speculate--regarding the increasingly untenable May 2025 deadline for the project's affordable housing. Surely the developer seeks to extend the deadline and/or avoid the onerous $2,000/month fines for each missing