Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Joe Tsai, the Alibaba billionaire who owns the Brooklyn Nets, the Barclays Center operating company and more, has become a heavyweight in philanthropy with his wife, Clara Wu Tsai. So the venerable Municipal Art Society (MAS) is giving them the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal, its highest honor. As I write at CommonEdge, I think that's a dubious decision, since the Tsais have invested in the kind of "supertall" tower that MAS has crusaded against:  In Honoring Philanthropists with the Onassis Medal, the MAS Forgets Its Crusade Against Supertalls . I have other arguments, so click through  to the essay . Illustration combines MAS report with excerpts from Onassis Medal announcement. The  arrow (from announcement) points to 220 CPS. I'll add some more details on the real estate below. Like an NBA team? The Tsais’ reported purchases total $345.5 million in a “supertall” that’s perhaps Manhattan’s most prestigious building. “NBA teams are not going to lose asset value,”

From meeting presentation I wrote 9/21/22 that, according to developer Greenland USA, city water main work on Atlantic Avenue between Sixth and Carlton avenues had delayed long-promised work on the platform over the first of two blocks of the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, "We were required to hold off on erecting the construction fence on Atlantic Avenue until [Department of Design and Construction] was able to complete their work, which we're hopeful will be happening in the next few weeks," said Solish. As I wrote, that seemed like a lapse not to notice--and not to tell the public about the delay. A "traffic mess" One resident tweeted  the next day about "a complete traffic mess" asked how long it would take. At right is a photo showing the constricted avenue, taken Sept. 22, looking east from Sixth Avenue. "We are aiming to complete our work on the south side of Atlantic by Monday," the DDC responded on Twitter. "However, there may be

More than a week ago, residents noticed debris in a little-used top-floor stairwell at 535 Carlton Ave.--the "100% affordable' building that opened in 2017 in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park--that suggested that someone had been living there for at least several days. As shown in the tweet excerpted at right, resident Laurie Schoeman, noting that homelessness was at a "crisis point," aimed to alert local media as well as Council Member Crystal Hudson. Schoeman told me that Hudson contacted the Department of Homeless Services, but it was apparently out of their jurisdiction. (I queried Hudson's office yesterday, and will update with any response.) Distressing to Schoeman and neighbors, she said, is that Avanath Capital, which bought the building in May, has not made a public statement regarding what happened nor responded to the tenants' association. She said neighbors in the 298-unit tower still worry that aspects of the building's perimeter are not fully s

This is the third of three articles about the 9/20/22 Quality of Life meeting. The first concerned the delayed platform. The second concerned updates at two tower sites. Revamp incomplete in area near Atlantic Avenue and behind transit entrance The Brooklyn Nets play pre-season home games on Monday, Oct. 3 against the Philadelphia 76ers and Thursday, Oct. 6 against the Miami Heat. Both are key Eastern Division rivals, and if coaches play their first-string rosters, should attract solid crowds. For now, though, the owners of the Nets and the Barclays Center operating company have another date in mind: the season opener Wednesday, Oct. 19, against the New Orleans Pelicans.  Given the new-look Nets, with the expected debut of enigmatic star Ben Simmons coupled with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, and the appearance of the surprisingly strong Pelicans, with budding superstar Zion Williamson, that should draw a big crowd. Plus: free t-shirt. Oct. 19 target So no wonder that, as arena spok

This is the second of three articles about the 9/20/22 Quality of Life meeting. The  first  concerned the delayed platform. Screenshots from meeting presentation Scott Solish of Greenland USA, which owns nearly all of master developer Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP), said the sidewalk on Atlantic Avenue outside of B4 (18 Sixth Ave., aka Brooklyn Crossing) had been restored. "The last piece of work," he said, "is the restoration of a full size median in Atlantic Avenue to free up the east and west travel lanes. And that work should happen over the next several weeks." That said, assuming a fence is built at Atlantic Avenue between Sixth and Carlton avenues for the platform work, that means traffic will be constricted for three years. Solish said all the work on the residential units is substantially complete, except for some punch list work. The tower has 858 apartments, 600 of them market-rate, and 258 "affordable." Have the tenants in the latter mid

This is the first of three articles about the 9/20/22 Quality of Life meeting. At community meetings in May , Scott Solish of Greenland USA--which dominates project master developer Greenland Forest City Partners--indicated that work around the Vanderbilt Yard was expected to start in weeks, pending permits, and those fences would be a precursor to construction of the long-awaited platform over the first railyard block. Two months later, at another bi-monthly Quality of Life meeting 7/12/22, Solish again indicated that such work was expected to start in the next few business days. The block is bounded by Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street, and by Sixth and Carlton avenues. That never happened, though GFCP--via Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park--dutifully circulates Construction Updates every two weeks indicating that such work is pending permits.  And that, as I explain below, further delays the possibility the de

Today, the Barclays Center updated its previously released September 2022 event calendar with the below graphic, which indicates a new private event during the day Thursday, Sept. 22, and the postponement of the September 30 concert with Ozuna. What's the private event, from 10 am to 4 pm?  They couldn't bother to tell us, but a little Googling leads to an invite for the Citywide M/WBE Procurement Fair, hosted by the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS). So it's more of a trade show and likely not comparable to a graduation or similar private event that draws significant crowds.

A week after I first wrote this , no change: There's no agenda (however typically limited) for the bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting (on  Zoom at 6 pm  tonight), nor notes from the previous meeting, despite a goal to deliver them within three weeks, as I  wrote . That's the responsibility of Empire State Development (ESD), the gubernatorially-controlled state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. The biggest question, among several, the reason for the  delayed start  of the platform over the first block of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard, crucial to the development of three towers and future income-targeted ("affordable") housing.  We had been told in May--by master developer Greenland Forest City Partners, dominated by Greenland USA--that the start was coming up, with announced MPT (maintenance and preservation of traffic) pending, constricting local streets. Since then, we've been told that th