Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

I don't get these reports as often as I used to, but I don't think it's because Barclays Center is today consistently calm after events. It's just that fewer people report it. But an arena neighbor sent me a couple of videos shot early this morning, at about 12:45 am, after the Sexyy Red show ( calendar ) had ended at the arena. As the first video shows, the number of garbage cans (few) was not enough for the plastic cups and garbage strewn on the arena plaza, sponsored by Ticketmaster. If the arena doesn't have a late-shift cleanup crew--and it didn't look like it--well, presumably that was cleared by this morning. Around the corner As the video below shows, there was some impromptu vending along Flatbush Avenue. As has been obvious, unlicensed vendors (and scalpers) operate regularly outside the arena for all kinds of events, from concerts to family shows to basketball games. That's not (regularly) enforced, just as numerous traffic violatio

On July 2, The Real Deal had a scoop: Related in talks to take over Pacific Park megaproject . (My coverage .) The publication didn't have any other details other than that they had "learned" that Related Companies was seeking to build on the six railyard development sites facing foreclosure. No other news outlet followed with more details, but had we checked the state's lobbying database, as shown in the screenshot below, for the May/June period, the report , filed on July 12 , indicated that it had been lobbying two executives at Empire State Development (ESD), Arden Sokolow and Joel Kolkmann, as well as the authority's CEO, Hope Knight. ESD oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, and is likely being asked to renegotiate the May 2025 deadline for affordable housing, as well as the scale of the project--both proposals floated last year by the current (though fading) master developer, Greenland USA. Note: in its March/April lobbying report , Related did n

Weekly Digest: In Philadelphia Arena Analysis, Misreading Brooklyn ( link ) Also: landlord Avanath, after I wrote about "absurdly priced" rents at "100% affordable" buildings, reverts to what city documents seem to require.

The September 2024 calendar ( link ) circulated by the Barclays Center to neighbors should be updated. According to the arena, an additional concert was added for the month of September, based on a belatedly announced tour . DATE EVENT DOORS OPEN EVENT BEGINS EVENT ENDS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2024 LINKIN PARK 6:30PM 7:30PM   11:30PM The original total was 18 ticketed events: twelve concerts, four WNBA New York Liberty games, and two Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow Parties. Now there are 13 concerts and 19 ticketed events. Additionally, two home playoff games for the New York Liberty, seeded first in the WNBA, should be added for the last week of the month, once an opponent is determined. The tickets, albeit without a date or opponent, are already on sale .

Apparently, the entities--more on that below--controlling the collateral backing the Atlantic Yards EB-5 debt, the U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF) and Fortress Investment Group, are expected to partner ( link ) with the Related Companies on a joint venture to develop six development sites over the Vanderbilt Yard. But how did this happen, and who exactly is involved?  We know that master developer Greenland USA borrowed $349 million under the  EB-5 Program , in which immigrants investing in a purportedly job-creating enterprise offer low-interest loans in exchange for green cards for themselves and their families The loans were organized by the USIF, a business known as a regional center, which recruited the investors, in two tranches, $249 million and $100 million, marketed as "Atlantic Yards II" and "Atlantic Yards III." (The nomenclature is because there was a previous round of EB-5 funding, organized by the separate New York City Regional Center, for $228 million,

In recent weeks I've written about the possible--er, likely--extension of the You Belong Here"/"We Belong Here" neon art (or is it marketing?) installation outside Barclays Center past the end of 2024, which is three years and two months after it was installed on a "temporary" basis. It was installed by the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation's Social Justice Fund, launched by the owner of the Brooklyn Nets and arena company in the wake of 2020 protests, with a purported $50 million commitment over ten years. The signage, to me, serves both as art and advertising, as I wrote for The Indypendent in December 2021, encouraging people to buy tickets for arena events. If it's also supposed to be a "visual reflection" of the couple's philanthropy, as explained below, it's likely they'd want it up for a full decade. Getting to an extension An extension is apparently an internal decision by Empire State Development (ESD), the state authorit

OK, this is interesting. Screenshot Aug. 10, from Apartments.com In mid-August, I wrote ( link ) about landlord Avanath Capital's apparent effort to rent 2-BR apartments at 38 Sixth Ave. and 535 Carlton Ave., two "100% affordable" buildings within Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, for $5,483. That astounding figure  prompted confusion on Reddit, with a poster calling them "absurdly priced." The advertisements on Apartments.com, which also reflected the rent levels at one point advertised on each building's website, also sought $4,274 for 1-BRs and even studios. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Had Avanath, the California-based firm that bought both buildings in 2022, figured out how to legally game the rent-stabilization system? Was it violating an agreement with the city, which seemingly required rents starting in 2017 at $3,206 (2-BRs) and $2,663 (1-BRs) to rise according to the modest increases from the Rent Guidelines Board? Or perhaps it was som