Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

We know the New York Liberty, recently purchased by Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire Joe Tsai (who owns 49% of the Brooklyn Nets, and is expected to buy the rest), will play most of their games this next season in Westchester, but we don't know about the future.
We did know they'd be playing at least one regular-season game in Brooklyn; now we know they'll play at least one pre-season game at the Barclays Center.
A press release 3/25/19 from the WNBA, New York Liberty To Host Chinese National Team At Barclays:
Liberty announced today that it will host the Chinese Women’s National Basketball team in a pre-season game scheduled to be played May 9, 2019 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
This landmark game is the latest collaboration between the NBA/WNBA and the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), who have a long history of working together to grow the game in China. Liberty ownership has organized this game to further people-to-people exchange between China and the United States…

I never highlighted this, but it's dramatically clear: had Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park been built out as contemplated in 2014, five of the seven buildings on the eastern end of the site--surrounding the largest segment of open space--would have been 100% market-rate, dominating access to the central open space, or "park."

Take a look at the graphic below: three buildings with condos, two with market-rate rentals, one "100% affordable" (though significantly middle-income), and one 50-30-20, with 50% market-rate units.

Meanwhile, three buildings over the center block of the railyard, with more limited green space, would've been 50% affordable (50/30/20) buildings. At the time, no other market-rate buildings were planned for any other part of the project.

Priority access to the park?

In other words, the "park," long touted as a gift--"Atlantic Yards will contain six acres of new open space for the Brooklyn community to enjoy," a 2004 flier p…

For those following the 960 Franklin development in Crown Heights, consider some coverage:
The Brooklyn Paper, 3/15/19, Green death: Proposed Franklin Ave. towers would kill half of Bklyn Botanic’s plants within a decade, expert claimsBklyner, 3/13/19, Spice Factory Rezoning Faces Strong Opposition From Brooklyn Botanic GardenThe Brooklyn Eagle, 3/13/19, Crown Heights Spice Factory development pits labor vs localsKings County Politics, 3/13/19, Cumbo Gives Thumbs Down To 90 Flatbush Avenue [sic] Development Note that the developer disputes the shadow studies.

But I want to point most to a quote in Kings County Politics from a Lupe Todd-Medina, spokesperson for The Continuum Company (known as Lupe Todd when she worked for DKC on Atlantic Yards):
“As proposed, 960 Franklin Avenue is a 50% income-targeted, 100% union-built residential development. As neighbors and partners in our community’s responsible development, we continue to look forward to sitting down with the leadership of the B…

The New York Preservation Archive Project is having its film festival, and one event will be a screening of Battle for Brooklyn. The listing:
April 15, 2019
06:00 - 08:30 PM
Alamo Drafthouse  Come early for a snack and a drink at Alamo Drafthouse before the screening of this cautionary tale of corruption, development, and misuse of eminent domain.  Battle for Brooklyn (2011) follows reluctant activist Daniel Goldstein as he struggles to save his home and community from being demolished to make way for the Atlantic Yards development site: at the time, the densest real estate development in U.S. history. Over the course of seven years, Daniel and his community fight tenaciously in the courts, the streets, and the media to stop the misuse of eminent domain and reveal the deep-seated issues at the heart of the plan.  Panelists will include Norman Oder, author of the watchdog blog, Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report; Katia Kelly, whose blog, Pardon Me For Asking, chronicles development is…

This is the fifth of five articles regarding the 3/15/19 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), set up to advise the parent Empire State Development (ESD). The first article concerned the expected 2022 completion date for the middle school. The second article concerned the board's inability to hire independent consultants. The third article concerned updates from the AY CDC President and from developer Greenland USA. The fourth article concerned a failed effort to get a building-by-building timetable for affordable units.

To get to 2,250 affordable units by May 2025, as I wrote yesterday, it looks like all or most of the project must be built by then, unless... some buildings contain a greater percentage of affordability than contemplated in current subsidy programs, and/or affordable units are included in Site 5, contemplated for office space. Or, perhaps, the deadline might be stretched.

How realistic is it that the six buildings over the raily…

This is the fourth of five articles regarding the 3/15/19 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), set up to advise the parent Empire State Development (ESD). The first article concerned the expected 2022 completion date for the middle school. The second article concerned the board's inability to hire independent consultants. The third article concerned updates from the AY CDC President and from developer Greenland USA. The fifth article analyzed the likelihood of building all railyard towers by 2035.
The looming question regarding Atlantic Yards regards how the promised 2,250 units of affordable housing will be delivered by the May 2025 deadline.

Though some updated information about affordable housing was disclosed at the meeting, notably some totals and percentages in upcoming buildings, the overall question remained unanswered.

And the AY CDC board, by a narrow margin, showed itself unwilling to challenge developer Greenland Forest City Partner…

It's not surprising that the EB-5 investments, in which immigrant investors and their families get green cards in exchange for a $500,000 investment that purportedly creates ten jobs, might wind up in controversy.

After all, such investments were too often marketed in China with misleading information, enthusiastic U.S. government (and ex-government) officials unwisely vouching for projects, and distracting sideshows--to quote Fortune, "more like pitching vacation timeshares than any normal form of deal finance."

When EB-5 works as planned, the provision of a scarce government resource--entry to the United States--fuels profits and benefits down the line: the investors accept little or no interest but gain green cards for themselves and their families; real estate developers get low-interest loans; middlemen investment packagers (known as regional centers), lawyers, and migration agents all cream off fees and/or interest.

Even as planned, EB-5 can be sketchy, as I've…