Before 535 Carlton groundbreaking, new web site promotes "Brooklyn's newest neighborhood," avoids specifics on affordability
Note previous analysis regarding the claim of "Brooklyn's newest neighborhood," the delay in the promised Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, the lack of real affordability in the next two towers, and the already-launched effort to sell condos to Chinese buyers.In the eve of the groundbreaking for 535 Carlton, Greenland Forest City Partners has launched a new web site, PacificParkBrooklyn.com.
It doubles down on the claim of "Brooklyn's newest neighborhood," hails "Brooklyn's newest park" (not an actual park), avoids any details of the "affordable" rents, offers images of another planned tower (30 Sixth Avenue), and provides, below, a map of said "newest neighborhood."
It also offers a video of architect Rick Fox of CookFox describing how his firm used brick and masonry--materials prevalent on nearby Prospect Heights streets--for 535 Carlton. But the image, as seen above right, is carefully constructed to minimize the scale.
Pacific Park from Pacific Park Brooklyn on Vimeo.
You you get can an a mailing list for condos, market-rate rentals, and affordable housing. And it's all in Chinese, in case you forgot that the Greenland Group owns 70% of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park (sans the Barclays Center and the B2 tower) going forward, and is owned by the government of Shanghai.
The "newest neighborhood"?
The map may be geared to buyers from outside Brooklyn and even outside the country. After all, as should be obvious to anyone in Brooklyn, nothing promoted as being part of "Brooklyn's newest neighborhood"--like Prospect Park, the Mark Morris Dance Center, or Junior's--is actually part of the neighborhood.
The groundbreaking and the mayor
If Mayor Bill de Blasio is at today's groundbreaking, be wary of his claim, as stated last June, that "we’ve secured nearly twice as many affordable units [compared with the first, under-construction, Atlantic Yards tower] for our city investment.”
As I wrote in BKLYNR, the city’s not getting twice as much of the same affordable housing. Rather, 300 of the 600 planned units will have rents so high, approaching market rate, they don’t qualify for direct subsidies (though they’ll still get low-interest, tax-exempt financing).
30 Sixth Avenue
The website also describes the next all-affordable tower, but not the condo towers coming at the same time:
An eye-catching new 23-story residential tower is joining the arena block. Light, pattern, and texture play across the gleaming façade; a traditional covered entrance provides comfortable access to the 300 residences, which will be affordable to low-, moderate-, and middle-income New Yorkers. Designed by SHoP Architects, 30 Sixth Avenue will house Pacific Park Brooklyn’s health care center, as well as retail behind full-height glass storefronts and an underground parking facility.
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