I have an article at The Bridge today on the compromise announced yesterday on the 80 Flatbush project, a modest 12.5% cut in scale. From the article, headlined A Little off the Top: 80 Flatbush Gets Shorter and Slimmer:
Now that that project is resolved, perhaps there's more chance for momentum on a similarly large, two-tower project just down the block, the revision of plans for Site 5, part of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, currently home to Modell's and P.C. Richard, and bounded by Fourth, Flatbush, and Atlantic avenues, and Pacific Street.
A lawsuit between P.C. Richard and its landlord, Forest City New York (formerly Forest City Ratner), has stalled that project, but presumably a settlement is possible when developer Greenland Forest City Partners--owned 95% going forward by Greenland USA--decides to move forward.
Unlike 80 Flatbush, which went through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, requiring City Council approval and giving a large role to the local City Council Member, the Site 5 plan only requires approval by Empire State Development, the state economic development authority, controlled by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
So its path should be easier. That said, the two projects, though both bordering wide avenues as well as a row-house block, are not the same. 80 Flatbush was proposed at a very large Floor Area Ratio, 18, and revised to 15.5. (FAR is a metric describing bulk as a multiple of a fully covered lot; most lots, of course, are not fully covered.)
The Site 5 project FAR has not been publicly stated, but could be even larger; I calculated the previously floated proposal at 23.5.
In a negotiation that went down to the wire—past the start of a scheduled City Council subcommittee hearing Thursday—months of debate over the scale of the ambitious two-tower 80 Flatbush project concluded with a compromise agreement for modest cuts in its height and bulk. The promised public benefits in the project—two schools and 200 units of affordable housing—will remain in place, according to the deal reached by City Council Member Stephen Levin (33rd District), Alloy Development, and city officials.What about Site 5?
Now that that project is resolved, perhaps there's more chance for momentum on a similarly large, two-tower project just down the block, the revision of plans for Site 5, part of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, currently home to Modell's and P.C. Richard, and bounded by Fourth, Flatbush, and Atlantic avenues, and Pacific Street.
A lawsuit between P.C. Richard and its landlord, Forest City New York (formerly Forest City Ratner), has stalled that project, but presumably a settlement is possible when developer Greenland Forest City Partners--owned 95% going forward by Greenland USA--decides to move forward.
Unlike 80 Flatbush, which went through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, requiring City Council approval and giving a large role to the local City Council Member, the Site 5 plan only requires approval by Empire State Development, the state economic development authority, controlled by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
So its path should be easier. That said, the two projects, though both bordering wide avenues as well as a row-house block, are not the same. 80 Flatbush was proposed at a very large Floor Area Ratio, 18, and revised to 15.5. (FAR is a metric describing bulk as a multiple of a fully covered lot; most lots, of course, are not fully covered.)
The Site 5 project FAR has not been publicly stated, but could be even larger; I calculated the previously floated proposal at 23.5.
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