This is the second article about topics raised at the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting 3/5/19. The first concerned the plans to meet the 2025 deadline for 2,250 units of affordable housing.
Several questions surfaced regarding plans for Site 5, across Flatbush Avenue from the Barclays Center and currently home to P.C. Richard and Modell's. It was once slated for a 250-foot building with some 440,000 square feet, but could become a huge two-tower complex with more than 1.1 million square feet, with retail at the base, and rising nearly 800 feet. (Here's a look at overall project plans,)
Would affordable housing be included at Site 5 (at far west of map), once planned for Brooklyn’s largest office tower, as floated by developer Greenland Forest City Partners, assuming it can successfully transfer bulk from the unbuilt B1 tower once planned for what is now the arena plaza?
Tobi Jaiyesimi, executive director of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC) and Atlantic Yards project director for parent Empire State Development (ESD), didn't definitively answer the question, but offered a lingering hint.
“The programming for Site 5—right now, we don't have any information on, in terms of a formal request that has been to ESD, whether it will include or not include affordable housing," she said, "but the developer is able to use any and all of the sites to meet the affordable housing requirements. The important thing is meeting the 2025 deadline for the 2,250 units of affordable housing.”
Moving forward
To build at Site 5, a new public process must start, involving another modification to the project’s Modified General Project Plan. That hasn’t started. “Right now there is litigation between Forest City and P.C. Richard as it relates to some agreements that they had about the site,” Jaiyesimi said. “Part of that litigation prevents the developer from inducing ESD to move ahead with condemnation on Site 5.”
Several questions surfaced regarding plans for Site 5, across Flatbush Avenue from the Barclays Center and currently home to P.C. Richard and Modell's. It was once slated for a 250-foot building with some 440,000 square feet, but could become a huge two-tower complex with more than 1.1 million square feet, with retail at the base, and rising nearly 800 feet. (Here's a look at overall project plans,)
Would affordable housing be included at Site 5 (at far west of map), once planned for Brooklyn’s largest office tower, as floated by developer Greenland Forest City Partners, assuming it can successfully transfer bulk from the unbuilt B1 tower once planned for what is now the arena plaza?
Tobi Jaiyesimi, executive director of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC) and Atlantic Yards project director for parent Empire State Development (ESD), didn't definitively answer the question, but offered a lingering hint.
“The programming for Site 5—right now, we don't have any information on, in terms of a formal request that has been to ESD, whether it will include or not include affordable housing," she said, "but the developer is able to use any and all of the sites to meet the affordable housing requirements. The important thing is meeting the 2025 deadline for the 2,250 units of affordable housing.”
Moving forward
To build at Site 5, a new public process must start, involving another modification to the project’s Modified General Project Plan. That hasn’t started. “Right now there is litigation between Forest City and P.C. Richard as it relates to some agreements that they had about the site,” Jaiyesimi said. “Part of that litigation prevents the developer from inducing ESD to move ahead with condemnation on Site 5.”
(P.C. Richard recently won a decision ordering original developer Forest City Ratner to provide replacement space in the future complex, but the developer--now owned by Brookfield and owning only 5% of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park going forward--has indicated plans to appeal.)
“The [Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park] developer has had conversations, y’know, going back some years, and even more recently with elected officials in trying to get out there what their ideas are, what their intent is, what their vision is,” Jaiyesimi said. “But no formal request has been made to ESD.”
(Emphasis added)
That language suggests that something is percolating, though it's not something any local elected officials have mentioned in public. Presumably it's another variation on plans floated for office, retail, hotel, and residential space, perhaps with more of the latter.
If the building on Site 5 has more residential units, “that could in theory could be a number that goes above the ultimate cap, 6430 [units],” observed resident Peter Krashes, “so if they added more units into the project, is that going to change the proportion of units that are affordable relative to the amount that’s delivered?”
Jaiyesimi noted that the developer is required to build 2,250 affordable units by 2025. That deadline sits outside the Modified General Project Plan, which must be revised for the Site 5 project.
So presumably any new requirements—such as maintaining the percentage of affordability at 35% no matter the total number of units—would be part of the revised document.
Krashes noted that former AY CDC board member Jaime Stein, before she left the board last year, had proposed a more robust process: that AY CDC Board and ESD should hire third-party planning, design and construction consultants to review the proposal to inform the board and the public regarding the potential impacts of the giant project.
“Have any of the elected officials talked to ESD about using her recommendations?” Krashes asked.
“All the elected officials are in support of expanding public engagement,” Jaiyesimi said, not quite endorsing the plan. “There hasn't been language on specifically hiring a consultant.…Again, we are taking all the recommendations made and are committed to having as open and engaged a public process as possible.”
“The [Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park] developer has had conversations, y’know, going back some years, and even more recently with elected officials in trying to get out there what their ideas are, what their intent is, what their vision is,” Jaiyesimi said. “But no formal request has been made to ESD.”
(Emphasis added)
That language suggests that something is percolating, though it's not something any local elected officials have mentioned in public. Presumably it's another variation on plans floated for office, retail, hotel, and residential space, perhaps with more of the latter.
Site 5 apartments
If the building on Site 5 has more residential units, “that could in theory could be a number that goes above the ultimate cap, 6430 [units],” observed resident Peter Krashes, “so if they added more units into the project, is that going to change the proportion of units that are affordable relative to the amount that’s delivered?”
Jaiyesimi noted that the developer is required to build 2,250 affordable units by 2025. That deadline sits outside the Modified General Project Plan, which must be revised for the Site 5 project.
So presumably any new requirements—such as maintaining the percentage of affordability at 35% no matter the total number of units—would be part of the revised document.
Krashes noted that former AY CDC board member Jaime Stein, before she left the board last year, had proposed a more robust process: that AY CDC Board and ESD should hire third-party planning, design and construction consultants to review the proposal to inform the board and the public regarding the potential impacts of the giant project.
“Have any of the elected officials talked to ESD about using her recommendations?” Krashes asked.
“All the elected officials are in support of expanding public engagement,” Jaiyesimi said, not quite endorsing the plan. “There hasn't been language on specifically hiring a consultant.…Again, we are taking all the recommendations made and are committed to having as open and engaged a public process as possible.”
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