Before public meeting, Greenland tells NY Post it will start railyard platform in 2020. Meeting 2025 affordable deadline more plausible, but questions remain.

Here we go!

Developer Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP) --likely anticipating a public meeting Thursday sponsored by critics of the project--told the New York Post of new plans to start the first half of the Vanderbilt Yard platform next year, which the Post dutifully regurgitated as Brooklyn’s Pacific Park moves to fast track.

That does represent progress, setting the stage for three towers over the railyard between Sixth and Carlton Avenues: B5/B6/B7.

But it doesn't necessarily mean "the fast track," since stenographic Steve Cuozzo helpfully (in the developer's eyes) didn't ask about the timetable to finish the platform, to start the towers, and the number of affordable units--essentially how GFCP would meet the May 2025 deadline for 2,250 affordable units. Nor did he ask about the expected level of affordability.

This news--which is in general conformity to previous documents I've reported on--does make it more likely the developer would finish the 916 affordable units needed beyond those already completed or under construction.

B4 at left flanks the Barclays Center. To the right are B5/B6/B7. Via GFCP and NY Post.

Remaining question marks

However, the announcement leaves other question marks, notably: what about the final three buildings? What's the timetable for them, especially since they require an even larger deck, and a more significant investment in infrastructure?

The eastern block of the railyard, site of
B8/B9/B10, and significant open space.

Notably, while Cuozzo said the image shared by Greenland showed "a public park on the 22-acre site," it actually represents the very fractional green space between Pacific Street and the first three towers over the railyard.

Only once the last three towers are completed, incorporating demapped Pacific Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, would the majority of the "park"--actually, publicly accessible, privately managed open space--be finished.

The full project likely will take until 2035, according to a past disclosure by the developer.

Below is the latest project schematic that I've helped prepare, with designer Ben Keel.

From the article

Cuozzo writes:

Greenland Forest City Partners, which controls development rights to many of the complex’s building sites, plans to start construction in 2020 of a long-awaited platform over the site’s sunken LIRR train yard, the Greenland group’s Executive VP Scott Solish said.

Unmentioned: how long the platform would take.

He writes:

Of 15 planned buildings, only five have opened so far. But a sixth is going up now, and the completed deck will finally allow work to start on three more to rise along the complex’s Atlantic Avenue side between Sixth Avenue and Pacific Street.

That's both sloppy and interesting. First, check the map. Sixth Avenue and Pacific Street are not parallel but intersect. That should've been Sixth and Carlton avenues.

Also, the five buildings that have finished include the Barclays Center and four towers. Actually two more--not "a sixth"--are under construction: B4 and B15. 

That leaves two towers on the southeast block (B12/B13), six towers over the railyard (B5-B10), and the project at Site 5, catercorner to the arena, which was approved as a single tower but could become a two-tower complex. That's at least 16 buildings, maybe 17--unless they've given up on Site 5.

Cuozzo writes:

The development partnership also shared for the first time an image of four new apartment towers and a public park on the 22-acre site east of Barclays Center where Atlantic and Flatbush avenues converge.

As noted, that's not the key piece of the "public park."

Cuozzo writes:

One tower, 18 Sixth Avenue, is under construction and due to open in late 2021 or early 2022. That $649 million project is a joint venture of Greenland Forest City Partners and the Brodsky Organization, as The Post first reported.

That's interesting. While previous statements left open the possibility of a 2021 completion, the year 2022 seems more likely.

He closes:

The three towers to the east of it are being developed by the Greenland group alone. Brodsky is separately also working on another Pacific Park tower, 664 Pacific Street, while TF Cornerstone has development rights to two other sites.

We'll see if it holds true that Greenland develops B5/B6/B7 on its own, or markets a stake (or even leases a parcel) to another developer. Remember, this is a "never say never project."