The p.r. strategy behind Pacific Park's "fast track"

It's really possible, the public relations strategy of Greenland USA, which dominates Greenland Forest City Partners.

Float a positive story with a journalist who asks no critical questions--why may not even know that there are questions--then see it summarized (mostly) unskeptically in blogs related to real estate, when the writers are too busy and/or uninformed to do more than distill it.

So the New York Post's "scoop" that the first half of the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard will start next year, which left unanswered questions about the timetable and affordability of future buildings, not to mention the second half of the platform, was summarized by Politico:

MOVING ALONG — "Brooklyn’s Pacific Park moves to fast track," by New York Post's Steve Cuozzo: “Brooklyn’s Pacific Park, which was slow in coming after it was launched 14 years ago as Atlantic Yards, has finally hit the fast track. 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. 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.”

Building the platform does not make it the fast track, not until we know more, but quoting the Post is easy.

And it was summarized by Curbed:

Finally, some movement at a Brooklyn megaproject
We’re fast approaching the 2025 deadline for delivery of the more than 2,000 affordable apartments promised as part of the Pacific Park (née Atlantic Yards) megaproject, and while a chunk of its buildings have either opened or are in progress, there’s still much to be done.
Some of that work will kick off next year, according to the New York Post: Greenland Forest City Partners, one of the site’s major developers, will begin decking over the Long Island Rail Road tracks below the megaproject in 2020, which will allow work to begin on several major buildings, along with an eight-acre park. A new rendering of the area shows what those buildings may look like once work is completed.

According to the Post, the rendering shows 18 Sixth Avenue, a tower being co-developed by Greenland and the Brodsky Organization that’s due to open in 2022, along with three additional buildings along Atlantic Avenue that Greenland will develop on its own. There are two additional sites on Dean Street, not pictured here, that will be developed by TF Cornerstone.

This is a tad more skeptical, given the reference to the housing deadline, but there's no mention of the housing timetable, and the "eight-acre park" mainly depends not on this stage of the platform but the later phase.

Here's The Real Deal:

The Pacific Park megacomplex is set for major growth spurt. Lead developer Greenland Forest City Partners says it plans to start construction of a platform over the LIRR train yard on the site next year, which will allow construction to begin on three more of the complex’s 15 total buildings — of which five have been completed. The development partnership also unveiled new renderings for four towers, one of which will be co-developed with the Brodsky Organization. [NYP]

It's a smart strategy, I guess, because if they simply had a press conference someone might ask a semi-tough question.