Yes, Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park and Barclays Center make a few end-of-decade round-ups

As the decade comes to a close, the rent in NYC is still too damn high, Curbed wrote 12/16/19, noting:

Manhattan and Brooklyn are tied, as rents increased by 18 percent in both boroughs over the last decade. In Manhattan, they went from $2,795/month to $3,300/month; in Brooklyn, the change was from $2,200/month to $2,595/month. Brooklyn is also home to four of the five neighborhoods with the biggest price increases over the past decade: Bushwick, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, and Bed-Stuy.

In other words, the neighborhoods around the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site already had their roller coaster. From the article:

In Brooklyn, several new, large-scale developments and megaprojects, such as the Domino megaproject and Pacific Park (formerly known as Atlantic Yards), may have contributed to the hike in rents while pushing renters further into the borough—and thus pushing prices higher in areas like Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy.

That's a little hard to tease out from the general changes in Prospect Heights and the development of retail corridors like Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights.

A project "on top of an MTA railyard"?

From the Commercial Observer 12/17/19, Ten Years of New York City’s Construction Boom:

The last decade has been a banner one for New York City construction. The five boroughs have rebounded from the recession and two major hurricanes to reach 25-year highs in construction spending, according to the New York Building Congress. In terms of residential construction, the city had nowhere to go but up when the 2010s began. The New York City Department of Buildings issued new building permits for just 6,727 residential units in 2010 — an extreme low for a metropolis that had approved nearly 34,000 apartments for construction in 2008, just before the recession struck. Residential development peaked in 2015 with permits for 56,183 homes and declined to 20,910 units in 2018.

From the article:

While the results of the rezonings so far have been limited to large subsidized-housing developments and a smattering of market-rate projects in East Harlem, two of the mega-projects planned under Bloomberg have grown into full-fledged neighborhoods over the past couple years. In Brooklyn, the much-maligned Atlantic Yards (now called Pacific Park) has risen on top of an MTA railyard and a series of properties that were seized through eminent domain. Four residential buildings with roughly 1,200 apartments have opened so far, and another 11 buildings are in the works. When it’s complete, the 22-acre development is expected to include 6,430 apartments, including 2,250 affordable units.

Well, nothing has actually risen on top of the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, which still awaits a deck. A fraction of the below-grade railyard, west of Sixth Avenue, occupies about half of the arena block, so the Barclays Center floor is there, and the B4 tower (aka 18 Sixth) is being built, with its base below grade.

So B12 and B13 are the biggest deal in 2019?

From the Real Deal today, Brooklyn development site tops 2019’s most-expensive list:

1. 595-615 Dean Street | $143M

Buyer: TF Cornerstone
Seller: Greenland Forest City
Brokerage: CBRE 

Things haven’t gone as planned at the massive Pacific Park complex in Brooklyn. Developer Greenland Forest City is on pace to miss a state-mandated deadline to build 2,250 of the project’s affordable units by 2025.
So the developer is selling off sites to others who can get the project back on track. In February, TF Cornerstone paid $143 million to pick up two of the complex’s development sites, with plans to build two towers with a total of 798 apartments, 8,400 square feet of commercial space and 455 parking spots.

Two things missing: first, TF Cornerstone bought the lease, not the sites. Also, beyond the components stated, the key to the deal seems to be willingness of New York State to allow 96,000 square feet of below-ground "recreational" space, which sure seems to be an expansion of commercial or retail space. And that should've required a more robust approval process.

Before and after photos

Curbed 12/19/19 published NYC neighborhoods, then and now: A decade of change, with photography by Max Touhey showing the Barclays Center under construction in 2012 and then the current scene, with the completed arena flanked by two towers.

From the article: "The whole thing is set to be complete in the next decade." Not so sure about that. It could take until 2035.