Brodsky says market-rate units at Plank Road (662 Pacific) fully leased. (There were discounts.) Brooklyn Crossing (18 Sixth) said to be 35% leased. (Affordable move-ins yet?)

From Real Estate Weekly, 5/23/22, The Brodsky Organization Announces Full Lease Up of Plank Road at Pacific Park, surely a press release regarding 662 Pacific Street (aka B15):

The Brodsky Organization today announced that Plank Road, one of the latest residential developments within Pacific Park in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, is 100 percent leased. Offering well-located rentals, a full suite of amenities and incredible views — coupled with peak market demand — the 27-story, 312-unit luxury rental building has fully leased its market-rate apartments. This is a special milestone as Brodsky completed Plank Road during the pandemic and finished leasing just seven months after receiving its first temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO).

So that means 218 units have been leased. Note: we haven't heard about how many, if any, tenants of the 94 middle-income "affordable" units have moved in. 

Applications for those income-linked units were due by 1/18/22, three months after the building began to open. Now it's four months later. Such units, at 130% of Area Median Income (AMI), are not easy to rent, given the burdensome bureaucracy and the relative competition in the open market. 

Applicants say they are often win multiple lotteries for middle-income units. At a development in Coney Island, according to New York YIMBY, tenants are being offered two free months of rent on a one-year lease or three free months plus a $500 gift card on a two-year lease--and the rents are relatively affordable: $1,550 for a studio and $1,900 for a one-bedroom, well below the allowable limits.

In a much better location, Brodsky set rent levels, especially for studios, well below the allowable limit, in apparent recognition of the general competition.

According to a report last year from the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, 7% of affordable projects were rented up in less than 90 days and 21% of projects within 4-6 months, 73% of lotteries took more than six months to completely rent up, and 13% took more than two years.

"High demand" but...

From the Brodsky announcement:

“This is a major achievement for Plank Road and our team,” said Alexander Brodsky of The Brodsky Organization. “To be able to fully lease the building in just seven months is proof of the high demand for high-quality apartments, first-class amenities and a prime location, all of which Plank Road offers.”

Unit 18E

Well, there is high demand for such apartments around the city, but Brodsky also had to cut asking rents. Some units leased in December came with two months free on a 16-month lease.

As of 1/31/22, Brodsky announced that the building had been 50% leased "in less than five months since its launch."

The building got its first TCO (Temporary Certificate of Occupancy) in mid-October, and market-rate tenants were there in early November, if not October.

So seven months after the first TCO would be mid-April, not mid-May.

As of the announcement three days ago, according to StreetEasy, one unit, 18E, was still available, with two bedrooms and one bath.

A day later, it was off market, after its asking rent was reduced 14%, in three stages, from $6,857 to $5,895.

As of this morning, one unit is listed on StreetEasy, 7Q, with two bedrooms and two baths, listed at $6,575, which is a lower price than that sought for 18E (with only one bath) as of March.

At least according to StreetEasy, 7Q had not previously been on the market until being listed two days ago. So maybe the building isn't quite 100% leased?

Brooklyn Crossing

The Real Estate Weekly posting also stated:

Leasing continues across the street at Brodsky’s second Pacific Park building, Brooklyn Crossing, located at 18 Sixth Avenue. Developed in partnership with Greenland USA, the 51-story residential building offers 858 new units of mixed-income housing, 258 of which are set aside for affordable housing. The building — which offers studios to one- to three-bedroom apartments, and 26,000 square feet of amenities including a Sky Lounge and rooftop pool — opened for tours in January and is already 35 percent leased. 

Presumably that 35% figure refers to the 600 market-rate units; that would mean a total of 210 units leased.

That building, aka B2, is the largest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park building so far, and should take the longest to lease up. That's another 390 market-rate units. And the 258 "affordable" units, as shown in the graphic below, are more expensive than the 130% AMI units at Plank Road. 

Given the sequence of the housing lotteries, these units should lease up later than Plank Road.

One lottery applicant reported that, according to a marketing agent, the "affordable" units are virtually the same as the market-rate ones, but "with minor variations e.g. some backsplashes maybe subway tiles instead of mosaic." 

That applicant, as well as others on the message board. sounded very enthusiastic about new, well-located units. That said, these were not what housing advocacy group ACORN was marching for before the project was approved.