As discussion about Sunnyside Yard redevelopment resurfaces, remember that Vanderbilt Yard still awaits a platform

Gotham Gazette yesterday published a worthwhile and intriguing article, What Happened to the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan?, following up on the official silence toward the March 2020 release, by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, of "an ambitious $14 billion infrastructure project that would deck the 180-acre rail yard in Queens and effectively create a new community with thousands of affordable homes and dozens of acres of green and public space situated atop a new regional rail hub."

That's a tall order. Consider that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) Vanderbilt Yard in Brooklyn, key to the buildout of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, is 8.5 acres, and the delays in creating the Vanderbilt Yard platform

But it does offer a huge opportunity, including connecting regional rail with the subway system. 

Today, the yard is owned jointly by Amtrak (142 acres), the MTA (31 acres), and General Motors (7 acres), according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC), a mayor-controlled entity. Their map is below. Of the 180 acres, 80% would be decked.

Pushing forward, or not

Given COVID, the stall was understandable. Today, some commentators, like former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and an associate at Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), which produced the master plan, told Gotham Gazette the time is ripe to move forward with housing and jobs.

Another perhaps more compelling argument is the availability of federal infrastructure money. Unmentioned: interest rates have risen. Still, it's an enticing opportunity, as the image below (from here) suggests.

Gotham Gazette found those in power unusually tight lipped, with Gov. Kathy Hochul, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, local City Council Member Julie Won, the NYC EDC and Mayor Eric Adams all refusing to comment. ("An Adams spokesperson did not provide comment for this article after saying he would.")

The Atlantic Yards conundrum

The article, as originally published, stated:

The Sunnyside Yard Master Plan envisions building a deck over the existing rail yard – as the city did, to a degree, in recent decades at Atlantic Yard in Brooklyn and Hudson Yards in Manhattan – so it can continue to operate while constructing 12,000 units of affordable housing (half for very low-income families) over the new space that would be available, along with 60 acres of new public space, schools, libraries, and more.

(Emphases added)

To some degree, that repeats the error in the master plan itself, as I pointed out after its release in March 2020, which wrongly suggested, as shown in the excerpt below (from here) that Atlantic Yards had already "built over rail lines to create new land."

I sent Gotham Gazette a correction pointing out that no deck has been built yet at the Vanderbilt Yard, that the project originally called Atlantic Yards has been renamed Pacific Park Brooklyn, and that it is the responsibility of the developer (today Greenland Forest City Partners, controlled ultimately by Shanghai-based Greenland Holdings) to build the deck.

The revision only addressed part of the issue:

The Sunnyside Yard Master Plan envisions building a deck over the existing rail yard – a project in the vein of what the city has done or plans to do, to varying degrees, in recent decades at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Hudson Yards in Manhattan – so it can continue to operate while constructing 12,000 units of affordable housing (half for very low-income families) over the new space that would be available, along with 60 acres of new public space, schools, libraries, and more.

Why this matters

Sure, this is not the primary issue, but... when people discuss Sunnyside Yard, they should know that the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer has been given a lot of time to build the deck over the Vanderbilt Yard, and that numerous factors--local economic cycles, international economic changes, local tax and/or subsidy policy--might affect that timetable.

As I wrote in April 2014, the developer was required, thanks to a Development Agreement signed after the 2009 project revisions, to start construction of the platform over the railyard no later than May 2025--a 15-year window from the project Effective Date, subject to "Unavoidable Delays."

Also, despite public announcements, since this May, that a start on the platform over the first of two railyard blocks was imminent, it hasn't started.

Why not? Neither the developer nor Empire State Development (ESD), the gubernatorially-controlled state economic development authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, will say. But I found evidence that queries from the New York City Department of Buildings are at least one significant factor.

So the public is owed not just accuracy but candor. And that means that, going forward, there need to be real deadlines and penalties for nonperformance.