If B5 rises, developers seek 30% (middle-income) affordability, under expired 421-a benefit. Tax break deadline: 2026. But affordable housing deadline: 2025.

As I wrote this week, documents confirmed that developers of the B12/B13 towers--TF Cornerstone, after leasing the sites from master developer Greenland Forest City Partners--plan 30% affordable units at 130% of Area Median Income (AMI), or middle-income households likely earning six figures.

TF Cornerstone, not surprisingly, had refused to acknowledge that publicly, since such "affordable" housing--better termed "income-targeted"--hardly serves those who marched for the project.

It's hardly surprising the developers would seek to maximize their economic return: that configuration is the most lucrative under the various options presented by the now-expired 421-a tax break, which required buildings to start by 6/15/22--even with just one foundation--and be completed by 6/15/26.

700 Atlantic, as well

Similarly, and unsurprisingly, a document shows that the long-gestating B5--700 Atlantic Avenue, the first tower built over the Vanderbilt Yard--is also planned to have 30% affordable housing, surely with units aimed at the same middle-income cohort, at 130% of AMI.

The Q3 2022 Downtown Brooklyn Development Matrix, produced by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, includes 700 Atlantic among future "pipeline projects," expected but not launched, and states that the 682-unit would include 478 market rentals and 204 affordable ones. That's 30%.

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is a developer-friendly entity, so it's reasonable to assume they got the configuration from developer Greenland Forest City Partners, or associated entities.

Delayed launch

It's hardly surprising that Greenland Forest City, dominated by Greenland USA, would seek to maximize their economic return.

B5, center-left, plus (built) B4. Dattner Architects

In May, as I reported, B5 had construction approvals, as did the platform, or deck, that's required to protect the Long Island Rail Road functions to store and service trains near the Atlantic Terminal hub in Brooklyn.

(The B5 image at right appeared in a Department of Buildings, or DOB, filing.)

The platform was expected to start in June, Greenland USA's Scott Solish said in May, pending LIRR and Department of Buildings (DOB) approvals, and the first phase should take three years,which meant completion by mid-2025.

That didn't happen, which raises questions about Greenland's commitment to the project and/or finances--or perhaps unresolved permitting issues.

B5, he said at the time, wouldn't go vertical until Spring 2023, and should take two years to build, which meant it could be completed before the May 2025 affordable housing deadline.

That now seems in doubt. Though the platform does not need to be finished for tower construction to start, given that platform work would start near the B5 site and move east, the delay seemingly pushes back completion of the tower.

Two deadlines

That said, a platform start in June 2023--one year later--might still allow B5 to be completed in time to get the 421-a tax benefits. 

The question bubbling up, however, is whether Empire State Development, the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, will enforce the $2,000/month fines for each missing unit. Even the 240 apartments in B5 would only make a dent in the required 876 (or 877). 

It seems likely that Greenland Forest City will seek some kind of extension or renegotiation, though no documents confirm that.

At a June meeting of the purportedly advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), Solish said he thought B5 would qualify for the tax break because of the preliminary foundation work in the railyard.

"So when do you think it will be known whether you've qualified?" asked AY CDC Director Gib Veconi.

Rebar indicates previous work on footings

"You don't certify until after the project is finished," Solish said. "So you don't know until the very end."

"So you won't know if you're qualified maybe for two or three years," Veconi continued.

"Yeah, we anticipate that we have," Solish said, but it's not up to the developer but requires approval by HPD, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Attorney Daniel Kummer, the AY CDC Director serving as Acting Chair of the meeting, asked if there was a current filing that makes a record of the construction progress.

Solish said yes, that there is "some pre-certification work that can happen," but acknowledged the issue was for experts. 

Veconi then moved that the AY CDC request the parent ESD to ask the city agency to confirm that that the threshold qualifications had been met for B5.

The motion was unanimously approved. 

Though the AY CDC is supposed to meet quarterly, it has not met since, and there's been no public statement that ESD has in fact made that inquiry. Nor could I find any evidence of that on ESD's web site or board meeting minutes.