Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

As I wrote yesterday,  the low-income units at the new 1010 Pacific development, however below-market, are not aimed at the truly needy. More than 89% of the households in the city considered rent-burdened--paying more than 30% of their earnings in rent--earn less than 80% of Area Median Income (AMI), according to the Association for Neighborhood Housing & Development (ANHD). Let's take a closer look at their statistics, released last September with their AMI Cheat Sheet, part of a report titled  New York City's AMI Problem, and the Housing We Actually Need . (The document is in full at bottom.) Notably, as is clear, those designed "low-income" but earning 80% of AMI, however much they might appreciate below-market new housing, make up a far less rent-burdened cohort--paying more than 30% of income toward rent--than those earning less.  Also note that the maximum affordable rent the city allows, $2,402 for a two-bedroom, is likely more than those at the 80% AMI...

From Pacific House So the first fruit of the spot rezonings in Community Board 8, the 176-unit apartment building at 1010 Pacific Street, branded Pacific House , is coming into view: market-rate units are being leased, and the city's Housing Connect lottery for the 53 "affordable" units has launched. Notably, the 52 "affordable" units--better termed "income-linked"--aimed at households earning 80% of Area Median Income (AMI), are technically considered the upper bound of low-income, under the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development's guidelines . 1010 Pacific, from Atlantic Avenue But the rents, however below-market, are not aimed at the truly needy. More than 89% of the households in the city considered rent-burdened--paying more than 30% of their earnings in rent--earn less than 80% of AMI, according to the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD). There are four studios listed at $1,576, which is actually l...

Now there's some plausible, if not completely convincing pushback, on the suggestion, based on circumstantial evidence and past industry practices, that the Barclays Center short-circuited its ticketing contract with SeatGeek to rejoin Ticketmaster because of the latter's partnership with the concert promoter Live Nation. So, my recent headline --"At Senate hearing, new evidence of Ticketmaster's power: SeatGeek CEO says Barclays Center sought to retain contract for Nets games, not concerts"--might be amended to "new evidence of Ticketmaster's value." At least if we believe the sources, some unnamed in Billboard's 1/26/23 Barclays Center Ditched SeatGeek for Ticketmaster After Recurring Tech Issues , which cites problems in selling tickets for certain concerts. That said, it should be noted that it was problems with Ticketmaster--notably bots invading a Taylor Swift presale--that led to a Congressional hearing. Both systems add significant charg...

Some Prospect Heights neighbors have gotten invitations to join the Chelsea Piers Fitness Center  scheduled to open June 1 at the base of--and mostly below-- the two-tower 595 Dean Street (B12/B13) complex. A founding membership includes a rate of $180/month, locked in for a year, with no initiation fee, a free personal training session, an unsepecified gift package and six annual guest passes. There's a pre-sales office nearby at 594 Dean Street. That $180/month, which I suspect won't last more than a year, is less than that of other Chelsea Piers locations, according to the web site Choosing Nutrition . (Chelsea Piers doesn't list fees on its website .)  Choosing Nutrition states that the monthly fee at the flagship club in Chelsea is $250, while that on 265 Schermerhorn Street, at the base of the building known as 33 Bond in  Downtown Brooklyn , is $220. (Or $225, according to this Reddit thread .)  An All-Access Membership is $285. That also includes ...

On Wednesday, I got an email from the Brooklyn Nets alerting me to the opportunity to buy 2023-24 "season memberships," aka full-season or half-season tickets. It's an interesting time--early?--to solicit ticket buyers. Though I clicked through fairly soon to test out the pricing, none of the purported $35/game full-season tickets or $45/game half-season tickets were available. Instead, for full-season plans at $45, I found just 24 full-season tickets available, just 20 available at $55, and 18 at $60 each.  For the half-season, I could find only a few available at $55/game. (All prices include fees.) Current ticket prices That said, it's unclear how many tickets they're setting aside for individual sales. Remember, the New York Post reported in October that the Nets were "dead last" in season-ticket sales, chasing away some long-time ticketholders with price increases--but others noted that single-game ticket sales were strong. ESPN says the Nets this...

With no explanation for the failure to hold the expected bi-monthly Quality of Life meetings in November or January,  Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, yesterday announced that the next meeting would be held, virtually, on Tuesday, February 7, at 6 pm. There's nothing yet on the official Atlantic Yards page , but the information came in an email that provided the Zoom link and other access information: https://zoom.us/j/96256411661 Dial In: 646-558-8656 || Passcode: 962 5641 1661# Meeting ID: 962 5641 1661 Project-related questions and suggested agenda items may be sent to atlanticyards@esd.ny.gov .  Lottery launch? I suspect one topic, or announcement, may regard the launch of the lottery for the 240 "affordable" units at 595 Dean St. (B12/B13), scheduled to open in the spring, as well as a timetable for opening the building's market-rate units.   Note: I reported that, despite professed ignorance from mas...

An explosive Senate Judiciary Committee hearing (video) yesterday, was summarized by The American Prospect as Senators Berate the Ticketmaster Monopoly , with some suggesting that "it was time to unwind the disastrous 2010 merger between [concert promoter] Live Nation and Ticketmaster." Live Nation is already under investigation by the Justice Department. Though the hearing, That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment , was triggered in part by a high-profile snafu involving Taylor Swift ticketing, news that Barclays Center had abruptly canceled its contract with SeatGeek to return to Ticketmaster-- reported by the New York Times ten days earlier--got an important cameo. While Barclays operators eschewed comment to the Times, SeatGeek CEO Jack Groetzinger revealed yesterday that Barclays had sought to keep SeatGeek--an upstart company that prides itself on innovations like 3-D views from seats and a mobile-first approach--to ticke...

BerlinRosen, the public relations/consulting powerhouse that has long represented the developers of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, this year was ranked fifth in City & State's The 2023 Political PR Power 50 . The subheading to the 1/9/23 list is "The top communications gurus and masters of spin in New York politics" and, indeed, such high-priced firms not only shape the answers from their clients, they shape the overall environment. As I wrote 11/24/16, an analysis of the "agents of the city" email document dump showed a fevered January 2015 response by BerlinRosen to an op-ed (only only) in the New York Times criticizing the effort to bring the 2016 Democratic National Convention to the Barclays Center. "How many immediately surrounding local businesses can we get lte's [Letters to the Editor] in today?" wrote firm co-founder Jonathan Rosen to colleagues and advisors to Mayor Bill de Blasio on 1/21/15, the day of my essay. "How many do we...

The drip-drip of troubling news about Eric Adams continues, notably the New Yorker report  about his questionable mentoring of con man and "Bling Bishop" Lamor (aka Lamar) Whitehead.  While I  cited  the New Yorker's report on Whitehead's connection to the Barclays Center, I didn't mention the reference to Woodland, where Whitehead and Adams liked to hang out, "the first restaurant run by the Petrosyants brothers [Robert and Zhan, aka Johnny], who now run La Baia," the mayor's current place of choice.  Eric Lach's article notes that "character testimonies to the judge" sentencing the brothers, who pleaded guilty to federal charges, included a letter from Whitehead about a purported an anti-childhood-obesity program--one that Robert Petrosyants didn't recall. In a 1/19/23 article,  Adams fundraising haul buoyed by swell of real estate cash , Politico noted that the mayor held campaign fundraisers at La Baia: And Akiva Ofshtein — the ...

At the end of November, as I wrote 12/4/22, the Brooklyn Nets and Brooklyn-born (but, more recently, Oregon-owned, after the founders' bankruptcy) announced a collaboration on Birthday Swishes, two new flavors honoring the Nets' decade in Brooklyn. Photos/Norman Oder My evaluation of the Birthday Swishes: Away Game, containing white birthday cake ice cream with chocolate frosting swirls, housemade chocolate cake batter bites and anniversary sprinkles, was that it was way too sweet. (But it was free, so you couldn't beat the price.) Second taste test On 1/15/23, when I was at the Barclays Center for a Nets game, I tried Birthday Swishes: Home Court Advantage, which is sold exclusively at the arena in single serve (4 oz.) cups, featuring dark chocolate cake ice cream (a reference to the team's black uniforms) with white frosting swirls and black, white and silver sprinkles. Again, it was way too sweet--the sprinkles don't help-- but the chocolate flavor was excellent...

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning Monday, Jan. 23 was circulated at 4:13 pm yesterday (lead time) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP), which is dominated by Greenland USA. There's little change compared with the  previous update , except for plans to begin sidewalk and curb restoration work along Dean Street, outside the B12/B13 site (595 Dean, between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues), pending issuance of permits from the Department of Transportation. When such work starts, pedestrian access along Dean Street may be temporarily relocated to the south side of the the block. Parking lanes along the north side of the block may be temporarily reduced and/or eliminated. No Parking signs will be posted pending start date. Bike lanes are not expected to be impacted  The B12/B13 towers are expected to open in the first half of the year. Platform work  may ...