Four months after the last bi-monthly Quality of Life meeting, schedule remains on hold. Unprecedented lapse in (limited) accountability. What's up?

From Sept. 20, 2022 ESD presentation

What happened to the bi-monthly Quality of Life meetings, hosted by Empire State Development, the state authority overseeing/shepherding the project?

Such meetings, at which representatives of the developer (or developers) typically appear, offer some limited accountability regarding project timetables, neighborhood impacts, and future plans.

(The online format, in the pandemic era, limits the ability to ask follow-up questions or for attendees to communicate with each other.)

After the 9/20/22 meeting, the 11/15/22 meeting was never held, and no 2023 timetable was ever circulated, though it was typical to circulate annual timetables by the beginning of the year.

The January 2023 meeting would presumably be held next week. No date has been announced, nor agenda circulated. Here's the page where the next meeting should be listed.

Neighbors surely have questions about the final construction and opening of 595 Dean, the affordable housing plan at the two-tower complex, the opening of Chelsea Piers, traffic and plans for 455 more underground spaces (added to the current 303), plus the bigger questions: what about the delayed plans for the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard and the requirement to complete 2,250 units of affordable housing by May 2025? 

Getting more suspicious

It's getting ever suspicious. as the four-month mark approaches. When I last month asked ESD about the next meeting, I got a not-so-illuminating response: "Details for the next Quality of Life meeting are being worked on and information will be distributed to the community once available."

Remember, in a City Limits article last June, a spokesman for the developer claimed, "Generally in terms of accountability this project continues to report to the public through a bi-monthly ‘quality of life’ meeting” held by ESD. 

I found that dubious, given the limited transparency, but even that minimal standard is not being met.

Simply cancelling the meetings, with no explanation or re-scheduling, signals either a failure of capacity by ESD and/or a decision by the state authority to not hold the developer minimally accountable. And that leads to speculation as to why.

Is master developer Greenland Forest City Partner (GFCP) negotiating a new schedule and configuration? A way to avoid penalties for the delayed affordable housing? A new plan for the platform?

Or has it simply asked for everything to be put on hold pending such negotiations? Is the Shanghai-based parent company of Greenland USA, which owns nearly all of GFCP, in even deeper trouble than it seemed last year, with its credit rating headed down.

Below is a screenshot from the page where the next meeting should be listed.