In Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park lobbying reports, scant hints regarding contacts with state and city. Department of Buildings issues over platform construction?

So, what do recent lobbying filings regarding Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park tell us? Not much, but they do hint that master developer Greenland Forest City Partners is trying to remove some roadblocks to progress.

The state lobbying database indicates that the lobbying powerhouse Kasirer expects to be lobbying state and local public authorities and local development corporations--the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation?--as well as the New York City Department of Buildings. 

The latter may--I speculate--be a stumbling block in the announced by long-delayed plan to start building a platform over the Vanderbilt Yard.

Other reports from 2022 indicate contact with Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, perhaps--I speculate--regarding the increasingly untenable May 2025 deadline for the project's affordable housing. Surely the developer seeks to extend the deadline and/or avoid the onerous $2,000/month fines for each missing unit.

A revised retainer (bottom) for Kasirer, dated 12/23/22, extends for another year a contract that began in 2019, with a retainer of $6,000 a month from Pacific Park Development, LLC.

"Relationship building"?

Oddly enough, in its November-December filing, Kasirer initially reported it was pursuing "relationship building and Penn Station engagement strategy" with the Long Island Rail Road.

That was a mistake, the firm acknowledged, in response to my query. (I suspect that was transposed from its work with the developer Vornado.)

It has been revised to "relationship building regarding implementation of the GPP," or General Project Plan, with the Long Island Rail Road.

In its September-October state filing, it made the same erroneous claims, adding the MTA to the LIRR, but also revised it after my inquiry.

Kasirer's July-August state filing similarly referenced "relationship building and GPP [General Project Plan] engagement strategy" with the LIRR, MTA, and Empire State Development.

In the May-June and March-April state filings, no specific lobbying activity is cited. In the January-February filing, Kasirer reported lobbying Hope Knight, CEO of Empire State Development.

In Greenland Atlantic Yards LLC's 2022 city lobbying report (below), information was sparse, limited to lobbying of Damien Titus at the Department of Environmental Protection. As far as I can tell, there's no employee of that name, but rather a Damian Titus, an Administrative Project Manager at the Department of Buildings.

Fried Frank

The law firm Fried Frank, which specializes in land use, did almost no work on the project in 2022. Though it filed bi-monthly reports, most indicated no work.

It reported billing $1,143, less than an hour's work for a partner (see fee schedule in document at bottom), in January-February 2022, described as "various land use matters" regarding Site 5 and the two railyard blocks.

Those lobbied included the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, the Governor's office, and Executive VP of Empire State Development in charge of real estate development and planning.

Fried Frank is not (yet?) listed in the state database for 2023 as working on the project.

Separately, according to the city lobbying database, it billed nothing in 2022 regarding lobbying city officials or agencies.

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