From the latest Construction Update: developer finally acknowledges reality, as crucial platform work posited as imminent since last May is now off the table.

NY Post, 9/30/19

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning March 20, was circulated at 4:48 pm yesterday (lead time) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP), which is dominated by Greenland USA.

The big change, compared with the previous update, is the belated acknowledgment that work on the crucial first block of the platform--teased as starting last May, with a repeat in every subsequent two-week Update suggesting potential work--has been put aside for now. 

That platform, between Sixth and Carlton avenues and between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street, would support three towers over the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard. A second platform block, one block east, between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, would support three more towers and help deliver the lion's share of the project's much-touted open space.

That suggests that Greenland USA, having lost its Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park point man and with no chance of meeting the May 2025 affordable housing deadline, with at least 876 units due, is renegotiating and reconsidering the project.

They don't want to pay the $2,000/month fine for each missing unit. The question, then, is whether Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration and the gubernatorially-controlled ESD is going to negotiate in secret.

The latst news further positions Greenland's pre-pandemic pledge to start the platform--which the New York Post conclusorily claimed 9.30/19 put the project on "the fast track"--as a p.r. move. (See screenshot above right.)

B5/Dattner Architects. B4 (18 Sixth) at right.

Seeming ramp-up

Last May, though, Greenland seemed more serious, distributing plans at public meetings along with the announcements in the bi-weekly Construction Updates.

It even distributed a rendering, albeit only in a Department of Buildings (DOB) filing, of the B5 tower, 700 Atlantic Avenue, the first scheduled to rise over the railyard, just east of Sixth Avenue between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street.

With the platform starting in mid-2022, the B5 tower was to go vertical in Spring 2023, and was expected to qualify for 421-a benefits based on having foundations in the ground before the June 15, 2022 deadline. That's now in jeopardy.

However, various factors likely intruded, including the rise in interest rates, the failure to renew the 421-a tax break, and even the credit rating hit faced by Greenland's Shanghai-based parent.

More recently, the project has avoided some typical (if limited) transparency, as ESD missed two scheduled bi-monthly Quality of Life meetings, and the (purportedly) advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), which is supposed to meet quarterly, hasn't met since last June.

From the latest Update, no platform work

From the previous Update, March 6, 2023

From the first Update to tease the platform, May 2, 2022

On the southeast block, progress

The new document does indicate (in red text, at bottom) new work at the B12/B13 site, 595 Dean Street, two towers scheduled to start opening in May:

Mechanical, Plumbing, Fire Protection and Electrical punch list work on-going throughout the project as well as LEED Commissioning and start-up of equipment. West Tower Hoist apartment interior finish work on-going including installation of tile, flooring, painting, shades, electrical devices and plumbing trim. Architectural woodwork installation of benches for plaza area are on-going as well as punch list items.

It also indicates that, within this two-week period, sidewalk and curb restoration work along Dean Street is expected to be completed, as will scaffold drops for façade work, including window washing operations and caulking and installation of window wall metal panels.

During the sidewalk/curb work, pedestrian access along Dean Street will be temporarily relocated to the parking lane on the south side of Dean

After-hours work 

Regarding after-hours work at the B12/B13 site, the document says there's a variance for work to start at 6 am on weekdays. No such variances have been listed since mid-February, which may suggest they're getting closer to completion.

It also says "Saturday work from 9 AM – 5 PM will continue." However, the variance for today, as in the past months, is from 9 am to 5:30 pm.

That, as I've noted, continues a pattern, which suggests that GFCP and site developer TF Cornerstone just don't care about getting it right. Nor does the state authority ESD.