Though advisory Atlantic Yards CDC asked for a financial analysis of Pacific Park's future by Oct. 3, parent ESD says report still in process. No target date.

At the Aug. 2 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), as I reported for City Limits, the directors voted unanimously to ask parent Empire State Development (ESD), to prepare a financial analysis of the future of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project, of which seven development sites--six over a railyard, requiring an expensive deck--remain.

They asked for it to be delivered in 60 days, by Oct. 3, presumably before the next AY CDC meeting. (The board is supposed to meet quarterly, so three months would be the first week of November, but it hadn't met since April 11, so it was behind schedule.)

The report is not finished, perhaps not surprisingly, and no new AY CDC meeting has been scheduled.

"Empire State Development is coordinating with the developer on a financial analysis of the remaining Atlantic Yards sites," a spokeswoman for ESD stated in response to my query. "This is not yet complete. ESD will share this analysis with the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation once it is finalized."

That includes, at least as requested at the meeting by the resolution's author, Gib Veconi, whether developer Greenland USA, which owns nearly all of Greenland Forest City Partners, expects to pay liquidated damages of $2,000/month for each affordable housing unit not finished by May 2025. Of the required 2,250 affordable units, 876 (or 877) remain.

Greenland's hesitancy

Surely the developer would rather get an extension, or redo project agreements, than pay such damages.

As I wrote, when asked at the meeting for an anticipated start date for the 36-month buildout of the first  block of the platform over the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard--which would support three towers-- Greenland hedged.

“There is no affordable housing subsidy in place for this project,” Xinmei (Macy) Wang, a Greenland executive based in Los Angeles, said over the phone, indicating 421-a, “so we are evaluating how to proceed.”

Other potential factors include high interest rates, rising construction costs, and parent Greenland Holding Group’s near-default credit rating and limited liquidity. 

The discussion

As shown in the discussion below, Veconi proposed that ESD to prepare an analysis of the cost of completing the project, including the cost of liquidated damages, and to make it available to the board and to the public to review.

That would fulfill the AY CDC's role as advisory body--I've called it (purportedly) advisory because it has often not pursued that role.

During the meeting, acting Chair Daniel Kummer was told, apparently by ESD staff, that the next AY CDC meeting would be in September.

While the discussion considered a 90-day window for the request, Veconi asked for 60 days, to have it ready before the expected next AY CDC meeting.

Kummer acknowledged that the timetable was perhaps unrealistic, but said they could make the request.

As it's turned out, the timetable for both the report and the next meeting was unrealistic.