Is a project change cooking, or at least a permitted developer? Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation set to meet Nov. 14 at 3 pm in Brooklyn.

Ok, the pattern is indeed curious. After years in which the (purportedly) advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC) never met its required quarterly meeting schedule, a new meeting scheduled for Nov. 14 would mean three meetings in little more than four months.

(Here's my coverage of the Aug. 8 meeting and the Sept. 26 meeting.)

What's going on? We won't know until the meeting starts, since the yet-to-be-issued Agenda is likely to be impossibly vague. 

But it's a reasonable bet that something is happening with the project, likely involving the pending joint venture, including Hudson Yards developer Related Companies, to take over six tower sites over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard.

Would that mean that AY CDC parent Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, has negotiated the contours of a deal, perhaps involving supersizing the project, extending the deadline for affordable housing, and adding some more affordable housing--as the current master developer Greenland USA, proposed last year?

Probably not.

A new "permitted developer"?

I suspect ESD is not that far along, but has agreed to negotiate with the new joint venture, determining that it qualifies as a "permitted developer," given Related's sufficient track record in large-scale development.

Of course, given that the manager of the U.S. Immigration Fund, part of that expected joint venture, has a criminal record, that could scotch the notion of a permitted developer, since it bars the participation of felons. 

He was charged with a felony and pleaded no contest, but it's not clear if he pled to a reduced charge. Though questions have been raised at AY CDC meetings about Nicholas Mastroianni II, it's not clear how much ESD has investigated.

The U.S. Immigration Fund is the "regional center" that recruited immigrant investors to put up $500,000 each under the EB-5 investor visa program, but somehow as manager controls that investment and thus the fate of the collateral. 

But the USIF and Mastroianni do not constitute the "lender," as I've argued, so that's bad shorthand.

Either way, ESD wants support/assent from the advisory body, which helps give its decisions legitimacy. Given that AY CDC likely will have at most a few days to ponder this--or maybe just during the meeting time--any such legitimacy should come with an asterisk.

In Brooklyn

At least the meeting will be held in Brooklyn, rather than at ESD offices in Manhattan, which makes it somewhat more likely that local residents and elected officials can attend, at least those available during a workday.

As is typical, comments on Agenda items are required a day before the meeting, which requires clairvoyance regarding the actual issues being discussed. That said, those attending the meeting can comment in real time.

The details

Thursday, November 14, at 3 pm

Shirley A. Chisholm State Office Building
55 Hanson Place – 3rd Floor Conference Room
Brooklyn, New York 11217

The meeting is open to the public. "Due to building procedures," ESD says, members of the public attending in-person should RSVP by 4:30 pm on Wednesday, November 13, 2024. Members of the press should please call (800) 260-7313; Members of the public should please call (212) 803-3795.

(I'm pretty confident "building procedures" is a dodge meant to control or, at least, monitor who's coming. They typically claim "building procedures" at ESD headquarters in Manhattan, as well, but suspended the rule once for a late-breaking meeting.)

The public may listen to the meeting via webcast here.

Members of the public may submit comments on the Agenda items in writing to AYCDCBdMtg@esd.ny.gov by 3 pm on Wednesday, November 13. All comments received by the deadline will be distributed to the Directors prior to the meeting and will be posted on-line.