Pacific Park Conservancy said to hire new firms to oversee maintenance and landscaping. Questions persist about body's opacity and board.

This is the first of five articles on the March 25, 2025 meeting of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), held at the office of its parent Empire State Development (ESD). The second concerned making BSE Global pay for a permanent arena plaza. The third concerned the unusually large plan for Site 5. The fourth concerned the AY CDC budget. The fifth concerned the project's future.

Anna Pycior, ESD Senior VP, Community Relations, updated the group on the Pacific Park Conservancy, who oversees the 2.7 acres of open space on the southeast block of the project. 

To improve oversight and maintenance, the Conservancy, she said, has hired Streetplus, a Brooklyn-based company that works at Union Square Park, Madison Square Park, and other locations.

The Conservancy also has hired Dubner Landscaping and Construction to oversee landscaping. It works on the East Midtown Greenway, Four Freedoms Park, and Hudson Yards.

"This reflects feedback we've gotten and the Conservancy has gotten about maintenance in that space," Pycior said.

A pattern of opacity

Pycior didn't address other issues regarding the Conservancy. Without a website and without (for a while) a functional phone number, the Conservancy seems opaque. 

That's been an issue, especially, for residents of the West Tower of 595 Dean Street, sometimes plagued by noise from the adjacent dog run, and dog owners upset that the Conservancy's decision to limit dog run hours. (My take: at minimum, they need to add sound barriers. I'll write more about the issue separately.)

At a Nov. 6, 2024, Atlantic Yards Quality of Life meeting, questions were raised about the Conservancy. I had reported in May that the listed phone number, 347-292-6479, didn't work.

Photo: March 12, by Norman Oder

At the meeting, Jen Kuang, the Conservancy's Treasurer and representative of developer Greenland USA--which took over as the project's master developer starting in 2014--suggested that new signs, with a new phone number, 646-930-4852, were on their way. 

"We already have the contractor to fabricate the new phone number to attach on the entrance signage," she said. (That phone number is a voicemail.)

That signage hasn't been installed. On Feb. 14, I queried the Conservancy, via the email address posted, conservancy@pacificparkbrooklyn.nyc, copying Chair Ashley Cotton, a former executive at original developer Forest City Ratner. 

I got an autoreply from Kuang, saying she was out of the office until Feb. 18. But I never heard back.

Contact issues

At the meeting AY CDC Director Gib Veconi said " it would be helpful at some point if I could get a contact with somebody operationally at the conservancy."

That relates not to Atlantic Yards but rather the Vanderbilt Avenue open streets, a project sponsored by the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, which Veconi founded. He said that contact would help to prepare when the Conservancy (or, presumably, its contractors) need access to the open space when Vanderbilt is closed.

Who's in charge?

The Conservancy initially has two Members, the Pacific Park Owners Association, which represents owners of extant buildings, and Atlantic Yards Venture, the project developer, currently owned by Greenland.

Those Members can collectively appoint up to eight of 13 Directors, thus ensuring that the building owners or developer control the Conservancy.

For several years, until all eight acres of open space are completed, the Developer will appoint seven members, while the Owners Association will appoint just one director. (That said, there are at least two representatives of other developers, TF Cornerstone and The Brodsky Organization, named as Directors.)

However, if Greenland leaves the project, and/or the project is divided up, those appointing privileges may change.

Who's in charge, again?

At the Veconi, asked about the board--not their names, but how they're appointed.

ESD's David Viana, Assistant VP, Community Relations, said the "POA"--probably PPOA--has one representative, while other development entities have representatives.

"ESD also has two representatives, myself and one other person," he added. (In January, I questioned information--likely outdated--that suggested that former ESD staffers were on the board. That's apparently changed.)

Veconi asked about the POA: "So who is the POA, if not the developers?"

ESD staffers seemed fuzzy about it. Viana said they'd offer more details at another time.

Public representatives?

Veconi said he recalled that the conservancy was supposed to have representatives from the city Department of Parks and Recreation, and also from the three local community boards: 2, 6, and 8. Were they on the board?

"Outreach has been done to them previously," Viana said, not specifying the year. "They have not sent representatives."

"How often do they meet," asked AY CDC Director Ron Shiffman.

"At minimum once a year," Viana said. "And then, as needed, depending on certain issues that arise."

Latest list of directors

Below are the most recently posted--but at least partly outdated--lists of directors, according to the Conservancy's 2022 and 2023 tax returns.

(I have previously asked the Conservancy for a list of its current directors, but didn't get a response.)

Despite superficial differences, the two lists actually pretty close, since only nine active directors are described both years, with seven additional directors and officers listed in 2022 as "former."

Conservancy board, from IRS returns