Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

So, original Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is helping--a bit--to "Fix the City," the super PAC backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for Mayor, and raising money from various corporate bigwigs. The former Forest City Ratner CEO and Chairman, now known more as a philanthropist and advocate , nonetheless identified himself as a real-estate developer in his May 8 contribution of $36,000.  Why that unusual figure? Probably because it's "twice chai."   It's well less than that contributed by others, many of whom have active business in the city. Why'd he even give? Well, he's not out of the real-estate game, given personal holdings, and as Chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where Cuomo is listed as an Honorary Chair, it's wise to stay connected. Big ambitions for PAC As the New York Times reported Feb. 26, Fix the City aims to raise up to $15 million. By May 13, it had raised more than $8.7 million, already a record, according to Politico...

This bears watching, as Atlantic Yards-adjacent, maybe more, as it involves the company and unions already allied on Atlantic Yards, gaining a large new partner. According to a May 15 press release ( link ) from Resorts World New York City: More than 150 members of the organized labor movement and leadership from Cirrus Workforce Housing today joined with Resorts World New York City to unveil a groundbreaking agreement to build up to 50,000 units of workforce housing across the five boroughs. This pact represents a major investment from Resorts World New York City, the single-largest employer of Hotel and Gaming Trades Council members, and organized labor to address the Big Apple’s growing shortage of working-class housing. The details of the agreement were not made public, including the solidity of the commitment and the precise range of "workforce" housing.  The phrasing "up to 50,000 units" leaves much wiggle room. Atlantic Yards watchers know that such promises ...

Weekly Digest: As May 31 Deadline Approaches, Cirrus Lobbying Emerges ( link ) Would future deal just include the railyard sites, or extend to Site 5? Flashback to a 2022 penalty ignored--and protested. More on BSE Global's Brooklyn "ecosystem."

So Adweek Feb. 24 published  The New York Liberty's journey from chaos to a championship , an interview with team CEO Keia Clarke. Asked, "How active has ownership been in creating the Liberty's culture?", Clarke responded: Clara [Wu Tsai] is an amazing mind who sees the Liberty as having so much potential that she wanted to support it with her own resources, and I don't just mean financial resources. Clara does interviews, Clara invites celebrities to games, and Clara is the torchbearer for what this will be in the long term—and I can't ask for anything more than that. And they're doing it in the spirit of Brooklyn. The "You Belong Here. We Belong Here" sign that's in front of Barclays Center. That's Clara Wu Tsai's sign, vision, and mystique , and that's what she brings to the table every single day. So how could you not want to run through a wall and make sure that the business success and the KPIs are growing? (Emphasis added)...

Last week Bloomberg published a predictably reverential article, With the New York Liberty, Clara Wu Tsai Aims for the First $1 Billion Women’s Sports Franchise , which repeats the lore about the Tsais' (Clara and husband Joe Tsai, the Alibaba billionaire) savvy willingness to spend big, beyond the WNBA's salary cap, to make it a magnet for stars, and rebuild the fan base. The article also states, "They also bought the Nets’ home arena, the Barclays Center." Not quite. They own the operating company. The fig leaf of public ownership allows for a tax-exempt site and tax-exempt financing. Hotels and restaurants to help Brooklyn? From the article: Through the Liberty and Nets’ parent company, BSE Global , meanwhile, the Tsais are planning a major development initiative in the traffic-clogged area around Barclays. Adding hotels and restaurants, Wu Tsai says, will help draw more fans for the Liberty and Nets while also benefiting Brooklyn more broadly: Only a fraction of ...

Emerging Developer Cirrus Seeks Tax Abatement, New Funding, & (More?) Entitlements for Railyard Sites ( link ) When will details of request for concessions emerge? What public benefits? Lobby report cites Empire State Development, local elected officials, and even Attorney General James.

Well, as the Atlantic Yards mantra ( link ) goes, "it's a very tight fit." The placement of a dog run (in two parts, one for small dogs, another for large ones), with little effort to tamp down noise, close to a residential building (B13, 595 Dean West Tower) with a glass-and-metal facade, has led to conflict that's difficult to resolve. Looking east toward 595 Dean west tower. Photo: May 8. All photos by Norman Oder After some residents complained about disruptive dog barking, the Pacific Park Conservancy, which manages the 2.7 acres of open space on the southeast block of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, last November reduced the dog run's open hours to 7 am to 6 pm Oct. 1 through April 30, and 6 am to 8:30 pm May 1 through Sept 30. That left dog owners frustrated with overcrowding and the Conservancy's failure to recognize their needs during after-work hours. And it doesn't necessarily relieve the noise problem.  Photo: March 27 Pushing back A letter to t...

In November 2023, the creditors in charge of two loans--from immigrant investors under the EB-5 investor visa program--to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer Greenland USA, with about $286 million outstanding, began foreclosure proceedings. Since then, the project has been stalled, because the creditors--and it's a complicated transaction (see flowchart below and my article here )--have to form a joint venture to develop the six railyard development sites offered as collateral. That joint venture has to qualify as a "permitted developer," involving a developer or construction manager with ten years of experience on large projects or--a possible loophole--an entity acceptable to Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. Beyond that, any such joint venture--and Hudson Yards developer Related Companies was interested, until it wasn't--must negotiate with ESD and, perhaps, New York City, on the potential contours of and sub...

So, there's a deadline today that nobody seems to take seriously. And the penalties aren't meaningful. As I've written , there's a May 12 deadline to start the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard, necessary to construct six towers. It hasn't started. (It's two blocks, so it would be at least a two-phase process.) So, what does Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, think? I sent a query and got this response: The Development Agreement specifies that the Platform construction commence within 15 years of the “Project Effective Date”, subject to any unavoidable delays. 15 years from the Project Effective Date is on or about May 12, 2025. If the deadline is not met, the remedy available to ESD under the Project documents is to prevent the Developer from severing any parcels from the Development Agreement until platform constructing commences. Indeed, the penalty isn't so meaningful, though it could be construed a...

Weekly Digest: Cuomo Points to Atlantic Yards Boost. Maybe Adams, Too. ( link )  As the affordable housing deadline approaches, will Cirrus-plus-unions deal surface? Also, I argue: public campaign financing should trigger public support for journalism.

I wrote yesterday ( link ) about how a new project for 395 Flatbush Avenue extension just might signal, among other things, support for towers over the Atlantic Center mall someday. If so, then the view in the photo below, taken from Fort Greene Place and Hanson Place, would change, and the 18 Sixth Ave. (B4, aka Brooklyn Crossing) tower top left might not be visible. Photo May 8 by Norman Oder

395 Flatbush, with supertall Brooklyn Tower in the background. Image via Crain's NY Business  The announcement May 7 by Mayor Eric Adams of a 72-story, mostly residential tower at 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension, between Fulton Street and DeKalb Avenue, does not just regard governmental support for the second tallest--and, surely, bulkiest--building in Brooklyn, at 840 feet (with bulkhead) and 1,544,875 square feet. The 395 Flatbush plan, over the DeKalb Avenue subway stop opposite the iconic restaurant Junior's and the Brooklyn Paramount/LIU, also has implications for Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park and environs, I suspect. It would deliver 1,263 apartments, of which 253 (20%) to 379 (30%) would be designated as permanently affordable under the city's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing  program. The developers are Rabina and Park Tower Group. Under 30% affordability, the units would be affordable to households averaging 80% of Area Median Income (AMI), under current gui...

In New York, Public Campaign Finance Has a Blind Spot ( link ) If city and state taxpayers fund candidates’ public relations efforts, shouldn’t we pay for some journalism?

The latest Chinese-language annual audit ( link ) from Shanghai-based Greenland Holdings Group, the parent of troubled Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer Greenland USA, offers little clarity on the future of the project. Surprisingly, though, it suggests that Greenland might have some chance to retain the six railyard development sites (B5-B10) facing foreclosure since November 2023. The passage at right states, in machine translation:  2. Among the current long-term loans of American Commercial Holdings (Pacific Park Project in New York), the EB-5 loans to AYB Funding 100, LLC and AYB Funding 200, LLC will expire on June 30, 2023 (a total of US$285 million, worth RMB 2 billion), and the loan collateral is the platform land and B5-B10 development rights. The lender officially launched the asset disposal procedure in January 2024. After continuous negotiations between the Group and the lender, the lender has continuously postponed the auction process, with the latest postponement...