Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Planet Brooklyn is Coming , Brooklyn Magazine told us May 29, promising a new music festival: "Three venues across two glorious days, celebrating one big and beautifully dynamic borough." It's perhaps the most concrete example of the emerging "ecosystem" of experiences, retail, media, and hospitality fueled by new investment --by the Koch family! --in Joe Tsai's BSE Global, which owns the Barclays Center operating company, the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty. That "ecosystem" includes purchase (and rental ) of the retail condo in the base of the Williamsburgh Bank tower, plans for a hotel and restaurants (at Site 5 ?), arena tours , the purchase and relaunch of Brooklyn Magazine (aka BKMAG), and a new media project  called Type.Set.Brooklyn  (I'll have more on that soon). What's coming Planet Brooklyn involves the Barclays Center, Brooklyn Paramount (partly owned by arena parent company BSE Global), and the nearby Brooklyn Academy of...

The Barclays Center yesterday circulated its June 2024 event calendar, with eight announced ticketed events, including four New York Liberty games and and three concerts, plus the NBA Draft. That's three fewer concerts than last year , though a return to the June 2023 total. The relatively thin number may relate to interior renovations at the arena, which include new premium spaces . Note that tomorrow's Liberty game includes amplified sound on the arena plaza from 12:30-2:30 PM. Private events Though the message states that "Barclays Center Cares continues to update community members on various events," it's a selective update. The calendar includes a June 5 Brooklyn Wine Club event, for high-rollers at the arena, but does not detail the six "private events" listed, which may have an impact on neighboring streets. I couldn't piece them all together, but they include: June 4, 9 am-1 pm: Borough of Manhattan Community College Commencement June 4, 4-6:...

It shouldn't be a surprise. Not only is former Forest City Ratner CEO/Chairman Bruce Ratner supporting (via contributions to the Fix the City PAC) the mayoral candidacy of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, so too is Ratner's successor MaryAnne Gilmartin. It makes even more sense for Gilmartin, CEO of the developer MAG Partners, since her firm is actively developing projects in New York. She is the eighth leading "bundler" for Cuomo, raising $63,660 from 120 contributors, relying on a wide range of professional contacts. Cuomo's gained nearly $2.4M in contributions via such bundlers. Her role was first mentioned by Politico. Contributors Among those who Gilmartin tapped were former Forest City Ratner executives, an NBA executive, a former Brooklyn Academy of Music leader, executives at the modular firm Assembly OSM, her own colleagues at MAG Partners, an executive at p.r. firm BerlinRosen, and a partner in the architecture firm SHoP. Notably, Gilmartin also bundled $500...

As Housing Deadline Nears, NY State Punts on Penalties, Reviewing New Development Team. Cirrus JV Now Said to Include LCOR ( link ) BrooklynSpeaks, which in 2014 negotiated 2025 milestone, says public must be compensated for affordable housing not delivered.

Flashback, 2014: What NY Times Scoop on the New Atlantic Yards Plan Missed ( link ) Downplaying Greenland, omitting $2,000/month fines for 2025 deadline, and misleading re affordable housing and accountability. Today, the absent skepticism seems glaring.

Some Atlantic Yards observations remain evergreen. On July 1, 2007, after the New York Times published Official Sees Possible Risk in Big Project in Brooklyn , a murky but prescient article about documents revealed to Assemblymember Jim Brennan, I contacted  David A. Smith , an affordable housing analyst in Boston who'd previously reviewed Atlantic Yards documents. His observations, in italics below, were prescient.  They were again prescient when I quoted them in 2014 after the new deal establishing a May 31, 2025 deadline for 2,250 units of affordable housing, which won't be met , with the future murky. His observations remain prescient, as a renegotiation looms. I've interpolated some comments. "Extraordinarily complex" Even a cursory review of the financing plan materials released so far reveals that this is an extraordinarily complex undertaking, with many moving parts. The moving parts -- the financing plan, with multiple phases, multiple property uses, and...

The 876 remaining units of affordable housing (of 2,250 required) due May 31 won't be delivered by then. What happens June 1, when $2,000/month penalties are due?  We haven't been told whether Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, will hold developer (for now) Greenland USA accountable, will put things on pause, or will announce a renegotiation with a new joint venture . I'd bet they'll kick the can down the road, as hinted in March, rather than try to impose penalties. Remember, ESD has the potentially contradictory task of encouraging economic development while being responsive to communities and upholding contracts. Keep in mind that ESD, in the project's guiding Development Agreement, retains a "Right To Refrain"   "from exercising any of its rights under this Agreement at any time or from time to time." That's a significant power. It's worth noting that ESD's 2014 settlement agre...

Weekly Digest: The Clock Ticks on the Affordable Housing Deadline ( link ) Something's brewing? Flashback: unreliable assurances from MTA in 2009 and ESD in 2019. Cirrus gains momentum. Rise in NY Liberty value suggests public deserves more.

The Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), established as part of the settlement that led to the looming end-of-month deadline to deliver the remaining 876 units of affordable housing (of 2,250 total), was  charged with “monitoring the delivery of public commitments.” I call the AY CDC "advisory" or "(purportedly) advisory," because it's too often been a rubber stamp for, or ignored by, the parent Empire State Development (ESD), which oversees/shepherds the project. At the most recent meeting, March 25, AY CDC Chair Daniel Kummer  agreed that the body should meet in late April or May for an update on the housing deadline.  However, no meeting has been scheduled , nor has ESD responded yet to my query about it. We don't know yet whether ESD will uphold the $2,000/month penalties for missing affordable housing, or announce a pause or renegotiation. No pressure on ESD It's worth looking back at a March 15, 2019 meeting, when the AY CDC...

It's a crushing irony, if you see the big picture. While some believed that Atlantic Yards (later Pacific Park) should be seen as a whole, with the possibility of cross-subsidization of its more successful elements, that hasn't happened, even though it could, as I explain below. So affordable housing has been delayed, becoming ever more costly, while the value of the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty, the Barclays Center operating company, and the overall BSE Global growing dramatically.  The boost That was shown last year when BSE Global owners, Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, sold 15% of the company to the Julia Koch family, their fortune based on the late (right-wing funder) David Koch's Koch Industries, at a valuation of $6 billion. That transaction valued the New York Liberty, which the Tsais acquired for a song and invested in savvily, at $250 million, as the overall WNBA grows with greater public interest and more lucrative sponsorship/TV deals. The bigger boost Yesterday The A...

As I wrote May 12 ( link ), no one official seemed to take seriously the deadline that day to start the platform--which would support six towers--over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard. That meant a seemingly generous 15-year window was waved away. So it's worth going back to the June 24, 2009 renegotiation of the deal by original developer Forest City Ratner to buy development rights from the MTA over and in the three-block, 8.5-acre railyard. Notably, as explained below, a key MTA board member who defended the renegotiation suggested it was at no risk, because the state authority could always get the development rights back if nothing were built.  Not exactly. The reality today is that the set of transactions is more complex than discussed, and the state authority is not in line to get the development rights back, even though the deadline--set by a different state authority--has been breached and nothing's been built. Deal contours Instead of pa...

Something is cooking, contractually, regarding the development rights for the six towers (B5-B10) over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) Vanderbilt Yard. In shorthand, I and others have typically described them as being held by the project's master developer, for now Greenland USA, which has since November 2023 seemed on the brink of losing them in foreclosure. That's because the Greenland entity that controls those development rights has failed to pay back $286 million in loans from immigrant investors under the EB-5 investor visa program, and the creditors for those loans were given those development rights as collateral. Indeed, Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority, said last month, "Greenland USA has and as of today remains to be the developer of the Atlantic Yards project pursuant to the project documents." That raises a question, yet unresolved: will ESD enforce the project documents that require Greenland to pay $2,000/month ...

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. Update : Ratner has a history of support for Cuomo. For example, in 2014,, Ratner and his then-wife, Pamela Lipkin, gave a total of $29,000 to Gov. Cuomo's re-election campaign. After all, he ...

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 ...