So, was there a June 30 milestone, regarding the Cirrus joint venture, for the emerging Atlantic Yards plan? State officials won't say.

A new joint venture led by Cirrus Real Estate is being evaluated by both Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which owns the railyard over which a platform must be built, ultimately supporting six towers, and is selling, on a schedule, development rights to those towers.

Where does it stand? 

Speaking to the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (PHNDC) in early June, local advocate Gib Veconi, who's also a member of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, said that ESD had asked Cirrus to receive approval by the MTA by June 30, as I reported.

From presentation to PHNDC

By the end of August, Cirrus was supposed to present a plan for community engagement to provide input on the contours of a revised Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park plan that, I suspect, will have already been negotiated behind closed doors, likely with a new timetable, lucrative new provisions like increased development rights, and some form of promised new public benefit.

(Given the ongoing negotiations, ESD has suspended enforcement of the $1.752 million/month in liquidated damages for the 876 affordable units--of 2,250 required--that were not delivered by the end of May. That total now exceeds $3.5 million.)

That joint venture (JV) would involve Cirrus, the development firm LCOR, Fortress Investment Group, and an affiliate (or affiliates) of the U.S. Immigration Fund, the "regional center" that recruited immigrant investors to offer master developer Greenland USA low-cost loans under the EB-5 investor visa program. 

The rights to build six towers (B5-B10) over the railyard were offered as collateral for those loans. The JV, apparently, also would involve Greenland, because it retains development rights at Site 5, the parcel across from the arena block, and B1, the flagship tower once planned to loom over the arena. 

A plan to build a giant project at Site 5, moving the development rights from B1 across Flatbush Avenue, got ESD's initial support in 2021, but still requires a public process and, ultimately, approval by the ESD's gubernatorially-controlled board.

My questions

So, I asked both ESD and the MTA for an update. Has the June deadline been met, or extended?

What does approval refer to:
--taking over the current payment schedule for air rights, which was the province of Greenland, at least until USIF affiliates paid in 2024?
--renegotiating the schedule, which could mean delays and/or increased cumulative payments, or even additional payments for development rights?
--gaining approval to build the platform?
--something else?

The response

The MTA told me--as has been the pattern recently--to file a Freedom of Information Law request, which of course would be buried in bureaucracy and not deliver a timely response.

ESD told me:

Both ESD and the MTA have established developer review and approval processes under their respective project documents. The MTA and ESD are currently conducting ongoing reviews of the proposed development joint venture, with completion expected this summer.

Any reference to a June 30 date should not be construed as a deadline for project advancement. ESD continues to coordinate closely with the MTA throughout our respective review processes.

All questions regarding the scope of MTA’s permitted developer review should be directed to the MTA.

So the bottom line is: we don't know. 

Something might emerge if elected officials inquire.

Or maybe it will wait until ESD is ready to present something to the public, likely at a meeting of the AY CDC. Remember, ESD had apparently scheduled a meeting of the AY CDC for late May, but it didn't go forward, presumably because "review and approval" was ongoing.

The first thing to emerge may simply be an announcement that the Cirrus JV qualifies as a "permitted developer," one that involves a company with ten years of experience on large project. Presumably negotiations over project contours are ongoing, but that doesn't mean state officials would immediately share details.