Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

The Barclays Center this week circulated its September 2025 event calendar, which includes eight ticketed events: seven concerts and one New York Liberty game. That leaves space for the WNBA playoffs, which start September 14 , earlier than last year. The defending champion Liberty, who have suffered injuries but could rebound, are ranked fifth --just one loss behind the teams ranked second through fourth--and should make the playoffs.  The September 2024 calendar included 19 ticketed events : 12 concerts, four Liberty games, and two Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow Parties.  What's the difference? Well, the WNBA playoffs started later. It's also possible that some dark nights are because of interior renovations at the arena.   Private event opaque   The calendar also includes one private event, on Sept. 13 from 7 pm to 10 pm. It's unclear whether this is a small event, for example using only the arena atrium, or a larger one, filling the venue's seats and, poten...

State Sen. Jabari Brisport, a Democratic Socialist who represents the Atlantic Yards site, has--like some of his generational cohort (notably Assemblymember and Democratic Mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani)--concluded that upbeat but punchy short video, with snappy graphics, might be the best way to communicate. After all, not everyone reads Gothamist, the publication that's most prominently reported on New York State's (via Empire State Development, or ESD) failure to enforce the $1.752 million/month in penalties for the unbuilt Atlantic Yards affordable housing, much less my reporting in this blog (or my newsletter ). UPDATE: 3 months past due, the penalties are over $5M, owed to the people of NY. Let Gov. Hochul know you want to see them stand against private real estate failures. A big thank you to all the activists, advocates and journalists that have documented this billion dollar mess! pic.twitter.com/GMrExhgKMT — Jabari Brisport (@JabariBrisport) August 29, 2025 ...

Screenshot from arena  website "Experience Barclays Center Like Never Before" ( link ), the arena website now proclaims. "Join us for a guided tour of Brooklyn’s leading sports and entertainment venue, home of the 2024 WNBA Champion New York Liberty, Brooklyn Nets, legendary concerts and more." "Barclays Center Tours offer fans the opportunity to discover behind-the-scenes spaces, learn about iconic moments and explore the history of Brooklyn," it states. Arena tours lasting 75 minutes ($35), not coupled with an NBA/WNBA basketball game, offer "access to exclusive spaces" and "behind-the-scenes stories." Pre-game tours lasting 60 minutes ($75) require visitors to also have a game ticket and offer courtside access for player warmups. Both tour options offer discounts at the Brooklyn Fanatics team store. I clicked through to Ticketmaster and saw that, despite several possible slots--perhaps in the future--only one was live for the several...

Flashback to 2014 Videos: "Pacific Park, Brooklyn's Newest Neighborhood"? A "Neighborhood From Scratch"? ( link ) It was a stretch then, with no open space. It's more dubious now. Was CookFox designing "for us," or (Chinese) condo buyers? If "we live in Brooklyn," who's "we"?

Francis Northwood's July 25 New York Review of Architecture essay, Some Assembly Required , has the subheading, "Can architecture be remade in venture capital’s image?  The answer: maybe not.  The article begins with 461 Dean, aka B2, which did not, as original developer Forest City Ratner promised, "crack the code" for high-rise modular construction, but rather was delayed and suffered leaks (as I reported for City Limits back in 2015): IF YOU WERE TO SCOUR NEW YORK CITY for the future of architecture, the last place you might look is the rump’s end of the Barclays Center. As first impressions go, 461 Dean, the mixed-income residential tower that rises precipitously at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, checks all the clichés of contemporary large-scale construction. Artless setbacks do little to alleviate the problem of boxiness that blight so many of the new glass high-rises on Flatbush Avenue.... But the discordant façade conceals a feat worthy of yo...

Is Vanderbilt Avenue Cursed? , wrote Grub Street's Chris Crowley Aug. 6, with the subheading, "How Brooklyn’s newest restaurant row became one of the hardest places to do business." The article was prompted by the closing of the destination restaurant Olmsted, which closed after nearly a decade. “It’s very flattering that people want to celebrate with us,” said owner Greg Baxtrom, “but we fought tooth and nail to be as neighborhood-friendly as possible.”  (I dunno about that, since their web menu comes without prices.) The article says that, since Olmsted's 2016 opening, "Vanderbilt has developed into one of the city’s most visible restaurant rows, filled with small establishments that aim to punch far above their weight," but has recently suffered several closings. Vs. Smith Street and DeKalb Avenue Some liken Vanderbilt to Smith Street, another restaurant row with a lot of turnover, though Baxtrom wonders why it's different from a more sta...

Yesterday at 5:18 pm the Barclays Center circulated to neighbors a supplement to the monthly calendar, the detailed lineup for public events in the two-day Planet Brooklyn Festival this weekend sponsored by BSE Global, parent of the arena company, Brooklyn Nets, and New York Liberty. A couple of things to note: public performances today at "The Village" are mainly from 3 to 8 pm, with two stages going until 10 pm public performances tomorrow are also mainly from 3 to 8 pm, with one stage going until 10 pm There are five stages on the streets near the Brooklyn Academy of Music, plus one stage today at the Barclays Center's Ticketmaster Plaza. Saturday   Sunday

So the annual Angela Yee Day, featuring the disc jockey, will be held tomorrow at Barclays Center's Ticketmaster Plaza from 10 am to 3 pm. From the announcement: Join Angela Yee from Way Up With Angela Yee on Power 105.1 for a FREE fun filled day of music, local community activities, live performances, games, giveaways and more! Performers will include Gyptian, Chronic Law, Maino, Tifa, Cheem, Th3rd, and Stephanie Saint-Côme,  with music by DJ Noire and Nick Seale. As Yee said in a recent broadcast , Angela Yee Day is also part of the two-day festival Planet Brooklyn, with performances at Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Brooklyn Paramount.   It's worth nothing that, as the poster shows, it's also sponsored by the Social Justice Fund of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, which confirms that the umbrella for events credited to social justice is pretty broad.  But Planet Brooklyn, above all, is a project from BSE Global, the compan...

A proposed Department of Transportation (DOT) and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) plan ( link ; also at bottom) for the northern part of Flatbush Avenue, from Livingston Street to Grand Army Plaza, proposes new center-running bus lanes, separated from regular traffic, to prioritize and speed bus service. So three current lanes would be come two, plus bus boarding islands. Six of 12 existing curbside bus stops would be consolidated into six bus boarding islands near subway stations. New pedestrian spaces would reduce crossing distances and improve visibility where Atlantic, Flatbush, and Fourth avenues meet. While the plan does not assess an impact on Barclays Center operations, the emphasis on moving Flatbush Avenue traffic presumably implies less tolerance for scofflaw activities illegal idling and double-parking, which are part of the scene around the arena., at least on Flatbush That said, such activities could instead be concentrated on other streets, and enforcement de...

In a modest retreat after a previous solid year, the Barclays Center operating company recently disclosed that it  earned nearly 11.5% less in ticket sales in Fiscal Year 2025 (ending June 30), than in FY 2024, which had been a big improvement over previous years. As shown in the screenshots below, based on reports to bondholders, ticket sales reached $181.2 million in FY 2025, compared with nearly 204.7 million in FY 2024 and  $114 million  in FY 2023. That's about an 11% drop. All told, the arena company grossed $202.6 million in cash in FY 2025, versus $226.2 million in FY 2024. (That's not all revenues.)  While arena backers like to brag that it's the world's third-highest-grossing arena in the world, gross does not equal net and, as explained below, the results point to relatively modest profits. Suites and sponsors Suite and sponsor installments in the past year were essentially static, reaching $21.4 million, a tiny drop from $21.6 million in FY 2024. The lat...

Fifteen years ago, Jay-Z (aka Shawn Carter), in an appearance on the on Howard Stern Show keyed to the release of his book Decoded , offered some illuminating observations about sports team ownership that soon were no longer accurate. HS: "Are you making any money with the Nets... It's gotta be profitable, right?" SC: "No, It's not really profitable." HS: "It's just an ego thing?" SC: "Yeah, NBA teams are like paintings for billionaires." As I wrote in 2013, Jay-Z had done very, very well with the team and the arena, leveraging his career, advertising, and a free suite. And the value of the team , thanks to the Brooklyn move and the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement, had skyrocketed. Today, the increase in value is exponential, goosed by the government assistance including tax breaks, direct subsidies, tax-exempt financing, and more.   About Joe Tsai      A July 28 interview with BSE Global owner,  AMBITION: Joe Tsai...

Bi-Weekly Digest: Getting Busier? ( link ) Beyond news of the project's future, coverage of developer Greenland's struggles and Mamdani's reticence. 

FAQ: Where Do Things Stand with Atlantic Yards? ( link ) A joint venture, in two variations, may take over, but scale, scope, promises, and timing are TBD. Could public input make a difference, especially after NY State suspended penalties?

Photos: Norman Oder See below for an update and correction. It came up at the very end of the Aug. 6 Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC) meeting. (My coverage of the other discussions is here .) Almost offhandedly, Chair Daniel Kummer asked about the installation of the Liberty Portraits--an exhibit of photos of New York Liberty players, with text, that's billed as art but which I see equally as promotion --on the Barclays Center's Ticketmaster Plaza. He called it a "public plaza." I think it blurs private and public, as it significantly serves BSE Global, which constricts it to accommodate arena crowds.   "Was there some sort of approval that they sought for that or did they submit a plan for that?" Kummer asked. "What's the process there? Do they do they have free rein to just put up something like that?... I'm not commenting on whether it's good or bad." Attorney Matthew Acocella of Empire State Development. th...

This is the fourth of four articles on the Aug. 6 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), which is supposed to advise the parent Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. The meeting was held at 55 Hanson Place in Brooklyn.  The first article concerned the state's suspension of affordable housing penalties. The second discussed why valuable Site 5 is key to the project. The third addressed whether Greenland has a case to protest the penalties. Given the widespread cynicism about ESD's unwillingness to pursue $1.752 million a month in penalties for missing affordable housing and the absence of a plan for the remaining project from the expected incoming development team(s), it was not the most auspicious time to discuss "Community Engagement": gaining input from neighbors and other interested parties about components of that future plan. Nevertheless, ESD has hired a consultant, Karp S...