Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

GQ on March 24 published Exclusive: The Jay-Z Interview  and two of the exchanges with interviewer Frazier Tharpe are relevant to Atlantic Yards and the Nets. Q. You also have a discipline of almost shrugging off any kind of perception of a loss. “The Nets could go 0 for 82 and I’d look at you like, This shit gravy.” A. Yeah, because it’s all wins. If I had point-zero-zero-zero-one of the Nets, I won. It’s like: I had ownership in a basketball team. In Brooklyn. That actually relied on me heavily to get to Brooklyn, right? So yeah, I didn’t win the championship with the Nets. I still won. That is true, as we've known for a while, thanks especially to an unskeptical New York Times article Aug. 16, 2012, With Arena, Rapper Rewrites Celebrity Investors’ Playbook . My critique . And yes, Jay-Z still won. As I once wrote, in Jay-Z’s hip-hop of distraction , "you can't hustle a hustler." Yes, I wrote that before I knew the Jay-Z line , "Can’t out-hustle a hustler, you ...

State Promises 500 (25%) Initial Low-Income Units, But Critics Say It Wouldn't Make Up for Shortfall ( link ) Shift from developers' earlier plan, but still no catch-up. A $3,071 low-income one-bedroom? Developer says buildings might open in early 2030s. Project completion by 2040?

Former City Planning Chair Garodnick: Public Money in a Project Should Trigger "Absolute Transparency" ( link )  With Atlantic Yards, it's a black box. Subsidies? Tax breaks? Extra valuable bulk?

The coalition BrooklynSpeaks this morning circulated an email to its mailing list, titled What we learned from ESD’s community engagement report . While the message doesn't credit my earlier coverage, Draft Community Engagement Report Backs (!?) Developers' Aim to Downplay Low-Income Housing , there is significant overlap. BrooklynSpeaks, though, offers valuable focus. "The median annual income of most participants and respondents was more than $150K." BrooklynSpeaks notes, as I'd pointed out, that the income skew likely affects the respondents' purported support for more expensive below-market "affordable housing," though, according to a respected housing organization, "moderate and middle income levels make up only about 7% of the more than one million rent-burdened households in New York City." BrooklynSpeaks asks : shouldn't Atlantic Yards address where the need is greatest? "The open spaces cited by participants as examples ...

Sometime in the last day, with barely enough time to post public comment by today's deadline of 3 pm , Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards, released the agenda for tomorrow's meeting of the purportedly advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC). The directors will get an oral report on the Draft Community Engagement Report, regarding public input on the future of the project, that was issued a few days ago.  My critique is here:  Draft Community Engagement Report Backs (!?) Developers' Aim to Downplay Low-Income Housing . Executive session Also of note, the directors will go into executive session regarding "Negotiations with the Project Developer Regarding Memorandum of Understanding and Development of Property/Project." The presumably involves the developer's desire for $350 million in subsidies for the platform (as I reported ), its announced request for 1.6 million in additiona...

Draft Community Engagement Report Backs (!?) Developers' Aim to Downplay Low-Income Housing ( link ) Other findings are mostly predictable, as key info was withheld (despite transparency claim). Was online survey representative? Respondents mostly white and well-off.

OK, it's time for the annual look at the foregone property taxes for the Barclays Center and the other major New York City sports venues.  While the non-paid taxes for the Brooklyn arena had risen from $53.7 million to $123.6 million, as of last year, as I  reported , this year, there's been a slight reversal, to $122.7 million, as indicated in the screenshot below, according to the New York City Department of Finance's  Annual Report on Tax Expenditures . That, of course, dwarfs the $5 million a year "invested"  since 2020 by the Social Justice Fund of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, the philanthropic venture of the arena company owners By contrast, as shown in the screenshot below, the tax exemption for Citifield, home of the New York Mets, rose from $159.7 million to $165 million and the exemption for Yankee Stadium (NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation), home of the New York Yankees, rose from $129.5 million to $133.3 million. They get their tax break via th...

As we wait for the Draft Community Engagement Report to be released ahead of the two meetings on March 19, first the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation and then a fourth public workshop, Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. has posted the online survey questions as a document (also at bottom). Survey responses, as well as public responses at the three previous workshops, should inform the report. As I wrote Nov. 19, citing the excerpt below,  there’s been no proposal yet of an alternate way to deliver public benefits without acceding to the developer’s blueprint—or of third-party experts to vet the validity of the plans.  Since then, the lack of details--height of the buildings? rendering of the proposed plan? requested subsidies?--have been absent. So it's not likely that they'll be in the report, which may be issued today or tomorrow to allow for a minimal opportunity to digest and respond before the meetin...

Just today, with less than a week's notice, Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards, has announced a meeting on Thursday, March 19, of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC). That meeting, at 3 pm, starts just hours before the fourth of four public workshops , which will be held online  at 6:30 pm . Ahead of this meeting, though  the timing is unspecified, ESD will release the Draft Community Engagement Report on its website . The report summarizes key themes and insights from the first three public workshops and the online survey. As I wrote, my bet is the report will be used to ratify the new developer's request for an additional 1.6 million square feet of bulk, worth perhaps $320 million, as needed to deliver promised open space and, as of now, unspecified amounts of below-market affordable housing. The Draft Report will be posted on the ESD website along with an online form for people t...

In Aborted Live Nation Antitrust Trial, the Barclays Center Has a Key Cameo ( link ) Arena's former CEO alleges "veiled threat" from Ticketmaster parent, which later bypassed Brooklyn for certain concerts. Trump's DOJ settles; states resist.

In its first major new initiative in a while, the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation's Social Justice Fund yesterday  announced  a new citywide small business loan program, a partnership with The Asian American Foundation (TAAF), Chinatown-based Renaissance Economic Development Corporation, and the State of New York. The  NYC Elevating Business Loan Program , a $5.5 million initiative, includes $1 million from the SJF, $500,000 from TAAF, and $4 million from Empire State Development (ESD), the state's economic development authority. (It's also the Barclays Center's landlord, given a tax-exempt site.) Loans, at 8%, can range up to $100,000, coupled with free financial counseling and multilingual training services, in Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. A launch at Barclays The program was announced in a  press release  yesterday, which came after a ceremony the night before during a Brooklyn Nets game at the Barclays Center, as shown in the photo below. So it again sh...

The Passing of the Rev. Clinton Miller ( link ) A big role in Brooklyn. A smaller, but notable, role in challenging Atlantic Yards. Eulogies from some major figures.

Developer Cirrus Seeking $350M in State Subsidies to Build Crucial Railyard Platform ( link ) An opportunity to ensure public goods like affordable housing, or a giveaway? Cirrus/LCOR also seek more bulk (worth $320M?), housing subsidies, & tax breaks.

About a month late , Empire State Development (ESD) has scheduled the fourth public workshop (of four) regarding the Atlantic Yards project on Thursday, March 19, at 6:30 pm, online. Register  here . Ahead of this meeting, though with the date unspecified, ESD will release on its website the Draft Community Engagement Report. The report summarizes key themes and insights from the first three public workshops and the online survey.  My bet is the report will be used to ratify the new developer's request for an additional 1.6 million square feet of bulk, worth perhaps $320 million, as needed to deliver promised open space and, as of now, unspecified amounts of below-market affordable housing. The Draft Report will be posted on the ESD website along with an online form for people to submit comments and feedback in advance of the workshop.  During the meeting, ESD will provide a brief presentation on the Draft Report, followed by a live, open Q&A session where attendees ...