Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

If New York Liberty Are Now Worth $600M, Do the Billionaire Owners Deserve a Tax-Exempt Arena? ( link ) As WNBA valuations rocket, Clara Wu Tsai's $1B goal no longer seems a stretch. The Democratic Socialist Mayor attends debut game. Will he push venue operators on tax exemptions?

Barclays Center Belatedly Releases May 2026 Calendar, Including Liberty Debut and JetBlue Pop-Up on Plaza ( link ) The "public" plaza has private use. Also: seven unspecified private events, mostly Commencement ceremonies. Why not more transparency for neighbors?

From LPC Casa Tua's Cucina, a high-end food court, bar, and market pioneered in Miami, will occupy the base of One Hanson, the commercial condo in the landmark Williamsburgh Savings Bank purchased by Barclays Center operator Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment.  As reported in November 2024, the space was bought for $10.3 million in a foreclosure auction. The office space in the building, which for 80 years (1929-2009) was Brooklyn's tallest, was converted to condos after a 2005 sale, with the vaulted banking space used for events like the Brooklyn Flea, but with no permanent tenant. Set to open in 2027, Cucina by Casa Tua part of the Brooklyn "ecosystem" of events, media, and hospitality pursued by Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, owned mainly by Joe and Clara Wu Tsai (plus the Koch family). A hotel may emerge, as well, perhaps at the Site 5 parcel across Flatbush Avenue from the arena. From the press release: Cucina will serve as a cornerstone of One Hanson Plac...

ESD's Engagement Report Defends Subsidy, Reveals Design Change, Deflects on Affordable Housing, and Stonewalls on Oversight ( link ) Development team agrees that B9 tower should be a rectangle to maximize open space. Report misleads on open space, "anticipates" optimistic timetable.

After Jury Finds Live Nation a Monopoly, a New Taint for Barclays Center's "Ticketmaster Plaza" ( link )  Testimony from arena's chief booker, though, complicated the story of Barclays' switch from SeatGeek.

As Barclays Center Begins More Renovations, the Box Office Moves to the (Public?) Plaza ( link ) Also coming by fall: "reimagined" atrium and new perks for high-rollers.

Mamdani Seems Wary of Subsidizing Platform for Second Phase of Hudson Yards ( link ) The Atlantic Yards platform, by contrast, depends on state funds. Still, shouldn't former Deputy Mayor Glen's framework apply regarding public benefits and public upside?

Update April 29: Adweek reports in a claimed "SCOOP" : Now, Type.Set Brooklyn appears to have shuttered, having not published content on any of its channels since January. A spokesperson for the parent company, BSE Global, said that the company is focusing on Brooklyn Magazine, which it acquired in November 2024 . The closure reflects the difficulty of standing up new media brands even when backed with the finances of an Alibaba cofounder. --- Less than a year after the launch of Type.Set.Brooklyn, a "digital first global media brand" focused on pop culture, music, style, and sports, it looks like Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment has pulled the plug. Though there's been no announcement of a closing or a pause, Type.Set.Brooklyn's most recent posting on Threads was January 27 , following regular updates. The brand's X/Twitter feed has vanished, despite a link from the homepage . The latest Instagram post was February 9 , after a series of regular upd...

Why Cirrus’s Request for 1.6M Square Feet of Free Bulk Has a Parallel to... Deed Theft ( link ) Unsolicited offers for houses must now share estimates of market value. What about the value of the Atlantic Yards developer’s requested bonus?

Would a Giant New Building Approved Up Flatbush Avenue Be a Precedent for Atlantic Yards? ( link ) The density argument may be transposed to the Site 5 parcel, though they're not quite parallel.

As Atlantic Yards plans percolate, Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversee/shepherds the project, has now signed its third consultant and second law firm. As previously reported, ESD  approved  a $2 million-plus contract with consultant AKRF to prepare the planned Second Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SSEIS) needed to consider proposed project modifications. ESD in February  approved  extension of a contract, up to $500,000. with the law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, to advise on land use and environmental issues, including the SSEIS. A new contract And on March 26 ESD  approved  a new two-year contract , up to $750,000, with the law firm Carter Ledyard & Milburn for help in drafting the emerging deal with developers Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR. "Legal services relating to negotiating and drafting modified and/or new Project documents will be needed as ESD and the new development team move forward with Ph...

Freddy's Bar, Down the Memory Hole ( link ) An article in BK MAG , owned by arena operator Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, can't tell readers that the bar was ejected to build the Barclays Center. Lots more to remember.

I just published a series of articles about the Social Justice Fund of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the main owners of the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty, and the Barclays Center operating company. It was launched in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd and the #BlackLivesMatter protests at the arena. Press coverage has mainly been driven by their public relations efforts. Has the Social Justice Fund done some valuable things? Surely. Have they spent $5 million a year? Hard to say. Have they fulfilled their goals, for example, to create scalable programs? Maybe not. Is the spending dwarfed by the annual tax break the Tsais get and recent gains in the value of their holdings? Dramatically. Should they be more transparent? Yes. Are they revising their history as they go? Yes. Does the spending boost their businesses? Sometimes. Philanthropy often operates without scrutiny or accountability, so there’s a role for journalism, especially when philan...

April Roundup: Electeds Press Hochul on Affordability and Oversight ( link ) We await a final report on community engagement, and details on the $350M subsidy request. Also, partial answers from ESD, a former neighbor's lament, a Flatbush Ave. alert, and six weeks of links.

Art or Advertising? Behind the Tricky "You/We Belong Here" Signage Outside the Barclays Center ( link ) The "anthem" of the Tsais' social justice work, or the "linguistic pleasantries of marketing"? The "Liberty Portraits" now claimed by Social Justice Fund. "Brooklyn Art Encounters," too? Part of a series.

Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty, and the Barclays Center operating company, on April 2 announced "Brooklyn Art Encounters, a comprehensive, multi-year art program that will bring major new commissions by leading contemporary artists to the arena's public spaces, interior architecture, digital environments, and surrounding communities." The first projects, as described in the press release , mix public and less public examples. (The bulleted summaries below quote from the press release.)  Serving the arena and the brand? However broadly its name points. Brooklyn Art Encounters may most serve Barclays Center patrons.  If so, that helps build the business of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment and the reputation of main owners Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai, that latter of whom leads the program, assisted by what the press release calls "an esteemed team of advisors." This new venture builds on previous artworks mount...

The Barclays Center yesterday released its April 2026 event calendar, with eleven ticketed events: four Brooklyn Nets games, one New York Liberty pre-season game, five concerts, and one comedy event. That's similar to April 2025, with eleven ticketed events. Note that the arena must leave dates open for many months to allow for a potential NBA play-off series, but the Nets, who are "tanking" to get a high draft pick, were eliminated from contention in the first half of March. So some more April events might be scheduled. The Nets' final home game, on Thursday April 9 against the Indiana Pacers, will feature amplified sound--and likely other "celebratory" effects--on the arena plaza from 6 pm to 7:25 pm. Also, while there's nothing announced regarding the New York Liberty game on Saturday, April 25 against the Indiana Fever, the return of Fever star Caitlin Clark should generate crowds. The arena also lists an unspecified private event at the arena on Wed...

Appraisal Suggests Railyard Parcels Could Be Worth $1B to Developers. Site 5 Compounds Value. ( link ) Were public subsidies, and more bulk, assumed before project relaunched? Are they merited? Document for investors projected Atlantic Yards completion by 2036. Nah.

More from Public Meetings: Site 5 Tower to Focus on Flatbush; Hotel Still Under Consideration ( link ) Lingering questions about streetscape and retail. Harsh criticism of community engagement. Could Atlantic Yards CDC fund its own financial consultant?

A New, Though Murky, Focus on the $350 Million that Developers Seek for the Railyard Platform ( link ) Is this the only subsidy request? No. Was a privately-funded platform ever possible? That's murky, too.

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...