Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Rendering by Morris Adjmi Architects helpfully includes vaportecture to represent future B10 It's Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park-adjacent, and clearly influenced by it. As reported by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (and then NY Yimby and Brownstoner) , a 29-story, 312-foot residential tower is slated to built at the northeast corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and Atlantic Avenue, with the retail component stretching east along Atlantic to Clinton Avenue. That's one block from the extant 550 Vanderbilt (202 feet, but add 40 feet for mechanicals ), aka B11, and catercorner from the future B10, at  313 feet , at the northeast corner of the Pacific Park site, requiring a deck over the railyard. It's a sign that, as predicted, Atlantic Avenue, a wide boulevard, would start seeing more height and bulk--though in this case, more than expected, thanks to a clever strategy. (How long until the McDonald's across the street at the southeast corner of Vanderbilt and Atlantic, with it...

It's quite interesting to see the way RXR Realty, which bought a nearly  75-year lease  on 470 Vanderbilt, the factory turned server farm turned office space at the northwest corner of Vanderbilt and Atlantic Avenues,  expects to  see it spiffed up, with upscale retail on the ground floor. (And with city's tallest public housing tower in the background.) Presumably that retail will become more attractive when Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park towers open across Atlantic, first between Dean and Pacific streets, later between Pacific Street and Atlantic Avenue. As RXR states: 470 Vanderbilt Avenue is a Class A office building prominently situated on a 3-acre, full city block bounded by Atlantic Avenue and Fulton Street. Just minutes away from the Barclays Center and the Atlantic Yards Development, 470 Vanderbilt has recently undergone a $74 million dollar capital improvement program transforming it into one of the most state-of-the-art assets in this emerging neighborh...

Photo from 2007 From Crain's, 2/28/14, Big Manhattan landlord makes $200M buy in B'klyn : RXR Realty has bought the long-term lease of 470 Vanderbilt Ave., a large office building near the Barclays Center in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, paying just under $200 million. The lease purchase for the 650,000-square-foot former warehouse is one of the biggest acquisitions among a recent wave of activity in the outer boroughs by some of the city's largest property owners. It comes as competition, and prices have soared to nose-bleed levels for property in Manhattan. The deal also is another sign that years after Brooklyn became one of the most sought after areas of the city to live, it will also continue to gain in popularity as a place to work—especially among its own growing pool of young residents. The building at 470 Vanderbilt Ave. is across the street from the eastern edge of Atlantic Yards, the site of an ongoing multi-billion dollar residential complex that will eventually ...

From the 5/2/12 Real Estate Weekly, GFI brings Atlanic [sic] Yards retail corner to market : GFI Development Company is offering corner and street-front retail space at 470 Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn. The ten-story, 660,000 s/f mixed-use property is four blocks from Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal Mall, a major destination shopping thoroughfare for Brooklyn. More importantly, it's two blocks--albeit across broad Atlantic Avenue from the Barclays Center surface parking lot and within walking distance of the arena. There will be 3,000 employees at the building alone, from the Human Resources Administration, and location is near dense residential districts. It's a former tire factory turned telecom center, soon to include more housing. What kind of retail? So, will the retail be aimed at neighborhood residents, building employees/visitors, or arena-related traffic--or a bit of all? There will be up to 21,500 square feet of ground-floor retail, including 7,100 s...

Brownstoner reported 3/21/12: HRA’s 470 Vanderbilt Move-in Date Pushed Back Construction moves along at 470 Vanderbilt Avenue, where the Human Resources Administration signed a lease two years ago. Before construction started up, the move-in was scheduled for Spring 2012; once construction began, it pushed back to the end of this year. An HRA rep tells us the move-in date is now Spring 2013. When the move finally happens, it should bring 1,800 staff and 1,500 visitors to the area on the regular. What does that mean? Whatever the impact on traffic or pedestrian conditions for the area around the Atlantic Yards site--I argued the state did not consider the impact of office workers and visitors--it won't come until well after some kinks are worked out regarding arena operations. And that means arena operators should be breathing a little easier.

A New York Times article today on 470 Vanderbilt, Unconventional Financing Helps Deal for Brooklyn Space , casts new attention on the former tire factory and telecom space--circled in the Empire State Development Corporation map at right; click to enlarge--that is being renovated across broad Atlantic Avenue from the northeast section of the Atlantic Yards site: But late last month, the New York City Human Resources Administration signed a 20-year, 400,000- square-foot lease for six floors of the 10-story building — the largest deal in Brooklyn this year and the culmination of more than two years of negotiations. Along with a second, smaller deal, 470 Vanderbilt is now 85 percent leased. In conjunction with a residential tower that the developers hope to build on an adjacent parking lot, it could speed the transformation of the area, which lies between Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. Any impact on AY traffic or pedestrians? The Empire State Development Corporation has claimed  tha...

There's one very big gap in the seemingly comprehensive Technical Analysis (embedded below) released yesterday by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) as part of its findings that a 25-year buildout of the Atlantic Yards project would not require a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement. It's called 470 Vanderbilt Avenue, the former tire plant turned telecom offices turned combination office and housing complex, located just north of the northeast block of the Atlantic Yards site. (Click on graphic to enlarge; highlighting in red is added.) The plans for 470 Vanderbilt have changed significantly in the past year, as it's slated to house the city Human Resources Administration, with 1880 employees and 1500 clients a day, opening in Spring 2012, just before the arena is scheduled to open. And the city aims to add parking along Atlantic Avenue, which contradicts a mitigation in the Atlantic Yards plan. When the City Planning Commission approved the plan i...

In April 2007, I wrote about Forest City Ratner's flirtation with a plan to add 470 Vanderbilt Avenue, a nine-story former tire plant turned significantly empty telecom center just north of Atlantic Avenue, to the Atlantic Yards footprint. That plan went by the wayside, and the telecom center became increasingly empty. But now it's showing signs of major changes: a renovation and rebranding of the office space, with new retail, plus a new residential building slated for the site's large parking lot. And there's an important Atlantic Yards connection; follow along to the bottom and take note of the assessed value of the land. News emerges In January 2008, Brownstoner broke the news that "the Carlyle Group-owned Atlantic Telecom Center at 470 Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene will be going residential if negotiations with City Planning conclude without a hitch... the property... currently has some 700,000 square feet of unleased space. We're also hearing that th...