Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

In  8 Major NYC Projects Set To Deliver In 2021 , Bisnow yesterday reported that 18 Sixth Ave. (B4) is "set to be complete by October" and 662 Pacific St. (B14) should be complete by July. B4, built by Greenland Forest City Partners with The Brodsky Organization, will have about 860 units, 258 of the income-linked or "affordable." B15, developed by Brodsky, will have 312 apartments, 94 of them "affordable." Both are being built by AECOM Tishman. What's unclear is the level of affordability--all middle-income, or will one third of the income-linked units be low-income? Also unclear is how long the lease-up will take--it's unlikely the larger building would fill up quickly in "normal" times, and now it's a renters' market during the pandemic. Another question: if the middle-school at B15 is not due until March 2024, as I reported last month, what's the impact of school construction on residential life at the building?

This is the first of several articles based on the 9/17/19 Quality of Life meeting, hosted by Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority overseeing and shepherding the project. In March, we learned at a meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation that the B15 tower, aka 664 Pacific Street, should be finished by Spring 2022. (See slide below.) A 640-seat middle school, occupying the building's first six floors and very deep below-grade space (see photo further below), was supposed to open by August 2022, School Construction Authority (SCA) records said. Not exactly. Last night, an SCA rep revealed that the school will not open until September 2023--a delay based on the aim to "refresh" designs over the past nine months--and it will hold 800 students, a 25% increase. (It's unclear whether the school space--previously said to be 100,000 square feet, both above and below ground--is increasing.) School entrance mid-block Sixth Ave....

This is the second of ten articles on the 5/7/19 Quality of Life meeting . The first concerned the project schedule. The third concerned noisy weekend construction. The fourth concerned opacity in the Barclays Center calendars. The fifth concerned illegal parking during arena events. The sixth concerned traffic issues. The seventh concerned oversight. The eighth concerned the Community Liaison Office. The ninth concerned the developer's update. The tenth concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation. One question I had before the meeting was whether The Brodsky Organization, which bought development rights to the B15 site (664 Pacific) and a share of the B4 site (18 Sixth), would be present at the meeting. If they had a representative there, the rep wasn't introduced, as Executive VP Scott Solish of Greenland USA, which owned 95% of Greenland Forest City Partners going forward (now minus the shares of four development sites), served as the sole deve...

Tonight's bi-monthlyAtlantic Yards Project Quality of Life Meeting will be held at 6 pm at: Shirley A. Chisholm State Office Building 55 Hanson Place 1st Floor Conference Room Brooklyn, NY 11217 The attached agenda is typically vague, indicating presentations from (or on behalf of) Empire State Development, Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, and Barclays Center. Management questions I'll be looking out for a few things. First, now that The Brodsky Organization is involved in the development of the two parcels under construction, B4 (18 Sixth Avenue) and B15 (664 Pacific Street), what role will representatives of that company play at such meetings going forward? Also, now that Forest City Ratner no longer exists, its parent company having been absorbed by Brookfield Asset Management, will L&L MAG, the firm founded by former Forest City Ratner CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin, still have a role? As I wrote in January 2018, Ashley Cotton, formerly at Fo...

2019 rendering by Marvel Architects, via YIMBY YIMBY, in a 4/6/19 post headlined Pilings And Excavation Begin At 37 Sixth Avenue In Prospect Heights, Brooklyn , pointed to a slightly revised design (left)  for the building otherwise known as 664 Pacific Street, or B15, which will contain a middle school at its base. The initial design (below), by Marvel Architects, was unveiled in December 2015, but developer Greenland Forest City chose not to go forward with the market-rate rental building. The developer has since sold development rights to The Brodsky Organization. The building is located just east of Sixth Avenue across from 38 Sixth and the Barclays Center, between Dean and Pacific Streets. Comparing the renderings  There are some visible changes in both the articulation and coloration of the building, plus--thanks to the perspective--a clearer sign of the significant box on the top to house HVAC and other mechanical equipment, which could add 40 feet to the 2...

It looks fairly benign, the outline at right (from the 3/5/19 developer presentation at the Atlantic Yards Quality of Life meeting) of the traffic constriction outside the B15 site, known as 664 Pacific Street (or perhaps 662 Pacific Street), where preliminary construction work for a residential tower (with a school) is beginning. On closer inspection though, it shows, at the top, two very narrow lanes along Sixth Avenue, which borders the arena block, notably the completed 38 Sixth Avenue tower, plus a pathway toward the back of the Barclays Center. A constricted Sixth Avenue The upshot, as shown in the video below and photo at left, is that any complication--like, say, a vehicle standing outside 38 Sixth--causes drivers to swerve into the other lane. That didn't cause any significant problem, at least as shown in the video (and the other one below). But one could imagine that a larger challenge, such as a bus waiting during an arena event, could pose significant com...

This is the fifth among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The  first post  concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the  second post  was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard; the  third post  concerned contracts for future project monitors; the fourth post concerned plans for the B4 tower at the northeast corner of the arena block. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting. Greenland USA project manager Scott Solish said his firm was were "proud to be be partnering" with developers TF Cornerstone and The Brodsky Organization , which were "ideal partners" with "deep roots in New York City." Unmentioned were the terms of the deals that Greenland Forest City Partners--controlled since June 95% going forward by Greenland USA--struck with the two family-owned firms. ...

So, will the long awaited middle school in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, in the 664 Pacific tower (aka B15) east of Sixth Avenue between Dean and Pacific streets, launch in July 2019? Maybe, but it's hardly a lock. A post yesterday on the web site of MS One Brooklyn backers,  Construction of middle school at Atlantic Yards currently set to begin July 2019 , states: Since the time of the January 2016 announcement that the DOE facility at Atlantic Yards will be a middle school, the anticipated construction schedule has shifted, with the developer Greenland Forest City Partners at various times citing factors such as the change in the New York State 421a tax abatement, and the need to negotiate a license agreement with a neighboring property for access. According to the most recent (FY2015-2019) Capital Plan for the New York City School Construction Authority, construction is now expected to begin in July 2019, with an estimated completion date of June 2021. The school is lis...

Joining Bruce Ratner's unreliable prediction of 2018 project completion should be the prediction, just two years ago, that the promised middle school--dubbed M.S. OneBrooklyn by advocates--would open this year. Consider the 7/18/16 letter (below) from Howard Zemsky, President and CEO of Empire State Development, the state authority overseeing/shepherding Atlantic Yards, as first published 8/16/18. Responding to concerns raised by Assemblymember Walter Mosley and fellow legislators, Zemsky wrote, "A district wide middle school is also expected to open in the Fall of 2018." As of then, that was doubtful. I'd written a month earlier that the plan for 664 Pacific, a 27-story market-rate rental building with a school at its base, was delayed, and project documents suggested it would be a four-year buildout. As I reported, a court file revealed that a representative of developer Greenland Forest City Partners said excavation and construction at the site would ta...

It's always interesting and challenging to discuss Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park on a walking tour, especially when participants bring quite varied amounts of history--regarding Brooklyn, and/or the project--to the table. So, with more than 30 people to lead around during my Jane's Walk tour Friday, I had to hit some high points. “Atlantic Yards is a never-say-never project" was the most important of the four mantras  I periodically use. After all, the project has gone through significant changes, in ownership, name, program, designers, and timing. Outside the Barclays Center. Photo: Eric Richmond I also redeployed a couple of phrases well known to urbanists. I suggested that  the phrase "form follows function"--that style should reflect purpose--might be more wisely replaced by the phrase "form follows finance," the title of a book by Carol Willis, also the founder of the Skyscraper Museum . After all, the lack of finance may mean the abse...

A reader sent me the photos below yesterday, which suggest a replacement for the fence outside the B15 site (aka 664 Pacific), just east of Sixth Avenue between Dean and Pacific streets. I queried the developer yesterday, but didn't get a response. Given that no building is planned to launch in the near term, I'm guessing it's site maintenance. But who knows--maybe B15 is a 2018 surprise.

There wasn’t huge news at last night’s bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, but here are the specific project updates, described below: open space outside 550 Vanderbilt should be open by February site maintenance has improved there are no plans yet for the tower including a school Mekelburg's aiming for 535 Carlton, may seek a liquor license allowing service until 4 am but the landlord won't allow it the Barclays Center has a new hotline if the oculus doesn't shut down on time (Also see coverage of big-picture issues .) Project update: open space Ashley Cotton of L&L MAG, which represents Forest City (and says she speaks for the joint venture Greenland Forest City Partners), said that open space planned outside 550 Vanderbilt is finished, but not yet open because of safety issues regarding final work on the building. “I was told February, today,” she said of the new goal. (Previously,  the goal  was the end of 2017.) On Dean S...

Something is up, I suspect. ( Update: see news of Forest City's sale of most of its stake to Greenland USA and   new real estate firm involving Forest City principals. ) At the most recent bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting on 11/14/17, Tobi Jaiyesimi, executive director of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), was asked about the next AY CDC meeting. It hadn't been scheduled, she said. Now, with just five days notice, we learn--from a notice that emerged late yesterday on the web site of the parent Empire State Development (ESD)--that the AY CDC will meet at 3 pm on Wednesday, 1/17/18. That's not very transparent. And it's being held at ESD offices in Midtown Manhattan, rather than, as has been mostly the pattern, at Long Island University, closer to the public concerned about the project. Also not so transparent. What's up? The vague  agenda  indicates approval of the minutes and public comments, as ...

From Dean Street Block Association; left photo Sept. 14,  right photos Sept. 18. OK, the hole in the sidewalk outside the B15 site was fixed recently , but weeds, garbage, and rats persist just east of Sixth Avenue between Dean and Pacific streets, given an indifferently maintained, long-stalled site. After complaints from neighbors last night at the bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, even Ashley Cotton, Forest City New York's External Affairs EVP, acknowledged "you’re right, it’s disgusting" and announced partial progress. Because the joint venture Greenland Forest City Partners is still negotiating with a site neighbor about construction protections--the issue in a lawsuit from another neighbor, which was resolved--"we’re in a tricky place," Cotton said, with no construction start imminent. From Dean Street Block Association; photos Sept. 18 The building design was announced in December 2015, but delays surfaced in ...