Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

I have to admit, when I saw this article yesterday in Curbed,  The Brooklyn High-Rise Giving Tenants an Allowance , with an image (photo? rendering) of 18 Sixth Ave. (B4, aka Brooklyn Crossing), I wondered if there was a story I missed. Well, only slightly.  I somehow wasn't sent the press release from the Brodsky Organization touting its  Neighborly Events programming, which, as it turns out, is not limited to that particular address. As Curbed puts it: Across a number of the developer’s roughly 50 rental properties , tenants can get Visa gift cards to partially reimburse a game night or costume party attended by their neighbors — as long as they’re willing to post about their event on the Building Link messaging system; take a minimum of “five quality photos” of, say, Lisa from the 16th floor munching on Doritos; and, of course, provide itemized receipts. So far, per a Brodsky spokesperson, the company’s priciest compensation has been somewhere around $500. The point i...

This is the second of three articles about the 9/20/22 Quality of Life meeting. The  first  concerned the delayed platform. Screenshots from meeting presentation Scott Solish of Greenland USA, which owns nearly all of master developer Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP), said the sidewalk on Atlantic Avenue outside of B4 (18 Sixth Ave., aka Brooklyn Crossing) had been restored. "The last piece of work," he said, "is the restoration of a full size median in Atlantic Avenue to free up the east and west travel lanes. And that work should happen over the next several weeks." That said, assuming a fence is built at Atlantic Avenue between Sixth and Carlton avenues for the platform work, that means traffic will be constricted for three years. Solish said all the work on the residential units is substantially complete, except for some punch list work. The tower has 858 apartments, 600 of them market-rate, and 258 "affordable." Have the tenants in the latter mid...

This is the third of four articles about the July 12, 2022  Quality of Life meeting . The meeting was brief, lasting barely 20 minutes, with all of ten people in attendance. And other than some notable deflection of questions, which I report separately , there wasn't a lot of news. Scott Solish of master developer Greenland Forest City Partners, using the slides below, showed that the sidewalk bridge and overhead protection along Atlantic Avenue near the B4 (18 Sixth Ave., aka Brooklyn Crossing) is starting to come down He said it will diminish over the next few weeks as workers finish the sidewalk installation on Atlantic Amir Stein of TF Cornerstone said that the B12 and B13 towers (615 Dean St., 595 Dean St.) are on schedule, with "our first [temporary] certificate of occupancy by the end of the year." That suggests move-ins might happen before the buildings are finished by mid-year. The B12 tower is fully enclosed, with windows, and B13 should be fully enclosed by mid...

OK, sometime in the past few days Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project, posted the presentation from the 5/10/22 Quality of Life meeting, which I've added below, and also to  my coverage  the next morning.    There isn't much revealing in the slideshow, but I have excerpted, at right, one slide, which is a helicopter perspective, looking west/southwest, at the western end of the railyard and the B4 tower (aka 18 Sixth Ave., or Brooklyn Crossing), which flanks the Barclays Center. The arrow, which I added, points to the location of the planned B5 tower, the first one over the railyard. The railyard platform is expected to start next month. I suspect at least one foundation for the tower will also be installed by the June 15 deadline to qualify for the current 421-a tax break. The tower is expected to go vertical next year, and should take two years to build. B5 is slated to be about 77% of ...

An interesting Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park detail emerged in a 2/23/22 Bisnow article,  Developers, Contractors Investing In Off-Site Construction Storage To Get Ahead Of Supply Chain Issues , describing challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis, during which some developers decided to avoid uncertainty around the delivery of materials by eschewing just-in-time delivery: Scott Solish , executive vice president at Greenland USA , said the coronavirus pandemic had impacted 800K SF of construction on Pacific Park in Brooklyn that the developer started working on in 2018 and was ready to start building just before the pandemic hit. But shutdowns and the immediate impact on the supply chain had immediate consequences. “You have to regroup, look and see where all your components are coming from, where are your windows coming from, your HVAC, every piece of material,” Solish said. “Then you have to try and find out: is it coming; how fast can it get here; will the bank let you pay for ...

Rendering of 18 Sixth, looking NW on Sixth Ave. Yesterday, the lottery finally launched for 258 income-targeted, rent-stabilized "affordable housing" units at Brooklyn Crossing (B4, 18 Sixth Ave.), the largest building so far in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. And yes, all apartments are designated for middle-income households earning a maximum of 130% of Area Median Income (AMI), or over $100,000. (That's what I  reported  last March for Bklyner, though without confirmation by the developers or the state.) However, as with Plank Road (B15, 662 Pacific St.), the developers are not seeking the maximum rent possible under city guidelines.  They apparently recognize  that such "affordable" rent levels, at least for studios and 1-BRs, would get little uptake from apartment-seekers who can lease similarly-priced units--albeit not rent-stabilized--without going through a laborious application process.  That said, Brooklyn Crossing seeks higher rents than Plank Road: st...

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on 1/4/22 offered the unbylined (credited to "staff")  Leasing begins at 51-story Brooklyn Crossing in Prospect Heights , clearly just the developer's press release: The Brodsky Organization and Greenland USA announced on Tuesday the launch of leasing at Brooklyn Crossing , the latest development within the mixed-use development project Pacific Park in Prospect Heights. Located at 18 Sixth Ave ., the 51-story residential building offers 858 new units of mixed-income housing, 258 of which are set aside for affordable housing, ranging from studios to one- to three-bedroom apartments. Retail space occupies the building’s ground floor. Except leasing actually began last month, as I reported . Pumping affordable housing From the article/press release: “It’s an exciting time in the market as we launch leasing of another remarkable building in Pacific Park, bringing 258 units of dedicated affordable housing to the Prospect Heights neighborhood,” said Ale...

This is the first of three posts about the Nov. 16, 2021 Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting. The second concerned affordable housing. The third concerned Barclays Center issues. OK, the meeting was short and not very informative--though the non-update on the project's future again cast doubt on the likelihood of meeting the May 2025 deadline for 2,250 units of affordable housing, given that 876 more are needed beyond those under construction. Despite an agenda stating that a representative of the School Construction Authority would appear, presumably to provide an update on the middle-school planned for the B15 tower (and not scheduled to open until Fall 2024 ), that SCA rep did not appear. Tobi Jaiyesimi, the Atlantic Yards project manager for Empire State Development, read several questions: Is there more than one school operating in the new building?  What is the schedule for the school opening?  What are the hours of operation?  Is there an after-...

Update: the housing lottery for 662 Pacific has opened . Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, has set the next Atlantic Yards Project Quality of Life Meeting for Tuesday, November 16, 2021, at 6 pm, via Zoom:  https://zoom.us/j/94688773423 Dial In: 646-558-8656 || Passcode: 946 8877 3423# Meeting ID: 946 8877 3423 Project-related questions and suggested agenda items may be sent to atlanticyards@esd.ny.gov . It's an open question why in-person meetings, which allow for follow-up questions and allow attendees to see others' questions, have not resumed.  (The online format for ESD-hosted meetings is restrictive, compared to, say, Community Board meetings where questions and chat exchanges are visible.) The agenda contains the typically non-informative list of presenters, but this meeting does, unusually, include a representative of the School Construction Authority, who presumably can provide an update on the mid...

So, as we wait for the affordable housing lottery--almost surely for middle-income units--to surface for 662 Pacific St., aka Plank Road, aka B15, I checked to see the rental status for market-rate units--and they're on discount, somewhat. Interestingly enough, StreetEasy lists nine past rentals, all currently unavailable, and seven current listings. I'm not certain whether the unavailable listings have been rented, or taken off the market for a bit.  Some of the past listings were offering one month free rent on a 14-month lease. The current listings are offering one month free rent on a 16-month lease--and in some cases prices have already come down.. That not surprising, given that it takes carrots to get people into a new, amenitized building where only some floors are available for occupancy and construction continues --and continues nearby.  Worth watching is whether a larger number of units--especially when facing competition from the catercorner 18 Sixth Avenue--come ...

This is the first of three posts on the 9/14/21 Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, held on Zoom, sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). As expected , there were no updates on some big unknowns regarding the project: the timing for the two-block platform over the Vanderbilt Yard, crucial to the construction of six towers plans to complete the project's required affordable housing by May 2025, and/or plans for an exemption or extension regarding that deadline, which imposes a $2,000/month fine for each delayed unit plans to transfer bulk from the unbuilt Miss Brooklyn tower, which was to loom over the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, site of what’s now the arena plaza, but likely will be transferred across Flatbush to Site 5, currently home to P.C. Richard and the shuttered Modell’s, already approved for a large building, creating a giant two-tower project. The Vanderbilt Yard between Carlton & Vanderbilt Avenues, awaits a platform Rather, th...

Image/video from the southeast, along Dean Street Yes, that looks a little alarming. As the image at right shows, from the video below, yesterday afternoon, around 3 pm, those near the 18 Sixth Ave. (B4) tower saw jets of water shooting out of the windows of the unfinished building.  I'm told it created a significant amount of water on nearby Pacific Street, though i don't have all the details. After sending the video late last night to Scott Solish, the Greenland USA executive who serves as project manager, I was told that it was a fire system test. (The building, at the southwest corner of Sixth and Atlantic avenues, is being constructed by Greenland and The Brodsky Organization.) OK, but... why weren't neighbors alerted? Indeed, why didn't Greenland, via Empire State Development, circulate the regular two-week Construction Update, which is supposed to tell neighbors of upcoming work? The most recent update circulated, as far as I know, covered the two weeks start...

Well, there's no update yet regarding the next key stage of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park: whether and when the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard, to be constructed in two stages and support three towers each, will be built. That platform is crucial to the project's affordable housing obligations, as well as the future open space. The latest iteration of the required six-month look-ahead (bottom) required of master Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer Greenland Forest City Partners, again--as in  November 2020 --says that "Platform construction may commence during the reporting period." The workforce would average 50 to 100 workers. (I received the document, dated 5/1/21, from Empire State Development, which oversees/shepherds the project, after a Freedom of Information Law request.) In May 2020 , the document stated, with unreliable certainty, that the construction "will commence." At a public meeting 12/10/20, Greenland USA's Scott Solish said that, w...

The 858-unit 18 Sixth Ave. (B4) tower has a name, and a branding effort: Brooklyn Crossing . Leasing starts this fall; as stated separately, move-ins begin in the fourth quarter (which also includes the beginning of winter). The building--the largest planned so far in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park--likely won't be finished for another year. It flanks the northeast corner of the arena block, and is at the southwest corner of Atlantic and Sixth avenues. As with Plank Road , the branding for the catercorner 662 Pacific St. (B15), the Google ads, at least, emphasize the location in Prospect Heights, not the chimerical neighborhood of Pacific Park, as noted below. The "park" relies on open space that will be, in large part, one long block away, and remain incomplete until possibly 2035.  Nor are developers of 51-story Brooklyn Crossing emphasizing, as during the run-up to approval of Atlantic Yards, the project's location in Downtown Brooklyn. Note that the black-and-white ...

This is the first of four posts about the July 13, 2021 Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting.  The  second  addressed some mysterious, unauthorized "No Parking" signs . The third concerned some Barclays Center issues.  The  fourth  cited pending questions. Last night’s meeting was anti-climactic and underinformative, even by the standards of past virtual meetings, given that no representative of the Barclays Center or master developer Greenland Forest City Partners was present, leaving Empire State Development representative Tobi Jaiyesimi to answer some of the questions posed, and promising to have others answered in meeting notes. About 21 people attended the meeting, which lasted about 50 minutes. Big questions pending There were no updates on the big questions regarding the project: the timing for the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard, crucial to future tower construction the affordability of the under-completion B4 (18 Sixth Ave.) and B...