Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

In May 2008, when the Atlantic Yards project had been stalled by the recession, the project, as I wrote , was the most contentious element of a panel discussion at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs titled "Maintaining Momentum: Can New York’s Ambitious Development Agenda Survive an Economic Downturn?" My headline quoted City Comptroller (and mayoral candidate) William Thompson: "Thompson says other developers might join AY; 'I’m not sure what that project is any longer'." He was, if unwittedly, prescient, as other developers did join, notably Greenland USA, in 2014 buying a majority stake in the project, 70% going forward (excluding the B2 tower, 461 Dean, and the arena company), and, after building four towers with original developer Forest City Ratner/Forest City New York, in 2018 taking all but 5% of the remaining project. Greenland Forest City Partners then sold development rights to the B12/B13 sites (595 Dean) to TF Cornerstone. It sold...

Some people have asked me about the mayoral candidates' postures on Atlantic Yards, and though I recognize that are many reasons for choosing a candidate (see NYT issues page and Nicole Gelinas's analysis ), it's worth reviewing how bad the three leading--at least according to the (flawed) polls--candidates have been on Atlantic Yards. Everyone recognizes things didn't go as promised, and they've even been reminded, such as at a January mayoral forum in East New York, that mention of Atlantic Yards to the hoi polloi can generate scorn. But none of the mayoral candidates have tried to pursue accountability, as I've written, with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio notably failing to even comment that the Community Benefits Agreement he champions has the promised Independent Compliance Monitor. Council Speaker Christine Quinn failed to approve any Council oversight hearing on the project, though Council Members Letitia James and Brad Lander wanted one. And f...

The Democratic mayoral candidates met last night in Brooklyn Heights, in a debate sponsored by the Brooklyn Reform Coalition, and the news concerned term limits and member items, according to the Daily News , Post , NBC , and Patch . (The St. Francis College auditorium was crowded .) They also were asked about Atlantic Yards, and though neither the question nor most of the answers were particularly on-point (or even coherent), the exchange did establish Comptroller John Liu as the candidate most critical of the project, suggesting it was not worth the subsidies granted--though he did call the Barclays Center a "beautiful stadium." Still, the overall discourse--in which no one seems to fully understand the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) nor the city's (non)role in it--has to favor the status quo. The question, and the context The question was read by Ede Fox, president of Prospect Heights Democrats for Reform: "Forest City Ratner signed a C...

So, does developer Forest City Ratner support any candidates in the 2013 election? Campaign finance reports suggest significant support via bundling for mayoral candidates Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former Comptroller Bill Thompson, as well as some support for Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Notably, a prominent Republican executive in Virginia, whose steel company produces key components for both the arena and the first modular tower, has contributed $1,000 to Democrats Thompson and Quinn, in one case through an FCR intermediary. (Do the candidates know his company is non-union ?) Comptroller John Liu, probably (and perceivedly) the main candidate most critical of Atlantic Yards and development, has received no FCR-related contributions. (His campaign also has some ethical question marks .) In the race for Public Advocate, where anti-Atlantic Yards Council Member Letitia James is one of three candidates, Forest City-related contributions clearly favor fundraising lead...

Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson "just doesn't get it, does he?" observed No Land Grab's Eric McCLure in October. "Let us offer up some free political advice — criticizing Bloomberg for being an under developer, no matter the audience, is not a recipe for a November 3rd upset." This week, the Village Voice's Wayne Barrett writes of Thompson, "He was no doubt more mayoral understudy than overseer," and explains why, in an expose that would be all the more shocking if the daily newspapers took it seriously. The article is headlined Bloomberg and Thompson: The (Really) Odd Couple: Now it can be told: The surprising ties between the billionaire mayor and the poor slob who ran against him . The whole thing is well worth a read, but here's the gist: If voters had a vague sense that this was a mirage of a mayoral election, what follows is a damning set of facts that shows that these two supposed opponents were actually far more co...

In a column today headlined What to Make of a Big Deal Gone Sour , New York Times columnist Jim Dwyer finds residents of Stuyvesant Town angry at Mayor Mike Bloomberg for his blase, let-the-market-work attitude toward residents vulnerable to loss of their apartments under new owner Tishman Speyer, whose principal led the push for a third term. Dwyer writes: If the considerations were strictly economic, it would be simple to say that the owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper had every right to get the highest price for their property. They had earned their market. But one of the lessons of the last two years is that there are few purely economic questions. Public and social interests can be ignored only until a bailout is needed. The wealth in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper was created, in significant part, by the city of New York: 60 years ago, the city acquired the land under eminent domain and turned it over to Metropolitan Life for development. By 2006, when the insurance com...

Released last December and again in March, One City/One Future , subtitled A Blueprint for Growth That Works for All New Yorkers , deserves a lot more attention for a thorough and provocative set of policy proposals to create a more equitable city. There are two strikes against it, however. Though it was released after the economic downturn and makes the case that the recommendations are sound in both bad times and good, the document--the product of four years of work--seems geared to harness an expanding economy rather than a struggling one--after all, it’s always easier to share the pie when it’s growing. And, though the document is measured in tone, it represents a forceful criticism of many (but hardly all) policies pursued by the administration of Mayor Mike Bloomberg and thus could have served as a blueprint for underfunded, lagging Democratic candidate Bill Thompson. Thompson only belatedly has sounded populist chords on issues like rent and and the transit fare. And, as Ted Ha...

From a press release from Democratic Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson regarding remarks today on the MTA: Thompson said, “Our City’s economic health and quality of life depend on leadership at City Hall that speaks up for transit riders. Unfortunately, New Yorkers haven’t had that advocacy under Mayor Bloomberg. The Mayor’s top-down decision-making approach has led to two fare hikes in 15 months, service cuts, and crumbling subway stations. As fares have gone up, the Mayor and his MTA appointees have been largely silent.” During Bloomberg’s eight years in office, the city's financial contribution to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has remained relatively stagnant -- even while the city had surpluses. Addressing the MTA’s mismanagement, Thompson said, “I will appoint MTA Board members who are transit activists and more representatives of the riding public—unlike the Bloomberg Administration’s loyalists who have no special knowledge or even prior familiarity with transit. A...

Guess what? Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, according to a report in the New York Observer on a speech he gave Thursday, suggests that Battery Park City provides a better model for real estate development than the Bloomberg administration’s mega-projects. The reason: at Battery Park City, each parcel was developed separately. (I'd add that the park space came first, not in the second phase, as with the Atlantic Yards plan.) Of course, the UNITY plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard--the key public land within the Atlantic Yards footprint--would do just that, but Thompson has never acknowledged it. Pros and cons The Observer's Eliot Brown weighs the pros and cons: Giving a big site to a single developer all at once—such as the 22-acre, $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project—could bring a higher bid given, among other reasons, that the developer would benefit from economies of scale and increased values as it fills out the site. But, ...

From a Tom Robbins column in the Village Voice, headlined Mayor Bloomberg's School-Snack Bungle: Vending machine politics : This was back in 2003, and it was the first big face-off between [City Comptroller Bill] Thompson and [Mayor Mike] Bloomberg. Thompson issued a scathing audit showing that Bloomberg's team had awarded the contract to Snapple without even sending a letter of invitation to other major firms who had to learn about this major opportunity through the business grapevine. Snapple, the audit showed, had been tapped for the job by a private marketing consultant named Octagon that had a bit of a conflict of interest since it already carried Snapple's parent company as a client. After other bids were received, Snapple alone was allowed to sweeten its offer. Of course, Thompson, an Atlantic Yards supporter, never said anything about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) decision to let Forest City Ratner alone sweeten its offer for the Vanderbilt Y...

Remember public authority reform ? The state legislature, led by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and State Senator Bill Perkins, in July passed a bill that would require board members of public authorities (like the Empire State Development Corporation and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority) to vote according to their fiduciary duty, not the elected official who appointed them; establish a new budget office for the authorities, prohibit authorities from selling land below market value in most cases; and require the state controller to review major authority contracts. Gov. David Paterson never signed the bill, given that Mayor Mike Bloomberg and others complained that it would tie their hands. (Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson supports the bill.) Resolution coming? On October 2, Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez reported : After weeks of secret negotiations, Gov. Paterson and the Legislature are nearing a deal on a law to drastically reform how some 700 public authorities...