Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Here's a link to coverage of issues raised at the meeting, including 100,000 square feet of new, below-ground space, a cut in vehicle parking, and a change/cut in bike parking. What's next for Atlantic Yards? Those of us making presentations at a recent public meeting didn't have solid predictions, only the inkling that something was happening. After all, as I said, it's a never-say-never project--and the devil's in the details. Yesterday, a message of Empire State Development (ESD), which oversees/shepherds the project, hinted at some significant changes--and some smaller ones. My best guess, as described below, is a significant boost in square footage to at least one building, thus facilitating more units and thus more affordable housing. ( Update : It might be a change in square footage of usable space, though not the actual building.) (Still, there's no announced plan to meet the May 2025 deadline for affordable housing, though surely strategies ha...

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...

Forest City Ratner waited well over two days to change digital signs warning that Fifth Avenue between Atlantic and Flatbush avenues would close on February 1--despite a judge's decision last Friday to defer any decision on transferring title to properties and streets in the Atlantic Yards footprint to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). So a lot of people walking and driving this weekend had a right to be confused when the street turned out to be open this morning. (Photo looking north on Fifth Avenue below Flatbush Avenue, by Tracy Collins .) Who's in charge? And no one really knew who was in charge. Was it the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT)? Not really, even though FCR said it would have to ask for DOT permission to close the streets without a judicial order. After all, I couldn't even get an on-the-record statement out of DOT. Was it the ESDC? Maybe, given that an ESDC attorney said in court that no request for street closure would be m...

Despite signs from the Department of Transportation (DOT) indicating that Fifth Avenue between Flatbush and Atlantic avenues would be closed today for the Atlantic Yards project, the street this morning remained open, after a state judge last Friday refused to transfer title, as the Empire State Development Corporation had sought. Below is a video I shot early this morning (around 7:30 am) as I walked north toward Flatbush along Fifth Avenue. The DOT's digital signs--visible on both Fifth and Flatbush avenues--continued to state that the street would be closed today. Update: I'm told that the signs were not placed by the DOT but instead by Forest City Ratner. Update 11 a.m .: ESDC spokeswoman Elizabeth Mitchell states, "ESDC has been informed that the signs are being turned off and the streets are remaining open."

Update 8:30 am : Fifth Avenue remains open , but the signs weren't immediately changed. The signs were not, it turns out, placed by the Department of Transportation but by Forest City Ratner. Is a street in the Atlantic Yards footprint still going to be closed today? The evidence isn't conclusive, but signs suggest that the city Department of Transportation (DOT) may go ahead with cooperating in the closing Fifth Avenue between Flatbush and Atlantic avenues--Forest City Ratner's priority. In court Friday, Charles Webb, a lawyer for the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) told state Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges, "We will not even ask that they [streets] be closed until after vesting [of title]." Gerges, however, put his decision on hold, so there was no transfer of title. I concluded that the ESDC would not ask for streets to be closed-but I couldn't get a confirmation from the agency on Friday afternoon. (I should've contacted DOT, appare...

Yesterday I checked out the mobile Rocawear shop that finally arrived Friday ( I'd thought Thursday ) at the northeast corner of Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue. Up close it's a nifty retail concept, and other news coverage (e.g., The Brooklyn Paper ) has given us a close-up exterior shot, plus an interior view. Go inside ( photos ) and it's an immersive environment, a lounge on wheels: no windows, flattering lighting, couches, and hip-hop videos providing the proper ambience to sell $28 t-shirts and $48 polo shirts (among other things) anointed by rap superstar Jay-Z.  (There is a 25% discount, and I saw some eager browsers, though I didn't stick around to watch any sales get racked up.) The blight emerges Exit to a barren stretch of Flatbush Avenue, however, and the blight is palpable. It would take a lot of temporary installments--shops, flea market, playground--to bring life to the empty lots created by demolitions in the Atlantic Yards footprint. (Photos from...

The Rocawear Pop Shop, which was supposed to arrive at "Atlantic Yard" April 6, apparently opens today at Pacific Street and Fifth Avenue, and will be there through May 3, according to the Brooklyn Paper . [Update 3:15 pm] Oops--the Brooklyn Paper adds an update : now the shop should arrive on Thursday.

Rocawear , the clothing line co-founded by hip-hop superstar Jay-Z (a fractional owner of the New Jersey Nets), was apparently supposed to come to the Atlantic Yards footprint yesterday, via a mobile store known as a Rocawear Pop Shop. According to the Roc4Life blog , the Pop Shop was to be in residence April 6-18 at "Atlantic Yard, Brooklyn, NY." According to one report ,"On Monday April 6, the tour finishes in Jay’s native Brooklyn at Flatbush and 6th Avenue, located across from Atlantic Yard." There certainly are empty lots in the AY footprint that could accommodate a Pop Shop. But no such store was spotted by me or another person who checked it out yesterday. Nor was there a Pop Shop nudging out Yummy Taco at Flatbush and 6th. Did the store's promoters go astray looking for "Atlantic Yard"? Or is everything AY-related delayed? (Update: another post indicated the Pop Shop's timing as "TBD".) For more on the store, go to the site of ...

It's just a matter of time before the retail frontages on Flatbush Avenue change significantly, right? The owners of the building housing Bergen Tile at the southeast corner of Dean Street and Flatbush Avenue are advertising the space for rent as "directly across the street from the new Nets arena at Atlantic Yards." (The building was sold in 2006, according to ACRIS.) Now that's the plan, though, in a best-case scenario, the arena likely wouldn't open for three years. Still, as the brochure attached to the listing posted by Ripco Realty (yes, that's their name) shows, there are nearly 600 new condo units coming in the area, on top of the 6860 units--actually 6430, and almost certainly fewer, given the changes planned for Miss Brooklyn --planned at Atlantic Yards. The housing could take decades. Note that the site outline in red suggests that the Bergen Tile building extends all the way from Flatbush Avenue well opposite Building 3, near the corner of Sixth ...