Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Gothamist's David Brand this morning reports, Why did NY waive $5.25M in Atlantic Yards fines? The developer threatened to sue. While the article quotes Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon as saying the $2,000/month damages--adding up to $1.752 million a month for the 876 units, aimed at a city affordable housing trust fund--should be collected from developer Greenland USA, it ends with a defense of the status quo: Other housing experts say they understand the state’s position and the threat of litigation, especially when it comes to a deal made under far different financial circumstances over a decade ago. “It is not surprising that a developer is threatening to sue,” said real estate consultant Jordan Barowitz, a former city housing official. “But the problem with that project is it’s not economical. Collecting more fines just makes it less likely the project gets built.” A neutral arbiter? Wait a sec. Barowitz may be a former city housing official, but his Twitter/X bio describes him ...

This is the third of four articles on the Aug. 6 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), which is supposed to advise the parent Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. The meeting was held at 55 Hanson Place in Brooklyn. The first article concerned the state's suspension of affordable housing penalties. The second discussed why valuable Site 5 is key to the project. The fourth addressed plans for "community engagement. For years, executives at ESD have known that master developer Greenland USA, unable to build 876 more required affordable housing units by the May 2025 deadline, would claim it should not face liquidated damages of $2,000/unit for each missing apartment. They just never told the public about such citations of Unavoidable Delay, not until the meeting last week. Consider the discussion at a March 25 meeting of the AY CDC. What, asked AY CDC Director Gib Veconi, who as an organi...

This is the first of four articles on the Aug. 6 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), which is supposed to advise the parent Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. The meeting was held at 55 Hanson Place in Brooklyn. The second discussed why valuable Site 5 is key to the project. The third addressed whether Greenland has a case to protest the penalties. The fourth addressed plans for "community engagement." State officials acknowledged yesterday that they have not collected more than $5.2 million in seemingly required damages for missing Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park affordable housing because they are waiting for information about a newly revised "permitted developer"--led by the funding entity Cirrus Real Estate Partners and the development firm LCOR--for an expanded list of parcels, including Site 5, catercorner to the Barclays Center. They said that they were aiming for Sep...

Yesterday, the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, backed by several local elected officials, held a press conference regarding the failure to complete the project's affordable housing, heralded by a Gothamist headline,  Brooklyn leaders say NY can't suspend millions in affordable housing penalties for Atlantic Yards .  Of 2,250 units, 876--or 877, as the signs suggest--remain to be built, with $2,000/month penalties for each missing unit. That adds up to $1.752 million, or, as the signs suggest, $1.754 million. Council Member Crystal Hudson, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, FAC's Michelle de la Uz (r.-l.) Photo:  BrooklynSpeaks Whether BrooklynSpeaks , which in 2014 negotiated the new May 2025 deadline for the project's affordable housing, can or will do anything about it is in question. (BrooklynSpeaks had threatened a fair-housing lawsuit on grounds that delays would disadvantage Black residents displaced from the neighborhood and thus made ineligible for community preference in ...

Who's keeping track of the complicated situation facing Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park?  It's barely entered the mayoral race--more on that tomorrow--and few civic groups and elected officials keep up. So the  BrooklynSpeaks  coalition, which relies significantly on Gib Veconi of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Council (PHNDC) and Michelle de la Uz of the Fifth Avenue Committee, has become a key vector for local response, given the demise of project opponents Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. BrooklynSpeaks organized a potential lawsuit in 2014, warning that delays in delivering affordable housing meant a fair-housing violation, that led to a settlement , including the new 2025 deadline for the project's 2,250 units of affordable housing, with $2,000/month penalties for each unit not delivered.  Back then, the deadline seemed realistic. But 876 affordable units won't be built by May 2025, suggesting damages of $1.75 million per month, and as Veconi said at a Feb. 26 an...

On Oct. 31, I wrote about how the coalition  BrooklynSpeaks , in its briefing to local elected officials regarding the future of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, urged that they ensure deeply affordable housing and have the Barclays Center operator fund quality-of-life monitors. Here's the link . Let's take a second look at the latter recommendation, which I thought worthy but asking too little. It's clear, from the events of Sunday, when quality-of-life violations were blatantly encouraged, that it couldn't be viable without a vastly changed political firmament. Pacific Street and Carlton Avenue, access  managed not by the NYPD but by the Shomrim safety patrol My coverage:  Unannounced Barclays Center event for Hasidic group draws elected officials. NYPD lets volunteers (!) cordon off streets. Scofflaw vehicles block sidewalks, paths.   In other words, the powers that be--city and state leaders--wanted the event to run at the convenience of attendees and arena operators...