Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

A new development team is emerging to take over the remaining sites in the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project, including the six sites over the Vanderbilt Yard.  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has a key role, even though the project is overseen/shepherded by the (also) gubernatorially-controlled Empire State Development (ESD). According to Gib Veconi of BrooklynSpeaks, who's been partially briefed on the emerging plan, ESD is evaluating the proposal that has been made by a joint venture led by Cirrus Real Estate, "and has asked that Cirrus receive approval from the MTA by June 30.” I asked the MTA to clarify for me what needs to be approved: --the Cirrus joint venture's general qualifications to work with the MTA? --a plan to build the platform, including performance bonds, over the Vanderbilt Yard while preserving MTA/Long Island Rail Road operations? --a Cirrus takeover of the current payment plan for Vanderbilt Yard development rights? --a revised paym...

As I wrote May 12 ( link ), no one official seemed to take seriously the deadline that day to start the platform--which would support six towers--over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard. That meant a seemingly generous 15-year window was waved away. So it's worth going back to the June 24, 2009 renegotiation of the deal by original developer Forest City Ratner to buy development rights from the MTA over and in the three-block, 8.5-acre railyard. Notably, as explained below, a key MTA board member who defended the renegotiation suggested it was at no risk, because the state authority could always get the development rights back if nothing were built.  Not exactly. The reality today is that the set of transactions is more complex than discussed, and the state authority is not in line to get the development rights back, even though the deadline--set by a different state authority--has been breached and nothing's been built. Deal contours Instead of pa...

Something is cooking, contractually, regarding the development rights for the six towers (B5-B10) over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) Vanderbilt Yard. In shorthand, I and others have typically described them as being held by the project's master developer, for now Greenland USA, which has since November 2023 seemed on the brink of losing them in foreclosure. That's because the Greenland entity that controls those development rights has failed to pay back $286 million in loans from immigrant investors under the EB-5 investor visa program, and the creditors for those loans were given those development rights as collateral. Indeed, Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority, said last month, "Greenland USA has and as of today remains to be the developer of the Atlantic Yards project pursuant to the project documents." That raises a question, yet unresolved: will ESD enforce the project documents that require Greenland to pay $2,000/month ...

At a meeting last Sept. 26, a representative of Empire State Development, the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, said something curious. "We understand that the MTA [Metropolitan Transportation] has been paid for the outstanding air rights obligation for the platform portion of the project," said Anna Pycior, ESD's Senior VP, Community Relations. Who paid went unspecified. Was it master developer Greenland USA, which was losing rights to build giant towers at the six railyard parcels in a foreclosure? (It borrowed $349 million, in two tranches, from immigrant investors in the EB-5 investor visa program, and has about $286 million delinquent.) Was it Related Companies, the giant developer, known for building Hudson Yards in Manhattan, that's part of a pending joint venture to develop the six railyard sites, which require an expensive platform?  That seemed unlikely, given that they weren't formally part of the project yet. (Nor are they formally ...

Developer Greenland USA is current on payments for Vanderbilt Yard development rights--well, sort of. Greenland, through June 2023, had paid the Metropolitan Transportation Authority cumulatively $96 million towards development rights towards six towers over the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, with an additional $77 million due, in annual $11 million increments, by June 1, 2030. That's per a schedule outlined in 2009, when original developer Forest City Ratner renegotiated the original 2005 pledge of $100 million into $20 million for the railyard parcel needed for (part of) the arena block, and $80 million for the remainder, payable through 2030 at an implied 6.5% interest rate, which one analyst called "a real coup."  By my estimate, as explained below, the payments may have been enough to purchase the rights to build the first three towers, with the remainder should cover the final three towers.  It’s unclear whether Greenland can realize any value for that investment, giv...

This is the first of two articles about the meeting yesterday ( link ) of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development (AY CDC). held at offices of the parent Empire State Development (ESD) in Manhattan. The second concerns the future of Site 5. At the  little-publicized  AY CDC meeting yesterday, an executive at ESD, the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, offered the first hint that the six railyard development sites (B5-B10), encompassing nearly 3.5 million square feet but which are now in foreclosure, may have interest from a developer. But details were scarce, including the name of the company and whether and how much ESD would accommodate changes in project requirements to make it a deal more attractive. For example, would it  enforce or waive/delay $2,000/month fines for the 876 affordable housing units supposed to be completed by May 2025?  Also, how much would a new developer, taking over those sites from Greenland USA,...

The board of Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, held its monthly meeting yesterday, and the project was not on the agenda . Nor was it discussed during the meeting. That sets up the possibility that loan collateral, rights to six development sites over the Vanderbilt Yard, nearly all the parcels in the remaining project--might be sold in a foreclosure auction Jan. 11 without any public discussion of conditions on the sale. Or, perhaps, maybe not. ESD has issued only an anodyne statement: “Governor Hochul’s highest priority is expanding New York’s housing supply and promoting housing growth, and Empire State Development is focused on the successful buildout and completion of this project. We are currently reviewing the situation and are working to determine the best path forward.” What about the advisory body? This would seem like a time to involve the  Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), ...

An overenthusiastic newsletter headline from the real-estate industry publication The Real Deal, apparently reliant on the initial version of the article (see the URL and this tweet ), claims "Atlantic Yards Deck Deal Paves Way for Pacific Park Towers."  The article is now more prudently headlined  Greenland, MTA reach deal for Atlantic Yards deck, but not 421a . Indeed, The Real Deal reported yesterday that, based on statements at the 8/2/23 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), Greenland USA, which owns nearly all of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project going forward, has resolved differences with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority over building the first phase of the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard, which would support three towers. (A second phase would support three more towers.) Such differences were previously posited--unreliably--as the main stumbling block to building the platform over the working railyard. Financing q...

Bill Perkins, a force in Harlem politics, is dead at 74; ‘Harlem has lost a giant,’ says Mayor Adams , the New York Daily News reported yesterday: Bill Perkins, a hard-charging, reform-minded city and state lawmaker who championed equality in health care and criminal justice as an energetic force in Harlem politics across three decades, died Monday night in his home. He was 74. ...As he rose in politics, Perkins emerged as an outspoken progressive — a supporter of the Central Park 5, an early voice against the Iraq War and a backer of LGBTQ rights. He had an acute focus on health care, and was a leading voice in the passage of lead-paint inspection laws. None of the articles--including more extensive coverage in Harlem's Amsterdam News--addressed a memorable set of 2010 hearings state Sen. Parkins,  distrustful of Columbia University's expansion into Harlem, held on eminent domain. The Amsterdam News did quote what might have been a previous Perkins bio note: "As Chairma...

A headline in New York YIMBY today,  Museum Of Jewish Heritage Reviews Plans For Genealogy Research Center In Battery Park City, Manhattan : The Museum of Jewish Heritage is currently reviewing plans to build a new genealogy research center at its facility at 36 Battery Place in Battery Park City . Named the Peter and Mary Kalikow Genealogy Research Center, the waterfront expansion will provide visitors with Jewish genealogy resources through JewishGen, a non-profit organization and affiliate of the museum. There's no real news, so I suspect it's based on the same press release that led Patch 2/17/23 to report : Plans are moving ahead to create the Peter and Mary Kalikow Genealogy Research Center at Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust following a visit by Peter Kalikow and his daughter, Kathryn Kalikow, with Museum President and CEO Jack Kliger. But there's a connection here, one I cited last month while writing about Atlantic Yards developer Br...

From the New York Times today,  Penn Station Plan Makes a High-Stakes Bet on the Future of Office Work , regarding Gov. Kathy Hochul and her Empire State Development (ESD, the state authority that also oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park) and their backing for ten mostly office towers  around Penn Station, mostly owned by Vornado. There are lots of questions around the demand for office towers, especially in this 33-acre site, as well as the tax breaks and financing, which has prompted skepticism from, among others, former MTA Chairman and "wise man" Richard Ravitch. And at Hudson Yards? Another reason for skepticism is the very mixed results at Hudson Yards, which awaits a deck over the second half of the project. From the article: Underscoring the shifting ambitions of Hudson Yards, Related has tried to renegotiate its existing agreement with the M.T.A. for several years, according to two people familiar with the efforts. The developer had pledged to build si...

March 11, 2021. Photo by Norman Oder "Of the 340 elevators in the subway system, 52 are already under the watch of third parties, typically property owners whose buildings connect to neighboring stations," tweeted The City yesterday. "The MTA & the Department of City Planning would like to add more." That linked to a 3/17/21 article by Jose Martinez, headlined  MTA Looking for Private Business Help With Subway Accessibility Upgrades , which reminded us that "four of the 10 subway elevators with the worst 24-hour availability rates are privately maintained," and that the one at Barclays Center was down nearly 25% of the time. Well, it was down on 3/11/21, when I wandered by on the night of a Brooklyn Nets home game, as shown in the photo at right. I reported on a 3/3/20 public meeting in which a Barclays Center rep said they'd switched vendors and were trying to fix the elevator. Last June that rep, Mandy Gutmann, said that "according to ava...

De Blasio recedes from development agenda as pandemic response consumes City Hall , Politico's Sally Goldenberg reported yesterday, highlighting a project in Long Island City for the former Amazon campus dubbed (a bit disingenuously, to me) YourLIC : Negotiations with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s team were inching along, and the developers had hoped to begin a public review process after the summer. But tensions flared when City Hall demanded they cover all infrastructure costs, including off-site investments developers contended were not their responsibility. After administration officials informed the group on a Zoom call in June that they would have to pay $75 million to relocate a municipal building on the site, talks fell apart, according to several sources involved in the negotiations. On Thursday the administration officially announced its opposition to the proposal . Deputy Mayor Vicki Been had a different take: As for the recent Long Island City dispute, she said the develo...

How far along is the railyard? The new Vanderbilt Yard is "substantially complete," Greenland USA's Scott Solish  said  after the 11/19/19 Quality of Life meeting, "The Long Island Rail Road [LIRR] has total control." There was still some ongoing punch list work and lighting, he said But the LIRR had not yet signed off on final completion and, at least as of five weeks earlier, strongly disagreed that the railyard was--as a contractual term--Substantially Complete. Also,  as indicated in the documents described below, the MTA disagreed with the developer's claims of final completion. It's unclear how much that disagreement persists, but it's a reminder that the developer is not a disinterested source. At the 6/9/20 Quality of Life meeting, Solish again said the permanent railyard was substantially complete. "Obviously, the railroad and MTA, like we all did, went through a difficult period of operations," he said, indicating the c...