Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

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 ...

I wrote 3/6/23 how, according to the Real Deal, some legislators support extending the construction completion deadline for projects supported by the 421-a tax abatement for four years--from June 15, 2026 to June 15, 2030--but not for all projects, as Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed. Rather, they'd offer that carrot only to buildings that contain more than the required minimum under the tax break provisions, which is 30% at 130% of Area Median Income (AMI), middle-income units aimed at those earning six figures. If so, that could be extended to projects along Atlantic Avenue, just east of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site, that were approved in spot rezonings in recent years, but perhaps not B5, 700 Atlantic Avenue, the first Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park tower over the railyard. A renewed argument In a 5/23/23 essay in City Limits,  Opinion: 421-a Deadline Threatens the Promise of Gowanus Rezoning , Michelle de la Uz, executive director of Fifth Avenue Committee, a...

Following up from my 2022 recap (link)  and my 2023 forecast (link)  articles, I took a look back at my coverage of the four charettes about the future of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, sponsored by the coalition BrooklynSpeaks under the banner Crossroads. Among the proposals was a new governance entity, as well a focus on more deeply affordable housing in the expected tower complex at Site 5, catercorner to the arena and longtime home to the big-box stores Modell's and P.C. Richard. This plan, floated in 2016, didn't proceed My report on last February's final Crossroads session  quoted  organizer Gib Veconi. "I think we're kind of at the beginning of a process here,” he said, but progress will “take a lot of community presence, a lot organizing, and a lot of visibility.”  BrooklynSpeaks, he said, would take in the comments made and “come back with a kind of synthesis.” What next? Nothing emerged, so I followed up this week with a query. "Following the Crossroad...

The main public discussion about the future of Atlantic Yards, beyond the private talks and plans between the developers and governmental agencies, has come from the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, as in the Crossroads series of four online charettes last winter, as I described yesterday in my FAQ regarding the kerfuffle over the unbuilt Urban Room. But BrooklynSpeaks, which in 2014 got the developer and state to agree to a 2025 deadline for affordable housing (while unable to address the level of affordability or achieve the new governance structure it had sought), does not necessarily reflect the full spectrum of local opinion.  That's important because plans for a giant new tower (or towers) at Site 5 (a development parcel catercorner to the Barclays Center), expected to be proposed by developer Greenland Forest City Partners, were not fully addressed at the Crossroads series.  While participants generally supported more deeply affordable housing, they didn't address the tradeo...

So, what's next for Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park affordable housing? A discussion last Wednesday led by the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, the third of four in their Crossroads series , went over the history of the project, and the lack of units affordable to low-income residents, who are continually being priced out. The presentation is embedded below, as is the video, but comments can be posted online on the  presentation board . The coalition's effort is keyed to the  expected effort  by the developer and state to move the bulk from the unbuilt "Miss Brooklyn" tower, once slated to loom over the arena, across Flatbush Avenue to Site 5, long home to Modell's and P.C. Richard, to enable a giant two-tower project.  The 70-plus participants were generally supportive of coalition's already announced principles regarding more deeply affordable housing. Of 2,250 required affordable units (among 6,430 apartments), 876 remain to be built, though Site 5 could contribute ad...

With her proposed replacement for the 421-a tax break, rebranded in 2017 as Affordable New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul may have handed a lifeline to the developers of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, offering a robust tax break in exchange for deeper affordability-- at levels the project's most organized critics have encouraged. That could help the project "recover" the balance between low-income and middle-income units, albeit long after rising Area Median Income (AMI) has steadily lifted the floor for such calculations. And a new tax break, offering certainty in planning, could help the developers move toward meeting the 2025 deadline for 2,250 affordable units, with 876 more to go. Meanwhile, Hochul's proposal has been embraced by the real estate industry, which means profits remain forecast, and criticized by several housing advocates as bad public policy, as explained below.  Whatever the broader issue, it seems a relative change in the policy--deeper affordability, ra...