Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

There's a very intriguing passage about Atlantic Yards in the 5/16/18 Hey BK podcast hosted by Ofer Cohen, founder of TerraTRG. ( Transcript here . More about the podcast here .) Cohen's guest was David Ehrenberg , who served as Executive Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) from 2006 through 2013, before leaving that year to lead the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation. Go to 5:56. Host Cohen narrates: David Ehrenberg is Brooklyn, born and raised. He knew he wanted to lead the Navy Yard even before the job was open and he put himself in the running. It was the tail end of the Bloomberg Administration and David was working for the city on some of its biggest projects. Guest Ehrenberg speaks: And at my level, I became just, you know, the kind of the fix-it person. So when a project got off the rails, I went in and had to solve it, which, y'know, is great learning experience and I've got to say--I learned most o...

Update 6 pm 11/15/19: I received an appraisal that was originally omitted, for Pacific Street between Flatbush and Sixth avenues. I had estimated that the appraisal would be for no more than $500,000. Indeed, it was for $360,000. I have updated this article accordingly. Pinsky photo: Adrian Kinloch We finally have some answers to a tantalizing statement by Seth Pinsky, then president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC), at a May 2009 state Senate oversight hearing on Atlantic Yards. “Finally, the city has committed to contribute to the project at agreed-upon discounts certain real estate assets for which there are unlikely to be other opportunities for monetization," Pinsky said , without describing the discounts or the deal. It sounded like the city was desperate to dispose of those assets--a building, a piece of undeveloped land, and three streets, as far as we knew then--rather than use them as leverage. After all, they were key to original ...

In a blog post headlined  Who could be the next city economic development chief? , Andy Hawkins of Crain's New York Business runs down the names of potential replacements for Kyle Kimball, the holdover CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Among them are three candidates with ties to Atlantic Yards as officials or advocates: former NYC EDC (and current Brooklyn Navy Yard) executive David Ehrenberg, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Tucker Reed, and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President (and former Chief of Staff to the Borough President) Carlo Scissura. Also mentioned, among others, were Maria Torres-Springer, commissioner of Small Business Services, Hudson River Park Trust President and CEO Madelyn Wils, and former Port Authority New York & New Jersey Executive Director Chris Ward. Read Hawkins for the handicapping .

Talk about service. Though the end of September is neither the fiscal year nor the calendar year, New York City officials have estimated that the Barclays Center is an economic hit. And the arena's favorite (and partner) newspaper, the New York Daily News, has the scoop, in  Barclays Center scores: City says arena generated $14 million in tax revenues in its first year: Arena's direct output in its first year hits $145 million The Barclays Center has generated an estimated $14 million in tax revenues in its first year, city officials told the Daily News, providing the first tally of the $1 billion arena's contribution to the city's offers. The estimates, which come from the New York City Economic Development Corp., are based on data provided by Barclays Center developer Forest City Ratner. Overall, the direct output from the 18,200 seat arena, which just celebrated its first year anniversary and in its first year became the country's No.1 concert venue, has been...

In an 8/16/13 article headlined  Navy Yard names new executive director , Crain's New York Business wrote: The Brooklyn Navy Yard has found a new captain. David Ehrenberg, an executive vice president of the city's Economic Development Corp. in charge of real estate, has been chosen by the Navy Yard board to serve as executive director of the nonprofit that manages the 300-acre waterfront industrial park. Mr. Ehrenberg has big galoshes to fill following the departure in June of Andrew Kimball , the Navy Yard's top brass for the past eight years. Mr. Kimball helped oversee a renaissance of the once-derelict docks and warehouses into a hub of neo-Brooklyn industrial artistry, hosting everything from electronics distribution to whiskey distillers , two separate modular housing manufacturers and even a film studio . ...Mr. Ehrenberg served most recently as co-head of the real estate department at the Economic Development Corp., where he worked on marquee projects. He helped ov...

A recent report from advocates critical of New York State's economic development policies leads down the rabbit hole to Atlantic Yards, where city documents are dismayingly opaque. Those documents inadequately reference the extent of state subsidies for the project, and somehow place the Empire State Development Corporation at an address for Forest City Ratner. What does this mean? At the least, such sloppy reporting makes oversight more difficult. A critical report A 5/29/13 article from the Syracuse Post-Standard,  New York's economic development 'gamble' costs $7 billion a year, report says , laid out the charges: New York spends $7 billion annually on dozens of economic development programs, but it has no way of knowing whether it's getting its money's worth, according to a report [The $7,000,000 Wager, bottom] by a coalition of public policy experts, government watchdogs, labor unions and community organizations. The Alliance for a Greater New Y...

A New York Observer article, headlined online as Let’s Make a Deal! How Mike’s Mild-Mannered Closer Seth Pinsky Got the City Building Again: Dan Doctoroff's protégée picks up the mantle for PlaNYC. , in print, as noted below, suggests that New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) President Seth Pinsky also deserves credit for Atlantic Yards. Here's the lead-off to the article: Imagine, if you will, the landscape of New York City 15 years hence. A drive to Citi Field in Willets Point takes you past a pleasant if overpriced cluster of residential buildings, rather than seedy chop-shops. Roosevelt Island is home to a sprawling $2 billion applied-sciences campus spinning out an army of developers to populate ping-pong-table-clad start-up clusters from Dumbo to Union Square. On Manhattan’s far West Side, the rezoned stretch of Hudson Yards offers millions of square feet for office space, housing and retail and 14 acres of open public space. You can already see tra...

“We have an unemployment crisis in this city that demands we get the most out of every economic development dollar," says Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, so he wants to make sure there's more transparency regarding projects funded by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC). De Blasio said in a press release: The new legislation to be introduced by Public Advocate de Blasio in the City Council would require EDC to report for each project site: The number of jobs prior to receiving subsidies; The projected number of jobs when subsidies end; The current number of jobs; and The subsidy cost per job. The legislation is the first in a series of reforms to be proposed by the Public Advocate this month to spur job creation and expand opportunity for the middle class. That's surely a worthy goal, but de Blasio is not exactly consistent, having not said a word about the failure to monitor the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement. How many jobs...

The news from the July 19 conference on the Future of New York City, sponsored by Crain's New York Business, concerned the city's revival after 9/11 , and the city's effort to recruit an engineering campus . (The city's offering up to $100 million in subsidies and low-cost land. Didn't the Atlantic Yards project get nearly $300 million in direct subsidies and discount land?) There was no mention of Atlantic Yards, at least at the panels I attended, but there was some unease about city policies that have led to such projects, and when I buttonholed Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to ask about Atlantic Yards, his answers, not surprisingly, were vague. During a panel, a representative from the Citizens Budget Commission offered a warning that might have been heeded by city and state agencies that have promoted Atlantic Yards: big projects "generally do not end up generating jobs or investment that was promised when subsidies were provided." That, s...

Two Brooklyn City Council Members yesterday grilled Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) about Atlantic Yards, but Pinsky both defended Forest City Ratner’s potential plan to build modular housing for the project, and argued that it, along with delays in tax revenues from a longer buildout, would not necessarily affect the city’s cost-benefit analysis of the project. The latter statement, which Pinsky repeated in several ways, left Council Member Brad Lander dismayed and dumbfounded, calling Pinsky’s answers to Council Member Letitia James “deeply inadequate” and warning that the city has “misplaced confidence” in Forest City Ratner (FCR). I'd also suggest that it requires an independent cost-benefit analysis, by the Independent Budget Office, rather than a self-serving one by the city. The tense exchanges punctuated an other cordial hearing of the Council’s Economic Development Committee , meeting yesterday morning at 250 Br...