Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

It's remarkable--but also a testament to the uncertain, unresolved state of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. Go to the homepage of Pacific Park Brooklyn and it resolves to a... video that's now private. Go to the Live tab , and it suggests that construction will commence in 2019 for 18 Sixth Ave. (B4, aka Brooklyn Crossing) and 662 Pacific St. (B15, aka Plank Road)--both of which are completed. Scroll down to the News tab (and page ) and the last posted article is from March 11, 2019--four years ago. What's missing There's no mention, for example, of the under-construction, and nearly completed two-tower 595 Dean complex , much less the long-teased--since September 2019--plan to deck the first of two railyard blocks, which would support three towers. Nor is there acknowledgement that, for example, the 535 Carlton Ave. and 38 Sixth Ave. "100% affordable" towers have been sold to Avanath Capital, which has established new web sites for them. Given the dispersal of...

I recently took a look at landscape designer swa/Balsley's page with the firm's master plan design for Pacific Park Brooklyn, first unveiled in June 2015 ( to the New York Daily News ), and soon presented at a neighborhood meeting . The 2015 slide presentation is at bottom. That was more than seven years ago, not long after Greenland USA had bought 70% of the project going forward, from original developer Forest City Ratner. Back then, the developers were surely more optimistic about the timing of the project buildout.  That was before changes in (and then the non-renewal of) the 421-a state tax break, the glut in competing apartment units in nearby Downtown Brooklyn, the sale by Forest City of all but 5% of its share, the corporate absorpotion of parent Forest City Realty Trust by Brookfield, and the financial struggles of Greenland USA's Shanghai-based parent, Greenland Holding Corp. Development without open space The first thing to recognize is that the open space pla...

The rental launch for 27-story Plank Road, aka 662 Pacific St. (B15), began yesterday, with an expanded web site (and digital brochure ), plus a promotional article in New York YIMBY headlined Leasing Launches For Plank Road At 662 Pacific Street In Prospect Heights, Brooklyn . The first set of units, in the lower half of the building, are for rent , with availability Oct. 1: Plank Road at left. Behind it, 38 Sixth Ave. At right, 18 Sixth Ave., Brooklyn Crossing. studio $3,430 1-BR = $3,575-$4,550  2-BR = $5,725-$6,000  The 30% affordable units have not been listed yet on the city's Housing Connect lottery list , but likely will be geared to households earning 130% of Area Median Income, which could mean rents of : studio = $2,263 1-BR = $2,838 2-BR = $3,397 Somtimes, though, developers don't seek the maximum. No high-rises? The Plank Road promotion emphasizes the building's copious amenities (fitness center, lounge, kids' playroom, rooftop grilling stations, and pool)...

The 858-unit 18 Sixth Ave. (B4) tower has a name, and a branding effort: Brooklyn Crossing . Leasing starts this fall; as stated separately, move-ins begin in the fourth quarter (which also includes the beginning of winter). The building--the largest planned so far in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park--likely won't be finished for another year. It flanks the northeast corner of the arena block, and is at the southwest corner of Atlantic and Sixth avenues. As with Plank Road , the branding for the catercorner 662 Pacific St. (B15), the Google ads, at least, emphasize the location in Prospect Heights, not the chimerical neighborhood of Pacific Park, as noted below. The "park" relies on open space that will be, in large part, one long block away, and remain incomplete until possibly 2035.  Nor are developers of 51-story Brooklyn Crossing emphasizing, as during the run-up to approval of Atlantic Yards, the project's location in Downtown Brooklyn. Note that the black-and-white ...

Meeting agenda tomorrow After Atlantic Yards in August 2014 was renamed Pacific Park by Greenland Forest City Partners, I filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority overseeing/shepherding the project. I wanted to know, among other things, whether and how ESD was told of the plan to change the name and how the authority considered changing the name of the Atlantic Yards Project, which, after all, was enshrined in the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation , established just two months earlier. The AY CDC page refers to the "Atlantic Yards Project," which now--as shown in the screenshot above right--is being implemented as Pacific Park Brooklyn . I had earlier been told , "There are no plans to change the project name – and, yes, as you noted, there is historical precedent for building names differing from project names (e.g., Queens West)." That wasn't quite on point, given that...

Dear Community Liaison at PacificPark.com, I know it's petty to admonish you about email tactics, so I'll be brief. If you're going to send email about something important, please add a custom subject line, replacing the generic "The latest news for you," especially when the news might be jarring and you want people to read it. Also, please eliminate or, better yet, rewrite the boilerplate message at the bottom: It's a fact: people don't mind scrolling to read an email, as long as it's relevant and interesting. Make sure your message follows through on the promise in your subject line, and use several short paragraphs if you have a lot to say. When in doubt, challenge yourself to write less and add links that support your topic. Leaving that in is just misleading. First of two current versions flawed The email at right, from June 6, is the better version of two current scenarios, albeit with generic subject line and confusing boilerplate....

Though statements on LinkedIn profiles aren't definitive (see  previous coverage  of Equinox and the plans to finish the railyard and then build a platform), there are two intriguing factoids in the profile of  Julian Souva , a Development Manager at Greenland USA. First, Souza describes Pacific Park as an "$8 billion" development, including "15 mega high rise buildings and 9 acres of parkland." That clearly includes exaggeration, but perhaps also some not-yet-articulated truth. The towers are not "mega high rise," since they vary in height, as approved , from 184 to 620 feet, though the latter tower, approved as "Miss Brooklyn" (aka B1), won't be built, leaving the tallest tower currently approved at 511 feet (18 Sixth Avenue, aka B4). Still, it's certainly possible that a much taller tower--once floated as 785 feet , but perhaps even taller--could be built at Site 5, pending a state approval process to change to the project...

From Curbed Atlanta, 5/15/19,  Atlanta’s latest ‘Yards’-titled project is expected to rise from the Gulch : Quarry Yards, Pittsburgh Yards, Atlantic Yards , Pullman Yard, Madison Yards , Amour Yards, Artisan Yards , Assembly Yards, Stockyards, The Railyard , Hulsey Yard, Tilford Yard , Switchyards, Saltyard, Kirkyard, Iron Yard (RIP), English Avenue Yards, Scotland Yard, Yard House, unkempt yards of Atlanta ... meet the new yard in town. While certainly not unique to Atlanta, the city’s yard-naming craze has extended down to the Gulch and the most substantial nongovernmental development in the region, which is henceforth to be called “Centennial Yards.” Wow.  In New York, we do have Hudson Yards, but, as readers of this blog know, the name of "Brooklyn Atlantic Yards"--an official name, from which "Brooklyn" was soon dropped--was changed to "Pacific Park Brooklyn"--known most frequently as "Pacific Park"--in 2014, after Greenland USA took...

I never highlighted this, but it's dramatically clear: had Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park been built out as contemplated in 2014, five of the seven buildings on the eastern end of the site--surrounding the largest segment of open space--would have been 100% market-rate, dominating access to the central open space, or "park." October 2004 flier Take a look at the graphic below: three buildings with condos, two with market-rate rentals, one "100% affordable" (though significantly middle-income), and one 50-30-20, with 50% market-rate units. Meanwhile, three buildings over the center block of the railyard, with more limited green space, would've been 50% affordable (50/30/20) buildings. At the time, no other market-rate buildings were planned for any other part of the project. Priority access to the park? In other words, the "park," long touted as a gift--"Atlantic Yards will contain six acres of new open space for the Brooklyn community...

From New York Magazine's Justin Davidson,  If You Think Hudson Yards Is a Big Development, Wait Till You See What’s Coming to Sunnyside This all sounds like the plan is heading towards an appealingly complex, grainy neighborhood — in fact, it sounds suspiciously like an architect’s pleasant fantasy. It’s hard not to worry. When stakes are high and intentions are pure, the system tends to respond with a mixture of venality, hype, and habit. (Brooklyn offers another case study in what to avoid: the perpetually troubled 22-acre development that started out 15 years ago as Atlantic Yards and, with only four of 15 towers now done , has since been rebaptized Pacific Park. The latest, more or less meaningless deadline for completing the rest is  2035 , by which time they may have renamed it after yet another ocean.) I'm not sure if that 2035 deadline is completely meaningless--surely by that time Greenland USA will have figured out whether it wants to finish the project or un...

What oversupply? Panelists say Brooklyn’s real estate market is starting to reset , reported the Real Deal 11/1/18: Conventional wisdom may say that Brooklyn is dealing with an oversupply of rental properties. But according to panelists at a recent Bisnow event, the reality is much more complex. Concerns over a glut may stem from a roughly two-year stretch when the borough saw between 2,400 and 3,000 rental units come online, said Sean Kelly, senior director of investment sales at Ariel Property Advisors . He pointed to TF Cornerstone’s 33 Bond Street project as one that was still filling up, but said at this point projects like that are the exception rather than the rule, particularly in Downtown Brooklyn. “There’s not a lot in the pipeline for rental supply after that,” he said during a panel at Bisnow’s 2018 State of the Market event for Brooklyn on Thursday. “The next we have is Pacific Park. Those are the next big projects…You don’t have a deep pipeline of rentals in Downtown B...

From my article published last night in The Bridge, Developer Admits Pacific Park Project Will Take Until 2035 : The developers of the vexed Pacific Park Brooklyn development (formerly Atlantic Yards) have quietly acknowledged–in a non-publicized document–that the full 22-acre project, with 11 more towers planned beyond the four already open, likely won’t be finished until 2035. That’s ten years later than the previous estimate of 2025, which remains the deadline for the 2,250 required units of affordable housing, of which 1,468 remain to be built. (The plan also calls for 3,720 market-rate units to be built; only 460 have been constructed so far.) The new deadline is 32 years after the arena-and-towers project was announced in 2003, with an estimated ten-year buildout, and comes after enormous changes in the project plans, project ownership , and the apartment market in and around Downtown Brooklyn. The disclosure came in a document filed with the Attorney General's office, no...

How about that: if you search on "535 Carlton," a paid ad for PacificParkRental.com comes up, advertising no-fee, rent-stabilized apartments both at that building as well as a similar "100% affordable" tower, 38 Sixth. Also, they're said to be located in Prospect Heights, not the mythical "neighborhood" or "community" of Pacific Park Brooklyn. The web site promises "2 BEDROOMS FROM $3,223" at 535 Carlton and "2 & 3 BEDROOMS FROM $3,206" at 38 Sixth. As I've reported , developer Greenland Forest City Partners was offering 1.5 months free at 535 Carlton as an incentive for two-bedroom units. These middle-income units, as previously explained, were not taken by applicants in the housing lottery. Pacific Park Rentals Web Page, Aug. 9, 2018 by Norman Oder on Scribd

An announcement from the New York Chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism , which is referring to "South Brooklyn" in its old sense, the portion of the original city of Brooklyn within Kings County: South Brooklyn - The Good, the Bad & the Beautiful CNU NYC is pleased to invite you to the first in a series of City Walks. We will look at some old and new development in Brooklyn, with a walk through Park Slope and Pacific Park (the former Atlantic Yards). The tour finishes in Fort Greene with drinks in the outdoor garden at Habana Outpost in Fort Greene - on the corner of South Portland Avenue, which the readers of Time Out . called "the most beautiful street in New York." Brooklyn architect and urbanist Gaither Pratt will lead the tour. Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council Chair and Brooklyn Speaks activist Gib Veconi will say a few words about Pacific Park. As always, the CNU NYC tours follow the New York Rules of Order.* Please spread the w...

Views of Brooklyn's newest Park? How about 7-10 years of construction @pacificparkbk ? https://t.co/7My5ZNDwwd — Norman Oder (@AYReport) August 1, 2018 Giant #421a tax break too: https://t.co/uaEeI67g2P #550Vanderbilt — Norman Oder (@AYReport) August 1, 2018 This is broker and developer hype, amplified by the real estate press. There's a green wall between the limited open space directly behind--and to the north of--the building, and then two unbuilt development sites to the west. To the north is demapped Pacific Street and a railyard that needs a deck and vertical construction. Here's another view: The building (aka B11) is at bottom right in the schematic, which shows the towers bordering the project's open space. Beyond B11, only B14, at the west of the same block, has been built.

The Real Deal's April issue, online yesterday, offers an interesting article by Konrad Putzier, The dismantling of Forest City Ratner , subtitled, "While still a major property owner, the once-powerful developer has retreated from the building game — and its future is in flux." The analysis in some ways goes beyond my lengthier 3/20/18 coverage for The Bridge,  Forest City in Brooklyn: a Real Estate Pioneer on the Way Out? , notably new reporting on corporate tangles at Forest City Enterprises, now Forest City Realty Trust. But I think it misses part of what went wrong, cited in my article, and doesn't quite get the Atlantic Yards opposition right. Putzier writes: The company, sources say, was hindered by two key problems: major missteps at Pacific Park and a corporate restructuring that marginalized its development business. Those were surely key problems, but another--and I suspect there were smaller ones--was the ill-fated Ridge Hill development in Yonker...