Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

An enduring challenge plaguing most of the extant Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project has been slow lease-up of available retail space. I reported recently on enduring empty retail space at 461 Dean , the modular tower flanking the Barclays Center, which was the first tower to open. The arena itself last year began a "Featured on Flatbush" pop-up to use otherwise empty retail space along Flatbush Avenue, though it long ago gave up having public-facing retail on Atlantic Avenue. The 550 Vanderbilt tower retail space is fully leased , though only one of the three tenants (Van Leeuwen) is active, while 535 Carlton has its main retail space occupied by BKLYN Clay, with another space open. That brings us to the ground floor retail at 38 Sixth, at the northwest corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue, which has at least two, maybe three spaces destined for street-level retail. A construction field office The space at the corner, as shown in the photos, is being used ...

So, why were pieces of wood and cement flying off the under-construction 38 Sixth Avenue (aka B3) tower the past two Sundays , alarming residents and triggering partial stop-work orders from the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB)? Blame the very high winds, said executives for Tishman Construction, which is the general contractor for the site, currently a 16-story superstructure on its way to be a 23-story building. That explanation--as well as an offhand analogy to tornadoes on CNN--left a conundrum for listeners at last night's bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Community Update meeting, held at 55 Hanson Place. As the executives put it, the site safety plan was up to code, but violations ensued when the wood started flying off. That suggests that, for buildings of a certain height in the notorious wind vortex area around the Williamsburg Savings Bank tower (see 2003 article ), the construction safety code is not enough. Indeed, the executives sai...

From Crain's New York Business via Bloomberg News, 12/11/15,  Tishman Construction admits cheating clients that include the World Trade Center: The company admitted to an overbilling scheme : Tishman Construction Corp., builder of 1 World Trade Center in New York's financial district, admitted to an overbilling scheme spanning a decade and agreed to pay $20 million in restitution and penalties....  In 2009 when the conduct was reported in the press, Tishman recognized deficiencies in its policies and instituted enhanced protocols and safeguards, John Gallagher, a spokesman for the company, said in an email. The funds referred to in Thursday's announcement went to union foremen and weren't kept by Tishman, he said. Tishman is construction manager for  535 Carlton  (B14) for Greenland Forest City Partners, as well as 38 Sixth Avenue ( aka B3 ). Note that this is not a guilty plea but rather a deferred prosecution, with no criminal charges, as long as the...