Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

I wrote about this change two days ago, but the juxtaposition is telling. (Click on graphics to enlarge. Highlights are added.) From the July 30-August 5 back page of the Brooklyn Paper: From the August 20-26 back page of the Brooklyn Paper:

I don't have access to Comcast, but the NetsDaily summary of an interview with Nets CEO Brett Yormark quotes him as saying, if Barclays had pulled out of the Brooklyn arena naming rights deal, "we wouldn't be here today." Remember, the once-announced $400 million deal was reduced to $200-plus million, still crucial funding for arena construction. And not only did the state simply give away naming rights, that benefit to Forest City Ratner (and now Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim group) was never counted as a subsidy, not even by the New York City Independent Budget Office. Renegotiating the deal No wonder Forest City Ratner and Yormark were so willing to renegotiate the deal. Barclays, Yormark once told favored interviewer Alexis Glick, had never wavered--though that was before starchitect Frank Gehry left the project. Two other signs of FCR's effort to sweeten the pot: the subway/LIRR station naming rights agreement , paid for by the developer (not Barclays), t...

In December 2008, the theater troupe The Civilians , which bases its shows on interviews but doesn't quite produce documentaries, debuted Brooklyn At Eye Level , its first (and preliminary) show based on its look into the controversy and passions of the Atlantic Yards project. I thought the show was well worth seeing, though it also had gaps. Starting in November, we'll see how much the story has been updated and how many of the gaps will be filled in. From TheaterMania : Casting has been announced for The Civilians' newest show In the Footprint: The Battle Over the Atlantic Yards , to run November 12-December 11 at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn. Written by Steve Cosson, the piece will feature music and songs by Michael Friedman and Michael Hill. In the Footprint will investigate the story of Brooklyn's controversial land development project, using a combination of theater, dance and music, and has been developed from its inspiration from interviews with the...

Photographer Tracy Collins has been keeping track of Forest City Ratner's demolition of some sturdy buildings for the arena block. August 11 483 Dean demolition from tracy collins on Vimeo . August 12 483 Dean demolition continues from tracy collins on Vimeo . August 13 Freddy's demolition time lapse - August 13, 2010 from tracy collins on Vimeo . August 16 Freddy's demolition time lapse - August 16, 2010 from tracy collins on Vimeo . August 17 The End of Freddy's - August 17, 2010 from tracy collins on Vimeo .

It shouldn't be a surprise that the first new construction in two years for Forest City Enterprises, outside of the Atlantic Yards arena, is a building that depends significantly on government subsidies. What is something of a surprise is that the federally-insured mortgage loan for Foundry Lofts , a 170-unit, 80/20 multifamily apartment building at The Yards , a Forest City project in Washington, involves the adaptive re-use of historic former Navy Yard industrial building (right). That looks a bit like Newswalk in Brooklyn, or the Ward Bakery, or the building once owned by Henry Weinstein near them at 752 Pacific Street. The Ward Bakery is already demolished, with the Weinstein building (below; photo taken December 2008 by Tracy Collins) likely to serve as offices during the construction phase of the arena, even thought Forest City Ratner executive Maryanne Gilmartin said in court papers that the developer plans to demolish that building. Park comes first Also notable is that...

As traffic patterns change on Flatbush Avenue today, we should know that lanes will close for a lot longer than originally announced: at least five months. Forest City Ratner snuck a rather significant policy change into a mailer sent out this week to some Brooklynites. (Copy below is via Brownstoner .) The "temporary" change in traffic pattern on Flatbush Avenue--six lanes becoming five between Dean Street and Atlantic Avenue--will not last from August 1 (as originally announced ) or today (the revised plan ) until "early 2012," as stated in both community notices embedded below. Summer 2012, not "early 2012" It will last until "the new Barclays Center Arena opens in summer 2012." By no stretch of the imagination does summer come "early" in the year. I had been conservative in my earlier estimate of 17 months. Now it's 22 months to the beginning of the summer in late June 2012. What if arena's delayed? But what if the arena ope...

Rumors that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) will soon announce a new staffer as Atlantic Yards project manager make the below account especially timely. Documents unearthed via a long-lingering response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request offer strong evidence, if not definitive confirmation, that a below-the-radar volunteer was, during a crucial period, the ESDC's leading overseer of Atlantic Yards. After all, lawyer Susan Rahm (below, in the audience at the 5/29/09 state Senate oversight hearing) was the sole recipient at least once of key communications from developer Forest City Ratner. Disputed takes As I wrote 6/2/09 , there was evidence that suggested Rahm, a several-days-a-week volunteer since the summer of 2007, was running the show, a highly unusual position, given that the state agency had no other volunteers. I had questioned whether Rahm was in a policy-making position, and was told by the ESDC that no, she was just a consultant. Anothe...

So Barclays Bank PLC , the "major global financial services provider," is in the news this week, and it's not because the company has committed more than $200 million to plaster its name on the in-construction Atlantic Yards arena, aka the Barclays Center . Nor is it because Forest City Ratner has promised $4 million to add the Barclays Center name to the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street transit hub. Rather, it's because Barclays has committed, as part of deferred prosecution agreements, "to forfeit $298 million to the United States and to the New York County District Attorney’s Office in connection with violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA)," according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Essentially, the bank used subterfuge to let banks from Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Burma, as well as prohibited persons, move money through the U.S. financial system. The tab for Barclays might ha...

As I reported last month , despite the expansion of the Authorities Budget Office (ABO) as part of 2009 public authority reform legislation, corporate governance expert Ira Millstein, who led the development of the law, thought the ABO was woefully understaffed. This week, the Governor’s Task Force on the Implementation of the 2009 Public Authorities Reform Act (PARA), chaired by Millstein, issued a report (embedded below) calling for “substantial increases to the funding and staffing of the ABO.” But it also called for several other reforms, a few of which seemed to be a response to situations like Atlantic Yards. Notably, the Task Force wants: those who appoint board members to face a fiduciary duty (which means they'd owe loyalty, for example, to transit riders rather than real estate developers) board members limit reliance on senior staff (who, in the case of AY, run Empire State Development Corporation policy) boards to implement risk management polices (which might lead the...

Flatbush Avenue south of Dean Street has been changing for a while and the anticipated Atlantic Yards arena is likely a significant factor regarding the future of the adjacent block, as well as some factor--though not necessarily the most significant one--further down the road. Near Seventh Avenue A few long blocks from the arena site, at Park Place just below the intersection of Flatbush and Seventh avenues, Park Heights Stationers has closed after 25 years, "due to the rising cost of operation," which sure sounds like a rent increase. As the handwritten comments indicate, the store was appreciated, but as comments on Brownstoner suggest, some thought it too slow to change with the times. (Photos by Norman Oder) Will it become another chain drug store, just as the Dominican lunch counter across Seventh Avenue became a Duane Reade? Possibly, but it more likely could become an eating and drinking establishment that takes advantage both of the subway access (it's right out...

Let's recall the May 2008 emergence of new Frank Gehry designs (first via a Daily News exclusive ) of the arena block, including a new flagship tower, simply designed as B1 rather than Miss Brooklyn. The article quoted the dutiful Gehry: "My enthusiasm for Atlantic Yards has grown and grown until arriving at our current design, which works better with the surrounding area than it ever had before," said Gehry of new designs obtained exclusively by the Daily News. Some six weeks earlier, however, the New York Times had reported that Slow Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards , with the flagship tower most in jeopardy: In another indication of the problems facing the project, Forest City recently sent a letter signed by the project’s celebrity architect, Frank Gehry, to chief executives of many of the city’s biggest corporations, inviting them to become a tenant in the “centerpiece of the project,” Miss Brooklyn. It was originally scheduled to be completed in July 2009. ...

A New York Times articles August 13, headlined E-Mails Show State Officials’ Skepticism About Willets Point Project , began: Even as the Bloomberg administration promotes the $3 billion development of Willets Point in Queens as one of its signature projects, state officials whose approval is needed have privately raised concerns over highway ramps crucial to the proposal and have questioned whether the development will ever get off the ground. State officials have repeatedly expressed frustration with the city’s inability to provide reliable information and the pressure it was placing on them to expedite their analysis, according to a review of hundreds of e-mails involving the Willets Point project that were provided to The New York Times by an opponent of the project. Reading that, I wondered if the Times ever reported that Marisa Lago, then-CEO of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) in April 2009 said publicly --not in an email extracted via (presumably) a Freedom of Inf...

On Friday, demolition workers continued to dismantle the building at the corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue that once housed Freddy's Bar & Backroom. Here's a slide show from Raul Rothblatt. Below are cropped versions of two photos in the sequence. One floor from the main building was demolished, and the Backroom next door is history.

Update September 17: I think it's quite likely this was funded by the teachers' union, which also funded several mailers . Beyond the apparent push poll about Atlantic Yards, which may be linked to Forest City Ratner and/or the state Senate race between incumbent (and AY opponent) Velmanette Montgomery and challenger Mark Pollard, I got a call Thursday night about the race. The call was probably linked to the Pollard camp, since a Montgomery representative said it wasn't them. ( Update : Maybe that was too conclusory. It could've come from a group supporting Montgomery.) The caller said she was a representative of a public opinion research firm called M.E.M. "We're conducting a brief survey about important issues in your area," I was told. I asked for the location of the firm and a web site. There's no web site, I was told, and "I'm just in a call center." (She couldn't pronounce "Gowanus," so she was clearly from way out ...

WNYC's Matthew Schuerman picks up the news (as stoked by principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov) that Nets to Change Name, and May Not Use 'Brooklyn' . And while that news drew anxiety from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and told-you-so-scorn from Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, a listen to Nets CEO Brett Yormark leaves me with another impression: they're simply waiting to make a splash with a gala announcement about the "Brooklyn Nets." It could all just be a way to generate some more buzz. From WNYC WNYC reports: "The owners from day one—the one pledge they made, beside other pledges, was that the name would be the Brooklyn something,” Borough President Marty Markowitz said. “And I don’t care what the second name is as long as the first name is Brooklyn.” But Markowitz is talking about the team’s previous owners, a group led by developer Bruce Ratner, who used the Nets' move as a key selling point for his 22-acre housing and entert...

I have an essay in the online publication Urban Omnibus (a project of the Architectural League of New York) this week headlined A Caution on Hong Kong Envy , pointing out the tension between the enthusiasm of New York officials for Hong Kong's rational, high-rise development and the dismay Hong Kong residents feel at top-down planning, as shown at two recent conferences. Yes, there's a happy medium to be sought, and New York--where density is unevenly distributed both within the city and within the region--is coming from a different direction than is Hong Kong, which went high-rise at warp speed in the mid-20th century. The AY angle And yes, there's an Atlantic Yards angle. As I write: Or consider how the Port Authority’s [Executive Director Christopher] Ward, at the New York conference, suggested that the resistance to the massive Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn stemmed from locals’ discomfort with a dramatic shift in density. While that shift surely generated disma...