Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Catching up on some changes regarding expected and potential arena-related nightlife... Park Slope Patch reports that Machavelle Sports Bar & Lounge has already opened, located in front of a residential building at the corner of Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue. Residents say there's been no dialogue with the owner. Park Slope Patch also reports that the operator of Players Gastro Pub and Sports Bar , planned for a warehouse-like space at Pacific and Flatbush has agreed to soundproof the venue, hire addition security on game days, and restrict hours to 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday, among a host of other stipulations. There will be no dancing, and the owner has expressly specified that the space will not be a nightclub. The only point of contention: Thursday nights, on which restaurant owner Scott Alling would like to stay open until 4 a.m. Initially, Alling proposed that the 150-seat eatery stay open until 4 a.m. every night. Calexico goes down Here's Park Slope repo...

For a preview of Atlantic Yards revisionism, take a look at Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's appearance last week on NY1's Inside City Hall . The high points: Half of the housing will be affordable (no, just the half the rentals) "Seven years of lawsuits" delayed the project (the first lawsuit began in 2006) "Atlantic Yards" is the railyard (no, the Vanderbilt Yard is less than 40% of the 22-acre site) the railyard was "totally empty" (no, it was a working railyard that only in recent years became attractive to developers, as with Hudson Yards) "they [developer Forest City Ratner] have every intention of keeping their word" (shouldn't Markowitz have gotten a little skeptical after promises, for example, that architect Frank Gehry would remain on the job?) (Note: To reach the Atlantic Yards segment, you must cycle through the first loop of the interview, which lasts 8:26.) Host Errol Louis (a noted Atlantic Yards cheerlead...

Following up on last Thursday's Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting , the Empire State Development Corporation has issued an official Community Notice regarding traffic changes beginning on or around July 15, and a public meeting on June 14, as well as the presentation prepared for the meeting. Notably, while I and others have emphasized one impact of the closure of Fourth Avenue northbound between Atlantic and Flatbush avenues--the odd right turn on Pacific Street to go east to Flatbush, and then left to go north--the presentation indicates that most drivers heading toward the Manhattan Bridge would instead go left on Atlantic and right on Third Avenue to reach Flatbush. (Click on graphic to enlarge) The changes were prepared by Sam Schwartz Engineering, Forest City Ratner's contractor, and ratified by city and state agencies. The Community Notice The notice: As part of the transportation improvements related to the Atlantic Yards project, beginning on or around Ju...

The Atlantic Yards Watch web site, in a posting prompted by last week's Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting, highlights a discussion I didn't cover: When asked about plantings on the raised median planned for Atlantic Avenue east of Flatbush, Forest City Ratner project manager Jane Marshall stated there would only be a poured concrete median. Ms. Marshall said that the existence of LIRR tracks beneath Atlantic Avenue made it impossible to include planting beds on the median. Councilmember Tish James pointed out that Park Avenue in Manahattan has railroad tracks running beneath it from Grand Central to north of 96th Street. Ms. Marshall quickly replied that the supports beneath Park Avenue were stronger. A planted median certainly seemed possible at the time the EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] was issued. A rendering of Atlantic Avenue looking west from Sixth Avenue shows a row of shrubs and trees separating lanes of traffic on Atlantic Avenue. And an aerial ...

According to the Arena Traffic Mitigation Plan (below) prepared by Sam Schwartz Engineering and distributed yesterday by the Empire State Development Corporation, Building 2 (highlighted), the first housing tower, is expected to be under construction when the arena opens in September 2012. As the gray outline in the graphic suggests, the location for Building 4, at the northeast corner of the arena block, is demarcated, but it's unclear when the building will go up. And a bicycle parking facility will occupy part of the space designed for Building 3. (Click on graphic to enlarge and clarify) Schedule slipping Why is this important? Because in September 2010, Forest City Ratner executive MaryAnne Gilmartin said , "We anticipate having funding in place to start the first building at Dean and Flatbush in the spring of 2011, the second six to nine months later, and the third about the same time after that." Not only has the first tower been delayed, it doesn't look like ...

There are 500 workers at the Atlantic Yards site, Forest City Ratner officials said last week, though there's no independent confirmation. The total is difficult to trumpet since it’s so much smaller than the numbers promised, I wrote, prompting one observer to wonder: if the promised construction job figure was 10,000 job years (or 1000 jobs over ten years), wouldn't that mean that they are providing about half of the promised jobs? Not at all. Looking at the numbers First, the current projected total is 17,000 job-years, up from the original 15,000. Those numbers, however, depend on a full build-out of the project, which is highly doubtful. Second, the jobs were supposed to be concentrated in Phase 1, when the arena was under construction along with four towers. None of those towers is under construction as of now, and the first tower, Building 2, has been delayed and may be built via modular construction, which would significantly reduce jobs. Job estimates As I wrote 10/7/...

Yesterday, photographer Tracy Collins visited the southeast corner of Pacific Street and Carlton Avenue, where mock-ups of the Barclays Center weathered steel facade have been posted. Note that the mockup panel delivery and placement of the footing was originally supposed to come in mid-March, but was delayed two months , and that arena subcontractors were described by a Forest City Ratner executive as behind on producing the pre-weathered steel. Looking north Photo license: All Rights Reserved Looking east Next door in photo below is the building, formerly owned by Henry Weinstein, that Forest City Ratner had promised to demolish but for now is using as offices. Photo license: All Rights Reserved

A Wall Street Journal article today, headlined Project Puts Brooklyn First , concerns Atlantic Terrace , which is apparently also being marketed as 212 S. Oxford Street, a project at the corner of Atlantic Avenue just north of the arena site. The good news, according to the sponsor Fifth Avenue Committee, is affordable housing ( subsidized co-ops for households ranging from $34,970 to $115,380), LEED gold certification, locally-crafted finishings, and common amenities open to both subsidized and market-rate tenants. Going local The Journal reports: Even more principled: the 11,400-square-foot ground-floor retail space is being marketed primarily to local tenants. "We've received some interest from some national chains," says Heather Gershen, the director of housing development for the Fifth Avenue Committee. "We think it's important for people to get fresh produce, milk, the morning paper. We would like to see some of the new Brooklyn retailers." Or, as Ms....

It's kind of bizarre that, to two newspapers, the main news emanating from last week's Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting concerned not the meat of the discussion--such as traffic changes and rats--but an issue mentioned as an aside and expected to be discussed at a future meeting. The Post on May 20 published 'Net'roCard on track for Brooklyn hoops fans and today the Brooklyn Paper published Take the train to the game — and then inside . It's hardly news that arena sponsors aimed to connect game tickets to MetroCards--after all, Chapter 19, Mitigation , of the November 2006 Final Environmental Impact Statement describes a free fare incentive. Was the development of the incentive delayed along with the arena, as the newspapers report? Only to the extent that everything slowed. Such an incentive is crucial to discouraging driving, so I'm confident that once the arena started moving ahead, so too did plans for traffic mitigations. In other words, t...

Aren't there a few ironies regarding the Guggenheim Museum's upcoming temporary exhibit in a storefront space in Forest City Ratner's Metrotech? The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, in a 5/17/11 article headlined ‘The Gugg’ Comes to Downtown , played it straight, explaining that Tim King of CPEX Real Estate and FCR executive MaryAnne Gilmartin helped provide a free venue for the exhibit in the former home of Sid’s Hardware at 345 Jay Street. What happened to Sid's? Unmentioned in the Eagle article: about 15 months ago, as the Brooklyn Paper reported , family-owned Sid's, the first local retailer to transfer to MetroTech after the project changed Downtown Brooklyn, was moving to Hamilton Avenue. That was, less than a year after a store representative testified before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that the arena project would bring new customers and other benefits to Sid's and its neighbors. Belated respite The second irony involves the “Stillspotting NYC” exhib...

In March, I pointed to a couple of posts Room 8 blogger Gatemouth, aka Howard Graubard, had written about the charges against state Senator Carl Carl Kruger (who, by the way, says he's running for re-election !), Assemblyman William Boyland, and lobbyist Richard Lipsky. Now Gatemouth points out that state Senator Marty Golden, who in 2008 took three days to introduce a resolution concerning arrested state Senator Hiram Monserrate, has been conspicuously silent regarding Carl Kruger, who helped to elect Golden. And, Gatemouth points to another curious connection between Kruger and Golden: a $3000 campaign contribution by Dorothy Lipsky (lobbyist Lipsky's wife) to Golden. Spreading the wealth I took a look at campaign contributions that Richard Lipsky and Dorothy Lipsky gave from their three addresses (all listed in the city's lobbying database; search on Richard Lipsky ) and found a varied set of recipients. See below for the full list, but it includes significant contribu...

Get ready for more construction and previously announced changes on streets in the area of the Atlantic Yards project, starting next month, including the reversal of Pacific Street between Fourth and Flatbush avenues and a new left turn from Pacific to Flatbush, thus diverting traffic that formerly went north on Fourth Avenue. That was the main takeaway from the third meeting of the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet, held yesterday at Brooklyn Borough Hall and involving representatives of various city and state agencies and community boards. Official notice of the changes is expected June 7, and a public meeting to describe the changes will be held June 14 at Borough Hall from 6:30 to 8 pm. Another major issue at the meeting, one of the few flashpoints for tension, was raised by City Council Member Letitia James, who reported significant rodent problems at blocks around the site, though Forest City Ratner, pointing to a slippery slope of responsibility, said its responsibility w...

In a "Square Feet" interview in the upcoming Sunday New York Times Real Estate section, Ronald Dickerman, founder and president of the private equity firm Madison International Realty, explains his business and talks about the deal announced at the end of March to acquire a 49 percent interest in 15 retail and entertainment properties owned by Forest City Ratner. So what do companies like Forest City do with the cash? "To redeploy into other investment opportunities, to fund other liabilities within their portfolio," responded Dickerman. In other words, to help pay for Atlantic Yards. Dickerman said: They came to us, I think, in September 2010 to fund their go-forward investments. You may know that the Atlantic Yards development is something like $4 billion. These properties are as core as core can be. They’re 99 percent occupied; the average lease term is over eight years. (Actually, Atlantic Yards is supposed to be a $4.9 billion project.) "Fatigue" o...

Turns out the gastropub and sports bar, coupled with a pizzeria and falafel joint, planned for the corner of Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue may be far more demure than what's planned for the rest of the space, some 35,000 square feet. As the Brooklyn Paper reports, in Mega-party space to rise across from Barclays Center : “How about neon or digital behind glass, aimed at the crowds streaming into the Barclays Arena?” the ad crows. “Our architect calls it a ‘sexy space’ — we call it a freakin’ GOLDMINE for the right user!” The ad dangles the prospect of “80,000 customers a night,” though the $1-billion arena seats roughly 18,000. The owner of the building, Henry Weinstein, had been a plaintiff in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain cases, given his property within the arena footprint, but he's a businessman first. The tight fit As with previous public battles over Prime Six and the abovementioned establishments, the concern from neighbors emanates from the very tight fit ...

On the eve of the somewhat delayed third meeting of the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet (which meets today at 9:30 am at Borough Hall), three Brooklyn civic groups have announced a web site that complements and augments the work of the public agencies that are supposed to coordinate responses to Atlantic Yards. Three organizations prominent in BrooklynSpeaks--the "mend it, don't end it" coalition that ultimately saw its members go to court (the case is pending )--have launched Atlantic Yards Watch , a web site to "monitor ongoing construction and operational impacts from the Atlantic Yards project on surrounding communities." (See full press release below.) The groups are the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, the Park Slope Civic Council, and the Boerum Hill Association. Community contributions The web site, which allows for community contributions, suggests that, as the battle to stop the project has waned, efforts to change and monito...

In October 2009, as I wrote , the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) released the Atlantic Yards market study by KPMG, which stated, in the words of an ESDC lawyer, that it was "not unreasonable" for the 14 residential buildings (sans Site 5 and Building 1) to be absorbed in the officially announced decade. The upshot: Forest City Ratner was counting on sales prices of $1217/sf in 2015 up to $1369/sf in 2019. Well, we're four years away, and the luxury housing market isn't getting too close. At One Hanson A 5/17/11 New York Times article headlined A Perch Above Brooklyn, Going Once, Going Twice... described the bidding for penthouse condos in One Hanson Place, the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank building. A two bedroom duplex with 2,120 square feet inside and 1,948 square feet of terraces sold for $1.325 million. That's $625/sf, without counting the terraces. Three 3,243-square-foot four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath apartments without terraces w...

According to the latest Site Observation Report , dated 5/16/11 and based on a 3/24/11 site observation, on the Barclays Center arena construction, produced by Merritt & Harris, consultants to the real estate lending and investment community, the arena is still ahead of schedule. The report indicates that the arena is one month ahead of schedule, based on cash flow projections, and the Transit Connection to the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street station is about two months ahead of schedule. Note, however, as mentioned below, last month the substantial completion date and final completion date for the arena had been moved back. According to the graphics below (click to enlarge), spending on the arena, and presumably work at the site, is expected to increase markedly in the next year. The arena The transit connection According to the report, the Atlantic Yards and Mass Transit Improvement construction schedule, dated 1/17/11, indicates completion scheduled for 3/26/12. That schedule i...

Can anyone doubt that Mikhail Prokhorov's relatively piddling investment in the Nets has paid off in multiples? There was the overwhelmingly good publicity via 60 Minutes , Bloomberg TV/magazines , and the New York Times Magazine . Entering the arena Now, as he enters the political arena, his shorthand biography, at least for American consumption in the New York Times, inevitably includes the basketball team. The Times article is headlined Russian Billionaire Announces Plan for Political Party : MOSCOW— Mikhail D. Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire and owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, announced on Monday that he would lead a liberal Russian political party with close ties to the Kremlin. The decision, seven months before parliamentary elections, seems to be part of a Kremlin effort to provide an alternative for Russians disaffected with the country’s dominant political party, United Russia, while still ensuring continued support for the ruling authorities. The party th...

As I described 11/29/10, Forest City Ratner has claimed, dubiously, that it didn't have to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor (ICM) to provide a credible outside analysis of the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), despite provisions in the document, signed 6/27/05, to hire one "[a]s soon as reasonably practicable." "It didn't actually go into effect until we broke ground for the arena," Forest City Ratner executive Jane Marshall claimed last fall. Of course the developer had been proudly reporting some figures--such as minority contracting--all along. One reason for that reticence, as I've suggested, may be that such an ICM might do its job. Tight budget Another may be simpler: Forest City Ratner keeps a close watch on its spending, and every six-figure sum it saves makes a difference. After all, the developer recently sold a 49% interest in 15 retail and entertainment properties around New York, and seemingly nudged out executive Joanne Minieri...

Forest City Enterprises , the parent company of Forest City Ratner, is an unusual hybrid: a nationally traded real estate company, with nearly $12 billion in assets, that nonetheless is controlled by members of the extended founding family. A column in the 5/15/11 Cleveland Plain Dealer, Eleanor Fanslau has been at the heart of Forest City for 60 years: Regina Brett , profiles Eleanor Fanslau, 77, who for 60 years has served as the secretary and "right hand, his bookkeeper, executive assistant, receptionist and caretaker rolled into one" to Sam Miller, Forest City's co-chairman of the board and treasurer, who's now 90. He's retiring and moving to emeritus status . Last June, I wrote about his performance at the annual meeting, in which he came off "more like the great-uncle who gets to hog the microphone at the family reunion because he’s always rented the venue." Sacrificing service Regina Brett's column describes Fanslau's super-loyal, sacrif...