Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Well, the New York City Regional Economic Development Council has issued its Draft Strategic Plan (also embedded below) and, contrary to my speculation last month , there's virtually nothing about Atlantic Yards in the competition (with other regions) for packages of state economic development subsidies. Rather, the priority projects involve the food industry, clean tech, an incubator for artists and others, and a small business incubator. Here's the 11/15/11  press release . The strategic plan review , in which regions compete, will be next week. Then again, as described below, if Atlantic Yards--despite being excluded from the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning--is considered part of the Downtown Brooklyn "Opportunity Zone," then some state assistance could be steered there. Priority projects From the report: The transformative projects that were identified as top priority and ―ready to go for the first competitive round of state funding include the following: ...

An 11/16/11 press release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo indicates a new effort to protect taxpayer dollars from cost overruns on state highway construction projects. It's not a direct parallel to Atlantic Yards, but it points to several principles that could apply to construction/development projects like Atlantic Yards, including inadequate planning, lack of oversight, and limited accountability. The press release: Governor Cuomo Announces New Reforms Designed to Keep State Highway Construction Projects on Budget and on Time Changes Come After Independent Review of Problems Affecting Interstate 287 Albany, NY (November 16, 2011) Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced new reforms designed to keep state highway construction projects on budget and on time. These changes come after a series of recommendations from an independent review, ordered by the Governor, of delays and cost over-runs which have affected I-287 in Westchester for over a decade. "I have repeatedly s...

An 11/15/11 press release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo indicates a new requirement that the data behind health insurance rate requests be made public. It's not quite a direct parallel but it would be interesting to see if background material behind economic development subsidy requests be made public. The press release: Governor Cuomo Announces Health Insurer Rate Filings Now Available to Public Filings on Department of Financial Services Website Albany, NY (November 15, 2011) Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that rate increase requests from health insurers are now available on the Department of Financial Services' website . DFS has determined that all rate increase requests should be available so that the public could comment effectively, but health insurers initially objected. Then, led by United Healthcare, the insurers dropped their objections. Governor Cuomo said, "Rising health insurance costs hit everyone, and especially those who can least afford th...

From Crain's New York Business yesterday, Modular thinking could shape NY's future skyline: Bruce Ratner wants 32-story stack to rise at his Atlantic Yards : Developer Bruce Ratner thinks he has found a solution to the city's vexing housing shortage and wants to showcase the answer at his massive Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. That suggests Ratner's motivation is civic virtue of some kind. It's a business, man. Cutting costs How about: Developer Bruce Ratner was desperate to cut costs at his massive Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn and is taking the risky step of building modular housing, which if it works, might be a solution to the city's vexing housing shortage. Positioning The article quotes Ratner as saying, “At this point, we are pursuing the prefabricated model.” What does that mean? That at another point they might be. After all, as Crain's failed to point out, Ratner doesn't have a factory going yet. Would anyone take a bet ...

As one of the 2011 GQ Men of the Year , Jay-Z is designated King . Alex Pappademas observes: Take Watch the Throne, on which two grandiose motherfuckers explore the theme of grandiose-motherfuckerdom from vastly different perspectives, stacking dubstep on top of opera on top of Otis Redding, triumphalism on top of sorrow on top of more triumphalism, striving for a sound as vast and strange as the world they've come to inhabit. It's glorious and obnoxious and pointedly self-aware, and it was more fun to argue about than any hip-hop record since, I don't know, Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak or Jay-Z's widely jeered Kingdom Come. The gist of a lot of those arguments: In an economic moment as bleak as this, is it not sort of a dick move to drop an album—even a great one—about what it feels like to be richer than a fifteenth-century pope? On what turned out to be the day of a stock market crash? Even the Watch the Throne T-shirts were limited-edition Givenchy and...

The notorious Stephen Witt , now writing for Bed-Stuy-based Our Time Press, has produced his coverage of the lawsuit filed earlier this week: Another Atlantic Yards lawsuit: Allegations that training program does not bring union jobs as promised . There's no mention of the issue of unpaid wages, but a "he said, she said" focus on whether jobs and union cards were promised to 36 trainees in a highly selective program. Witt writes: But both FCR and BUILD officials said union cards were never promised, and charged James, state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery and longtime foes of Atlantic Yards are behind the lawsuit. They also said their opposition is a major contributing force behind the lack of jobs as promised by the CBA. ...[BUILD's James] Caldwell said his organization has placed close to 400 people from the community with jobs, many on other FCR developments, and that the downturn in the economy has caused the build-out of the Atlantic Yards project to be much slo...

Secondhand notes from a major conference last week in New York titled Zoning the City ... From Streetsblog, 11/16/11, D.C. Planning Chief Urges New York City to Scrap Parking Minimums: Yesterday, the Department of City Planning asked experts from around the country how to make a more sustainable zoning code. Their response? Scrap parking minimums. And there's been some success: The private sector, too, argued that removing parking minimums is critical to allowing sustainable growth. Developer Jonathan Rose noted that he applied for a mayoral override of the parking requirements for Via Verde, the green affordable housing project in the South Bronx that has received nothing but rave reviews. “We decided that affordable housing three blocks from transit in a great retail district didn’t need parking,” said Rose. Did Forest City Ratner lobby against parking minimums for Atlantic Yards? Not publicly. The city is reconsidering its policies--too late for AY? The Bloomberg voice ...

There's a very interesting passage in City Hall's profile of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance: Vance succeeded at mending the once-fractured relationship his office had with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Unlike Morgenthau, who was insulated from political pressure by dint of age and a half-century’s worth of political clout, Vance needs Bloomberg’s help. A key part of his platform, a family justice center, is still unfunded. A bill increasing domestic violence penalties that Vance hoped would pass the state Legislature fell prey to partisan infighting in the State Senate. His office’s $91 million budget depends on a variety of sources, including the city’s budget, controlled by Bloomberg, and discretionary funds from both the City Council and the borough president. But Vance also seemed to make a key decision deferential to the mayor. The office prosecuted John Haggerty, a consultant to Bloomberg’s 2009 reelection campaign, who was convicted of stealing hundreds of th...

Well, Forest City Ratner's announcement of its modular construction plan certainly changed the narrative in more than one way. Not only did it deflect attention from the lawsuit filed by workers who said they were promised union cards and construction jobs, it has been embraced by at least one architectural critic who's generally been skeptical of Atlantic Yards. New York Magazine's Justin Davidson, in an 11/18/11 article headlined  Less Really Is More: SHoP Architects, masters of post-boom buildability. , does not mention the caveats--that Forest City's modular plan may be brinksmanship with the unions, that the timing was suspect, etc.--but focuses on the possibilities: The essential firm of the post-binge era is shaping up to be SHoP, headed not by a celebrity but by a half-dozen fortysomething New Yorkers who share a messianic high-tech pragmatism. Having spent a dozen years leapfrogging from youthful novelty to boutique eminence, SHoP is staking its name on the...

Several trucks idling. A truck delivering steel beams stuck for an hour. Several trucks idling on the street behind it. Cars caught in the traffic jam honking. All this outside the Newswalk, a large residential building on Pacific Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, and adjacent buildings, late yesterday morning, as documented on Atlantic Yards Watch . All apparently caused by the confluence of a construction worker's car double-parked due to lunch hour alternate side. Meanwhile, flaggers from the staging area east on Pacific Street, unmindful of the traffic tie-up ahead, continued to let trucks proceed west toward the arena site. Above left, trucks on Pacific Street just west and east of the Carlton Avenue intersection. East is the private street used as a staging area. Note that the second truck blocked any other vehicle traveling north on Carlton Avenue to proceed in the only manner possible, which is west on Pacific Street. The source of the traffic jam ...

One supporter of Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), who attended a press conference Tuesday to respond to a lawsuit naming BUILD, was Vincent Haynes, who entered the conversation at 2:40 of the video below "Contrary to the allegations that have been made by [Council Member] Letitia James and others," Haynes said, "BUILD has been responsible for employing many individuals. I can attest to that. I have been one of the individuals who landed employment." Was that construction work, or at Atlantic Yards? No, Haynes replied, unwilling to specify where he works. "However, BUILD does an excellent job by providing to the community resources in terms of job development, job placement, and job training." That is not at issue in the lawsuit, which regards trainees in a selective program who charge they were promised construction jobs and union memberships. The written agreement Just as the plaintiffs invoked the presumed protecti...

In another bang-up installment of its investigation of the Prospect Park West bike lane saga, Streetsblog this week offered The NBBL Files: Weinshall and Steisel Manufactured Anti-Bike Coverage . Noah Kazis and Ben Fried wrote: One of the defining elements of the Prospect Park West bike lane saga was the inordinate amount of media attention it received. For months, this one short stretch of pavement in Brooklyn ignited coverage from just about every New York City broadsheet, tabloid, evening news broadcast, and glossy magazine. Everyone kept talking about it — even the British press. NBBL could count on New York Post real estate columnist Steve Cuozzo and CBS 2 political correspondent Marcia Kramer to advance their agenda. To be fair, it had all the elements of a great story... Friends in high places But they also had the press on their side. They write: [Iris] Weinshall, the former DOT commissioner and wife of Senator Chuck Schumer, and [Norman] Steisel, the former deputy ma...

A statement by Council Member Letitia James on Forest City Ratner’s plan to use Prefabricated Steel on Towers at Atlantic Yards project: “The use of prefabricated steel ‘modular construction’ to build apartment towers as a part of Atlantic Yards is another despicable slight to the community surrounding the project by eliminating more crucial jobs for residents, as well as possibly creating less sound structures in an attempt to cut costs, all while FCRC has received City and State subsidies for the development. Past experience has also shown that designing a ‘bracing system’ for prefabricated steel buildings to protect against storms has been challenging. Bruce Ratner does have an obligation to support the community he serves by providing employment opportunities, as well as to parallel the safety of these buildings with those around the footprint that have weathered more than 100 years.” It will be interesting to see how the city and state confirm that high-rise construction with m...

From Crain's New York Business Insider , today: City's Tech Campus Leverage The Bloomberg administration believes that the new way it negotiates deals will produce a better tech campus project for the city. In the past, the city would routinely sweeten deals for developers or have projects die, because bidders were allowed to negotiate terms after being selected and praised at a press conference. No more. “We keep multiple horses in the race until we reach an actual deal,” an administration source said. “We actually make our counterparties bid on the contract document itself and mark it up. And that's part of our evaluation.” With skin in the game, the source added, “if [bidders] walk away or try to kill the deal, they have something to lose.” (Emphasis added) With Atlantic Yards, the city and state both anointed Forest City Ratner as the developer before the public process, including the bidding for the key piece of public property--the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard--beg...

As I've noted , the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA, below) requires an Independent Compliance Monitor (ICM), who should have been reporting on the progress of the Pre-Apprentice Training Program, subject of a lawsuit filed this week. Does the ICM enforce the housing pledge, part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between developer Forest City Ratner and ACORN? No, but there's need for oversight, because the developer seems to be changing the plan, providing more smaller apartments than pledged. According to page 7 of the CBA, ACORN--or, now more likely, its successor New York Communities for Change--was supposed to "form and facilitate a Housing Council" for community input regarding those buildings. What will Bertha Lewis say? It's not clear now who exactly is responsible, given ACORN's demise, but Bertha Lewis, the vocal leader of ACORN and backer of Atlantic Yards, has pledged publicly she would hold Forest City to its agreeme...

Well, Forest City Ratner yesterday announced plans for Building 2, a 32-story, 350-unit tower with half subsidized apartments--the world's tallest modular tower--and the press piled on. They just didn't answer all the questions. Why were the renderings released yesterday? No report explained that. There's no financing for the first building. The modular plan isn't final. I'd bet that the release was strategized to deflect any lingering attention from the lawsuit filed two days earlier by construction workers charging they didn't get promised jobs and union cards after going through a selective training program mandated by the Atlantic Yards Community Benefit Agreement. And to put pressure on construction unions. Remember, Ratner stopped building the Beekman Tower (aka 8 Spruce Street) midway to renegotiate with the unions. What kind of pressure? Well, Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building Building and Construction Trades Council, said, in a s...

Earlier this month, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com called principal Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov a "hardliner" among owners, happy to lose a season. He's changed his tune , suggesting Prokhorov needs the season to start so he can keep star guard Deron Williams. Then again, as noted by NetsDaily, it's in Williams' financial interest to stay either way.

There's a stunning contention in the Wall Street Journal article headlined  Ratner Goes 'Modular' in Brooklyn , dated 11/18/11: The project's planned 6,400 apartments—and particularly the 2,250 units pledged for low- and middle-income tenants—were a key selling point for the development when it was approved by the state over neighborhood criticism in 2006. It was later stalled by lawsuits contesting the use of eminent domain, and then slowed by the economic downturn. Now Forest City has told government officials that the high proportion of affordable apartments has made it difficult to make the economics work for the towers, despite a surprisingly strong rebound in the rental market. Previously, the company asked the city for additional subsidy to make the first Atlantic Yards tower move forward, to no avail. Mr. Ratner said Thursday that the existing incentives for developments where half the units are priced for middle- and low-income tenants "don't w...

The Wall Street Journal reports, in an article headlined Ratner Goes 'Modular' in Brooklyn , dated 11/18/11: Forest City now says it expects the first of those buildings—a 32-story, 350-apartment tower—to be started in the spring. But the firm hasn't yet secured financing for the building, and that date would be about a year later than the company pledged when it started the arena in early 2010. Earlier this month, executive Jane Marshall said , "We still believe that, before the end of the year, we will be able to announce which way we’re going and show the the design to the public. That's our goal, consistent with our goal to break ground on B2 early next year.” Actually, they haven't announced whether the first tower will definitely be modular. And they're no longer planning to break ground "early next year." Moving the goalposts This past July, MaryAnne Gilmartin, the developer’s Atlantic Yards point person, said , “We expect to decide ...