Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

The Brooklyn Paper has a typically whimsical article about the demise of the much-derided, hard-to-spell, cartoonish Nets mascot, BrooklyKnight,  The Knight shift! Help choose the new Nets mascot . From this week's issue Their suggestions include Mr. Net, an homage to Mr. Met.; Crummy the Pigeon ("the street-wise cousin of Cyclones mascot Sandy the Seagull"); Condo the Inexplicable Luxury Apartment Building ("Nothing says new Brooklyn like a contorted metal-and-glass box that appeared overnight out of nowhere"); Jerzy the Vintage-Uniform Hipster ("into the Nets before they were cool"); and Nimbie the Arena Protester. (Nimbie? Why not NIMBY?) The latter: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Just kidding, Nimbie is still angry as ever about the construction of the Barclays Center in the midst of bucolic Prospect Heights. The arena is not going anywhere, so why not try to bottle that energy and direct it at visiting teams? Actually, judging from th...

Pollstar magazine, 2014 The Barclays Center again ranks first nationally among venues in the number of tickets sold for concerts and family shows--but the total is less than half the comparable number for 2013. In 2013, the Brooklyn arena ranked third worldwide, with 657,423 tickets; this year the figure is 11th, with 302,726 tickets in the first six months. according to Pollstar magazine. That compares to 356,512 in little more than three months in 2012, when the arena opened with a very busy schedule. So there's clearly significant demand for the Brooklyn venue, but it's not being promoted quite as hard. It's possible that bookers are not offering artists as generous terms as they did previously. Interestingly enough the former home of the New Jersey Nets, the marooned-in-suburbia Izod Center, ranked second in the U.S. so far in 2014 and 18th internationally, with 237,420 tickets sold. Maidson Square Garden ranked sixth in the U.S., and 27th internationally...

From Barrons: Research Reports:  How analysts size up JD.com, Moody's, Forest City and a half-dozen other companies. , 7/4/14: by Evercore The commercial and residential real-estate development company announced the closing of the much-anticipated deal with Shanghai-based Greenland, forming a Joint Venture for further development at Atlantic Yards (AY) in Brooklyn, NY. This is certainly a positive for Forest City. We are reiterating our Overweight rating for Forest City. Moreover, we believe that FCEA shares are still at significant discount to our net-asset-value estimate of $24, which we set as our price target. Simplification of its financing, refinancing its Ridge Hill project in Westchester County, accelerating the AY project, and deleveraging should all contribute to a closing valuation discount for the company. Now Evercore has some skin in the game--having been hired to advise Forest City on its sale of its 20-percent stake  in the Brooklyn Nets. But I d...

Ten years after the rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn, there's a celebration of growth--with some spin on what's missing--and some new city investment to make the neighborhood, rezoned to spur commercial growth but instead sprouting residential towers, more livable. Crain's New York Business had the first scoop two days ago, in  Downtown B'klyn seen as 'shining example' : A massive rezoning of the area a decade ago is hailed as a victory for good planning that has led to an explosion in residential, commercial, and even cultural growth. Downtown Brooklyn has seen an explosion following a 2004 rezoning, according to a report [bottom] released Tuesday by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership marking the 10-year anniversary of the changes. "We are a shining of example of how careful planning and meaningful investment can re-energize and rebuild a strong urban core," Tucker Reed, president of the partnership, said in a statement. In 2004, the city rezoned s...

Several people reading my coverage of the lawsuit filed against Forest City Ratner and its community partner Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD) commented that developer Bruce Ratner seemed particularly adept at not saying much. For example, Ratner was asked, in his deposition, if he had “discussions with your staff” about BUILD CEO James Caldwell’s promises of union jobs and careers to those in the pre-apprenticeship training program, or PATP. (Some 20 of the 36 trainees are plaintiffs, seeking compensation for the careers they didn't get and the work they say they did during training.) “I have had them subsequent,” he answered. “I don’t remember that period of time that I did. I don’t remember that I did. Or didn’t, frankly. But I don’t know.” What about Ratner's successor? Though I didn't focus on the testimony of his successor as CEO, MaryAnne Gilmartin, she too proved somewhat slippery, at least at one key point in her deposition. The ex...

After co-winning the Municipal Art Society's highest honor, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis medal, along with her boss Bruce Ratner, Forest City Ratner CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin yesterday appeared on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show,  The CEO Sleep Experiment : After WNYC's "Clock Your Sleep" project , four CEOs launched an experiment to encourage their employees to rest more during the day, get better sleep, and stay away from email after work. Laura Walker , President and CEO of New York Public Radio, Arianna Huffington , chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group , Herb Scannell , President of BBC Worldwide America , and MaryAnne Gilmartin , CEO at Forest City Ratner Companies , check in on what they learned and what permanent changes might work for them. Gilmartin is charismatic and engaging when in a chummy situation like this, though chillier in more charged settings. At about 5:29, she joked that she applied the agreement--a nap...

From today's New York Times,  Discussions With L.I.R.R. Appear to Have Collapsed : Six days before a possible strike on the Long Island Rail Road, negotiations appeared to collapse on Monday, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority acknowledged “a gulf” with its unions, and labor leaders said they would proceed with plans for a walkout on Sunday. Thomas F. Prendergast, the authority’s chairman, said that while transportation officials had increased their offer repeatedly in recent months, the unions had barely budged, leaving “a long distance” between the two sides. Further concessions from the railroad, which carries about 300,000 riders each weekday, could influence the size of future fare increases and imperil capital funding, Mr. Prendergast suggested. “We’re not going to negotiate against ourselves,” he told reporters Monday afternoon at a news conference. (Emphasis added) The MTA's railyard  Ah, but didn't the MTA do exactly that in 2009 when it acce...

One thing to keep in mind about Barclays Center events: as with air tickets and hotel rooms, prices vary, and the sticker price is just a number. Consider the Walking with Dinosaurs family show opening tomorrow  and running five days. Though tickets are supposed to begin at $35 (plus a whopping $9.80 in fees, as indicated below left), opening night tickets are going for $25, as indicated at right. But you can also follow another promotion and save 25% off all tickets. And I've seen another promotion for 20% off. A promotion in the Daily News Meanwhile, the Daily News was doing its part, in  Baby T-rex thrills visitors at Brooklyn Bridge Park in preview of 'Walking with Dinosaurs,' coming to Barclays Center : Brooklyn Bridge Park just for a few minutes last week turned into Jurassic Park. The Daily News and a few parkgoers got a sneak peek of the “Walking with Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular,” which runs from Wednesday to July 20 at Barclays Center. The star of the ...

An excerpt from  My Brooklyn, Then and Now , the cover article in the 7/13/14 New York Times Travel section: This month, my wife is taking my daughter and a friend to see Katy Perry at the Barclays Center, the professional sports arena and home to the Brooklyn Nets, which looks like a giant rusted flying saucer come to rest on Flatbush Avenue. Long fought and argued over, and still a sore point for many, it has become a venue to rival Madison Square Garden. My daughter doesn’t care about that. She’s just happy the show is five minutes from home.  And there you have it. It's a reasonable summary of a complicated issue and an unsurprising consensus from the next generation. And I can't fault the author for not saying more here, given the breadth of the subject. In the Metro section Then again, the author is Wendell Jamieson, who also serves as the Times's Metro Editor. And the Times's Metro section has done a notably variable--and often poor--job of covering...

The Forest City Enterprises/Forest City Ratner deal with the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group for a 70% stake in the Atlantic Yards project going forward may not have brought Forest City as much cash as it once hoped, but it certainly lowered the company's risk (and ensures a faster development fee of 5%). And that, apparently, is cause for some internal celebration. From an 8-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission: On July 8, 2014, in consideration of the significant efforts and accomplishments associated with the closing of the joint venture between Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (the “Company”) and Greenland USA, a subsidiary of Shanghai-based Greenland Group Co., the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors approved one-time, discretionary cash bonuses to the following “named executive officers,” as defined in the Company’s most recent proxy statement : David J. LaRue, President and CEO: $450,000  Robert G. O’Brien, ExecutiveV...

A 7/10/14 New York Times op-ed,  Break the Immigration Impasse: Sheldon Adelson, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates on Immigration Reform , featured the august personages of Microsoft founder Gates, legendary investor Buffett, and casino mogul Adelson, telling us, among other things, that the EB-5 immigrant investment program is mostly peachy--and could get even better: We also believe that America’s self-interest should be reflected in our immigration policy. For example, the EB-5 “immigrant investor program,” created by Congress in 1990, was intended to allow a limited number of foreigners with financial resources or unique abilities to move to our country, bringing with them substantial and enduring purchasing power. Reports of fraud have surfaced with this program, and we believe it should be reformed to prevent abuse but also expanded to become more effective. People willing to invest in America and create jobs deserve the opportunity to do so. Ah, the old "reform but expand...

Always remember: basketball, like the other pro sports so many people put their hearts into, is a business. So this advertisement from last year, featuring the three players--two of them aging stars--the Brooklyn Nets got from the Boston Celtics, is already way out of date. Jason Terry, on the right, got traded last February, after an ineffective few months. Kevin Garnett, in the center, is the oldest, and it's not clear if he's returning after a season in which he struggled beyond shorter stints. And Paul Pierce, on the left, after a strong year, decided to join the Washington Wizards when the Nets decided to be more conservative about spending.  A tweet from NetsDaily's Bob Windrem (aka NetIncome): Whether  #Nets  basketball operations is dysfunctional or not, the combination of Kidd and Pierce moves make them look dysfunctional. — NetsDaily.com (@NetsDaily)  July 13, 2014 As the New York Post's Tim Bontemps reported, in  Here’s the Truth: Paul Pie...

A post two days ago on Atlantic Yards Watch,  Dangerous loose panels on Dean Street? , suggested that loose panels on the upper floors of modular units on the B2 site along Dean Street might pose a threat--if wind gusts-- to pedestrian and vehicle safety. It's hard to tell what danger they pose, but they certainly need some fixing. They weren't secured yesterday--not a typical workday--when I wandered by briefly at about 6:50 pm and shot the videos below. In the first video, one panel flaps at about 25 seconds in, and two clang audibly at the 50 second-mark. In the second video, two panels flap starting about 14 seconds in, at 32 seconds one flaps more audibly. Note: I shot these videos in a five-minute visit, the only two times I turned on the camera. I wasn't waiting around for hours to see if something would happen. Thus, it's reasonable to assume that the problem has persisted at other times. It strikes me as a relatively small issue to fix. We'll ...

Lawyers representing former trainees in a coveted but ill-fated pre-apprenticeship training program (PATP) authorized by the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) yesterday faced a judge somewhat skeptical of attempts to tie developer Forest City Ratner to the nonprofit Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), which operated the program. The plaintiffs are trying to recover significant damages for promises of construction union cards and careers--whose CEO, James Caldwell, readily admitted he made promises--as well as unpaid training in the program and at a work site on Staten Island. (There are 20 plaintiffs listed in legal papers, from a program that enrolled 36, but discussion in court referenced a total of 19. Background on case  here .) To recover any significant damages in this civil lawsuit, the plaintiffs must tie BUILD, now defunct, to its deep-pocketed patron as "joint employers," while lawyers representing Forest City seek to narr...

The lawsuit involving Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signatory Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD) being heard today also offers insight about how developer Forest City Ratner got the project passed: hiring lots of outside consultants. Randall Touré, who was Director of Community Affairs for Assemblyman Roger Green before he moved to Forest City in January 2004, said in a deposition: Like I said, it was not even my role to seek the supporters. I was part of a team of folks brought together to see how we can get supporters. It was all sorts of consultants and all sorts of folks that were involved to solicit support. They put out a newspaper [the Brooklyn Standard 'publication'], they put out buttons and badges and, you know, jobs, housing and hoops. All those type of things to get supporters. Who, he was asked, was part of this group? The lead on the group was [Forest City executives] Bruce Bender and Scott Cantone, and -- the le...

This article is long, but the initial sections provide a summary. The case was settled , ambiguously, in late 2015. For many Brooklynites, the first element of the Atlantic Yards holy trinity—“jobs, housing, and hoops,” as announced in December 2003—ranked first. A well-paying construction job would be a ticket to the middle-class and a secure future. For years, the prospect of such jobs, helping build an arena and 16 towers, animated the constant, bumptious presence of unionized construction workers at rallies and public hearings. That prospect also drew more than 8,000 people—many of them underemployed or unemployed black men—to the offices and meetings of Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), a group Assemblyman Roger Green helped organize in late 2003 to provide job training at Atlantic Yards and offer "community" validation for a project that would bypass local oversight. After years of demolition and utility work, the Barclays Center began c...