Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

In January 2014, the news (Barclays Center press release ) that GQ would open a barbershop at the arena generated all sorts of coverage, in the Daily News , the Observer ,  DNAinfo , and  New York magazine , among others. We should've noticed this statement in the press release: "the 400-square-foot barbershop will be a permanent fixture on the venue’s main concourse throughout 2014." Because, as Times beat writer Andrew Keh reported last week on Twitter , "I'm sad to report that the Barclays Center barbershop, presented by GQ, has been unceremoniously replaced with a merchandise kiosk." "barber in arena worst idea ever," replied one Twitter user. Fellow Barber, which ran the shop, said on Instagram, "it was a one year project. We are on to new stuff in 2015!" Let's put it this way: the expiration of the barbershop did not inspire nearly as much coverage as its launch. Because that's the way things work. (That s...

I have an online op-ed in the New York Times today,  Holding the Democratic Convention in Brooklyn? Fuhgeddaboudit. , arguing that there are logistical and ethical reasons to oppose bringing the 2016 Democratic National Convention to Brooklyn. Below is an illustration of one major logistical problem: an entire flank of the arena will be a construction zone, given the delay in finishing the B2 modular tower at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street and the expected start of the B3 tower this year at Sixth Avenue and Dean Street. The two tower sites flank the secondary entrance to the arena, which is where crowds on the arena plaza are typically sent. They also flank the loading dock for trucks and other vehicles entering the building. The residential neighborhood is across the street. The ethical reasons include the notion of an oligarch-owned arena, a project in which a Chinese government profits by marketing U.S. visas , and "affordable housing" that backs off promises ...

From the New York Times,  Color Guard Is David Byrne’s New Project. Yes, Color Guard. Since Talking Heads broke up in the early ’90s, David Byrne’s eclectic projects have focused on everything from visual art and musical theater to bicycles and gentrification. His latest obsession?  Color guard . ...This summer, Mr. Byrne will present “Contemporary Color” in Toronto and Brooklyn, pairing 10 teenage color guard teams from Canada and the United States with musicians including Kelis, St. Vincent, Devonté Hynes and Nelly Furtado. ...A co-commission of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Toronto’s Luminato Festival, the show will premiere at the Air Canada Center on June 22 and 23. The show will come to Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 27 and 28, in the Academy’s first partnership with its neighboring arena. My comment... Interestingly enough, this show--coming in the later part of the third year of the Barclays Center's operation--is the *first* example of the BAM-Barcl...

Remember how the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, formed to channel some form of input/oversight (if not full accountability) to Empire State Development regarding Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Brooklyn, was supposed to get off the ground in December? And then how instead its first meeting was scheduled for January 30, six weeks after the groundbreaking for two new towers? That date is rapidly approaching, with no new information.  On Friday, I asked Empire State Development about the time and location of the first meeting; the names of the appointed members; the meeting agenda; and the name of the person recruited to direct the AY CDC. When I get answers, I'll post them.

According to the latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Brooklyn Construction Update, below, covering this week and next and issued today by Empire State Development after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners, weather has delayed some work near B11, the condo tower at 550 Vanderbilt Avenue (between Dean and Pacific streets). (Here's the previous alert .)  Regarding B11, work will continue by National Grid to relocate a gas line in the Dean Street sidewalk between Carlton Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue that will service this and the adjacent future building. I've bolded the new information; note that poor proofreading left in the previous statement that the work would be done by January 23: Because this work conflicts with bracing blocks for the 16 foot fence for the Block 1129 construction, lower fences, varying in height from eight to twelve feet, have initially been installed in front of the work zone. The work zone is approximately 150 feet long and about 125 fe...

The Barclays Center's second full year was very strong, arena officials proclaimed last week, issuing a press release  headlined "After Just Two Years, Barclays Center Continues To Be a Top-Ranked Venue Worldwide." Pollstar 2014 results Yes, in 2014, the Brooklyn arena ranked just behind Madison Square Garden among the highest grossing U.S. arena for concerts, family shows, and other events, as the Barclays Center announced, citing  Billboard  and  Venues Today  (which do not include Brooklyn Nets games). Also, Pollstar ranked Barclays as second among U.S. venues for tickets sold. However, those impressive rankings mask a significant decline in the Barclays Center's popularity compared to its slam-bang debut year: 27% in total tickets sold, and 28% in gross revenue. (The net revenue decline is likely less, since arena managers last year pursued new efforts at cutting costs.) The Brooklyn arena, which opened in September 2012, could no longer ride ...

Ask New York City Council Housing Committee Chairman Jumaane Williams about affordable housing, and some interesting answers emerge. In an interview with City & State TV, Jarrett Murphy of City Limits asked Williams about the 421-a tax break, which has long incentivized market-rate construction, but then was restored to require a limited amount of affordable housing--though it sorely needs reform, according to a recent report by the Fiscal Policy Institute. "I don't think the units that we've gotten back from 421-a at all match the rate of return that we're looking for," Williams said during the interview. "If we're going to give up our money and our taxes, which we should, we have to make sure we're getting the units we need to the people who need it the most." At about 6:48, Williams drilled down: "People use the word affordable , but they're talking 120% of AMI [Area Median Income] 100% of AMI. Those are not the income ba...

The modular factory is back open, sort of. Forest City Ratner has 55 of the 157 workers back at work on components for the stalled B2 modular building, according to the Brooklyn Paper, in  Back on the blocks: Forest City has reopened the modular Navy Yard factory That doesn't mean we'll see much change at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street just yet: The tower stands at 10 stories so far, and Forest City expects work to resume on the site in the coming weeks, connecting electricity and plumbing. But the next modules will not be hoisted into position until sometime in the late Spring. Workers are toiling away at floors 11 and 12 on the factory floor right now. Forest City Ratner maintains, contra its estranged ex-partner Skanska, with which it is embroiled in dueling lawsuits, that the delays were caused by implementation error, not fundamental flaws . “We really feel that the technology works really well,” construction chief Bob Sanna said. “From a process point of view, ...

A rendering without the new third floor I'm late on this 1/7/15 DNAinfo article,  Shared Workspace With Pour-Over Coffee and Roof Deck Coming to Brooklyn : PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Workspace sharing company Industrious is opening its first New York location in Prospect Heights this spring, creating 18,800 square feet of “social office space” across from Atlantic Yards  by mid-March, complete with pour-over coffee, a roof deck and "relaxation rooms," its co-founder said. The company will take three floors at 594 Dean St., between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, building out a mix of glass-enclosed private offices and communal working spaces for up to 250 people, said Industrious’ co-founder Jamie Hodari...  Industrious will move in after the building’s owner, 1121 LLC, finishes a renovation of the former industrial space that includes a new third floor, an updated facade and the build-out of retail space, according to building plans approved by the city this summer. T...

Remember how, on 10/15/11, the New York Post reported on former Forest City Ratner executive Jim Stuckey's abrupt departure from New York University came in the wake of sexual harassment allegation from a subordinate--and that similar accusations led to his departure from Forest City in 2007. The Post reported: According to company sources, Stuckey took all of his subordinates to a club and then called a number of women employees into a private room, where he had them sit on his lap as though he were Santa Claus. Fearing that mass resignations — of senior executives as well as people who reported to Stuckey — would cause the company a p.r. nightmare at a sensitive time in the Atlantic Yards project, Bruce Ratner pushed Stuckey out and then helped him land the job at NYU. Ratner is a member of the Schack Institute’s advisory board. There's clearly more to the story, and some hints have surfaced in legal papers in the still-percolating case  Bonadio v. NYU , et al., invol...

The latest video from backers of the Democratic National Convention features Veronica Harris of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, who appears on the Barclays Center plaza and later on the roof of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Center mall. And though those settings scream corporate influence, her message is that the DNC is for the little guys. (Unmentioned, she's Director of Government Affairs & Community Relations .) "I'm Veronica Harris, die-hard New Yorker," she begins. "I'm so proud of the network here in Brooklyn. Even though we have 2000 members, the majority of those, probably over 80%, are mom-and-pop businesses and businesses owned by minorities and women here in Brooklyn." "Having the convention here in Brooklyn would be a huge benefit to minority, women-owned, and small mom-and-pop operations here in Brooklyn," she asserts. "Let's make it happen. New York City is ready because we're always ready."

Mayor Bill de Blasio took a victory lap yesterday, claiming in a press release,  Mayor de Blasio Announces More Than 17,300 Units of Affordable Housing Financed in 2014, Enough to House Nearly 42,000 New Yorkers , with the subheading "City exceeds projection of 16,000 units for calendar year 2014 as it begins project to preserve the affordability of 159 low-income co-op units in rapidly gentrifying Fort Greene": NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced that the City financed the creation and preservation of more than 17,300 affordable units during calendar year 2014. With 11,185 preserved units and 6,191 new construction units financed, the City exceeded its first year projections by more than 1,300 affordable units. Based on average household size, these new and preserved units are enough to affordably house nearly 42,000 New Yorkers. Preservation of affordable housing—keeping existing residents in their homes, rehabilitating old apartments and building systems, and ...

A lot of people thought the metropolitan area had too many arenas, especially with the advent of the transit-accessible Barclays Center in 2012. Since then, the Nassau Coliseum has announced a renovation and downsizing, with the coming loss of its hockey team to Brooklyn, and now the suburban Izod Center in New Jersey is closing, having been eclipsed by the Prudential Center in Newark. But the fate of the building is unclear, since it may not be demolished and may be reopened/rebranded, not unlike the Nassau arena. The 18,000-seat Izod Center, formerly the Brendan Byrne Arena (a former governor) when it opened in 1981, became home to the New Jersey Nets through its renaming as Continental Airlines Arena in 1996 and then Izod in 2007.  The New Jersey Devils and Seton Hall basketball team both moved to Newark permanently in 2007. The Nets left for an interim stay in Newark in 2010, after it was tougher and tougher to get fans who didn't strongly support a winning team ...

The announcement that Forest City Enterprises would become a dividend-paying real estate investment trust (REIT) generated big buzz and success on Wall Street yesterday, as Bloomberg Businessweek reported it among the ten biggest volume gainers, as well as leaping in value: Forest City Enterprises Inc. class A : Approximately 7,141,200 shares changed hands, a 536.9 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $2.51 or 11.3 percent to $24.72.

Melissa Burch, as Executive VP of Commercial and Residential Development, was overseeing Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park for Forest City Ratner, but now she's gone. Crain's New York Business reported yesterday,  Top Forest City exec jumps to construction giant: Melissa Burch will head Australia-based Lend Lease's efforts to invest in and develop real estate projects in New York City and across the country. : Susi Yu Melissa Burch, a top executive at Forest City Ratner, is departing the firm to join construction company Lend Lease. She will head its efforts to begin investing in and developing real estate projects in New York City and nationally. "Melissa’s extensive knowledge of entitlement, design, construction, marketing, leasing and the execution of complex urban-development projects makes her the ideal executive to grow our development business in New York," said Denis Hickey, Lend Lease’s chief executive in the U.S., in a statement. Meanwhile, Forest City ...

Well, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is reportedly trying to sell the 80% of the Brooklyn Nets he owns--or maybe not. There are numerous murky aspects to the reports, and we should remember the history: Bruce Ratner was not selling the Nets, until he was. It's also possible (as suggested on NetsDaily ) that Prokhorov's retention of the firm Evercore Partners is aimed to help Ratner and Forest City Enterprises--who've already retained Evercore--sell their 20% of the Nets, especially since Forest City must sell by year end to convert to a real estate investment trust (REIT) and had said it wanted the sale of the team to be accomplished by the end of 2014. The value of the Nets should be stratospheric--well over $1 million, and maybe close to/over the $2 billion the Los Angeles Clippers sold for, if there's a hoops-loving billionaire available. And an imminent sale of the Atlanta Hawks should help establish current values. Still, anyone estimating Prokhorov'...

NYC rolls videos to lure 2016 Democratic National Convention to Brooklyn  the Daily News's Celeste Katz reported today, citing new videos posted by the host committee . One celebrity video is Rose Perez, "actress, native New Yorker" at Valentino Pier in Red Hook. (She also has ties to the Barclays Center, having contributed to a welcome video.) Another involves Josh Tower, who portrays Berry Gordy in Broadway's "Motown." Katz reports: And representing the average New Yorker in a third video filmed on a rooftop overlooking the focal point of New York's DNC bid, the Barclays Center: Mackenzi Farquer, a small business proprietor from Astoria, Queens. "There's every kind of person in New York," Farquer tells the camera over a montage of cityscapes. "We're kind and we're humble and we're hard-working -- and we deserve to have this." Oh, the "average New Yorker" who just happens to be filmed on the top o...

Now, after many rumblings about the possibility, Forest City Enterprises is on track to become a dividend-paying REIT, or  real estate investment trust , defined as "an entity that holds real estate and potentially pays no federal income tax due to a deduction for dividends paid." (REITs must pay out at least 90% of taxable income in dividends.) Last August, on a conference call with investment analysts, Forest City Enterprises was asked if and when it would convert from a C Corporation to a REIT. "It's a process and an issue we continue to look at," CEO David LaRue said. "We still have substantial NOLs [net operating losses] that allow us as a C Corp to continue to be very tax-efficient... As we go through repositioning, and go through non-core asset sales, it gives us some additional flexibility." Forest City has been selling assets in non-core areas like Cleveland, its home base. Indeed, the Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported yesterday: ...

Maybe the Daily News's Katherine Clarke is making up for a rather skeptical take  last September on Forest City Ratner's stalled modular tower, because today's article,  Forest City Ratner’s modular Brooklyn tower is back on track: The developer expects the project factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to be operating as normal this month , is completely credulous. The article states: Developer Bruce Ratner has finally resumed work on his 32-story residential building next to the Barclays Center after a five-month hiatus stemming from a dispute with construction giant Skanska over the pre-fabricated design. As a result of that legal fight, Ratner gained control of Skanska’s factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where modules for the proposed tallest modular tower were made. Now Ratner’s company, Forest City Ratner, said it expects the factory will be operating at full capacity by the end of the month. It’s still unclear when the 363-unit tower will be done. So "resumed...

If a Chinese property consultancy is pursuing the unauthorized sale of yet-unbuilt Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park condos, as I reported last month, well, they know their market. Consider yesterday's WNYC report, The Chinese Guide to Buying Real Estate in New York , which describes how  The Oosten  in Williamsburg is "the first large building erected by a Chinese company in America, without a local partner. And buyers from China have already signed on, though the building's not ready. Developer Xinyuan , which mostly builds in China, is part of a trend in which companies want to invest overseas, where real estate is seen as a safe harbor.