Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

It's a time-old tactic, mixing generosity, civic-mindedness, and surely strategy. Consider: a real-estate executive who's built some impressive buildings but also generated controversy through failure to fulfill promises or less-than-gentle business tactics can burnish his or her reputation thanks to the halo from local nonprofits that raise funds from the honoree and/or their friends/colleagues. We saw that when Bruce Ratner (then Executive Chairman) and MaryAnne Gilmartin (CEO) of Forest City Ratner (later Forest City New York) were honored in 2014, when the Municipal Art Society awarded them the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal. And we saw it this past June when Gilmartin, now at L&L MAG, was honored by the DUMBO-based arts organization, St. Ann's Warehouse. The organization's announcement said, in part: It’s Gala time again at St. Ann’s Warehouse! We hope you will join us on June 12th, 2018, where we will be honoring a few spectacular women for thei...

Gotham Gazette 10/16/18 published  In Need of Partners: Affordability Gap Too Large for New York City to Cover Alone , by Sean Campion of the Citizens Budget Commission, who wrote: A new report from Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) indicates rental burdens have not improved since 2014, and are most severe for low-income single households, particularly single seniors. The most effective programs for providing low-income, affordable housing have been federally funded; the city cannot handle the affordability problem on its own. CBC analysis of data from the 2017 Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS) shows more than 921,000 renter households in New York City, or 44 percent of all renters, pay at least 30 percent of their income in rent.... Twenty-two percent of households – more than 462,000 families and single adults – are severely rent burdened, which means they pay 50 percent or more of their income in rent. How to fix it? The op-ed notes that two-thirds of poor households that are n...

This is the sixth and last post concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The  first post  concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the  second post  was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard; the  third post  concerned contracts for future project monitors; the  fourth post  concerned plans for the B4 tower at the northeast corner of the arena block; the fifth post was about the other three towers planned soon. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting. So when might Pacific Park be finished? Despite a recent document targeting 2035 that was filed by the project developer--as I wrote for The Bridge --residents posing pointed questions at the recent meeting faced obfuscation, misdirection, and denial from representatives of the developer and the state. The project form...

This is the fifth among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The  first post  concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the  second post  was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard; the  third post  concerned contracts for future project monitors; the fourth post concerned plans for the B4 tower at the northeast corner of the arena block. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting. Greenland USA project manager Scott Solish said his firm was were "proud to be be partnering" with developers TF Cornerstone and The Brodsky Organization , which were "ideal partners" with "deep roots in New York City." Unmentioned were the terms of the deals that Greenland Forest City Partners--controlled since June 95% going forward by Greenland USA--struck with the two family-owned firms. ...

This is the fourth among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The  first post  concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the  second post  was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard; the third post concerned contracts for future project monitors and the Site 5 tower. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting (and the slide presentation).  B4, view from Atlantic Avenue Rendering by Perkins Eastman So, there was a presentation about plans for B4, aka 18 Sixth Avenue, the giant tower slated for the northeast corner of the arena block, with more images than the one released a few weeks ago , as described below. Greenland USA project manager Scott Solish introduced  Michael Lew , a principal at the architecture firm Perkins Eastman, who's leading the design. Lew noted that ...

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning Monday, Oct. 15 was circulated at 3:10 pm yesterday (late) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners. There are a few changes from the previous update , notably extended hours of work on the railyard's East Portal, including evening, night, and weekend work. Not only will demolition of the East Portal structure continue near Atlantic and Vanderbilt avenues, to expedite the work, the contractor will extend the weekday work hours within approved permit stipulations (7 am to 5:30 pm) until the end of November. The contractor also will work between 8 am and 5:30 pm on Saturdays. In both cases, the timeline will be reevaluated in November. Appropriate noise and dust mitigation measures should be in place, but are not detailed. Also, the contractor plans to perform East Portal abatement activities--asbestos? it's unspecified-- durin...

This is the third among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development (ESD). The  first post  concerned the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation; the  second post  was about work in the Vanderbilt Yard. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting.  Questions about the state's monitoring of Pacific Park were again deferred until when an expected seismic change in the project plan surfaces. As ESD's Atlantic Yards project manager  Tobi Jaiyesimi noted, the state authority's contracts with environmental monitor, the firm HDR, and an owners’ representative, STV, were extended earlier this year with no change in the scope of work. "And we anticipate that those contracts will be put out for an RFP [Request for Proposals], as we discussed in conversations with [former Atlantic Yards C...

From Gothamist, 10/11/18, Hudson Yards Has $4.5 Billion In Taxpayer Money. Will We Ever See It Again? : "Whether large-scale projects like Hudson Yards or Atlantic Yards pay for themselves is difficult to assess," concludes Doug Turetsky, chief of staff for the IBO [Independent Budget Office], which has conducted several studies of aspects of Hudson Yards financing but has never dared to attempt calculating a total public cost figure. Well, it's true that the IBO's pre-project Atlantic Yards calculations were based on assumptions that have not panned out, like a steady buildout. Also, the developer's projections , both for themselves and for the public, were also based on unrealistic assumptions. Also worth considering is what development would've happened anyway, without Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, or whether a different, more realistic project might have delivered more (and faster) public benefit, as well as more certain private benefit.

A building across from the southeast block of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park--where two residential (plus retail) towers are completed and the other two likely to be finished or make significant progress in two or three years--is now on sale for $8.7 million, positioned for office and retail use. From Real Estate Weekly , 10/11/18: TerraCRG has been retained to sell 646 Dean Street, an 18,800 s/f conversion opportunity in Prospect Heights. Ofer Cohen, Dan Marks, Daniel Lebor and Mike Hernandez, along with their investment sales team, are marketing the property. Located between Vanderbilt and Carlton Avenue, directly across the street from Pacific Park, the four-story, M1-1 zoned building can be delivered vacant. The location and zoning make the asset ideal for creative office and retail use. Brooklyn-focused  TerraCRG , by the way, is located just a few doors down, at 634 Dean Street. The TerraCRG listing  sets the price at $8.7 million: TerraCRG has been retained to exc...

This is the second among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development. Here's the first post , regarding the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting.  Greenland USA executive Scott Solish, whose firm controls the project, spoke enthusiastically about progress in the Vanderbilt Yard. "As many of you have seen, the Sixth Avenue ramp [to the railyard] is now finished," he said, so that allows Long Island Rail Road vehicles to access the yard. (Greenland, after buying out nearly all of Forest City Realty Trust's stake, as of June controlled 95% of the project going forward, but then sold three development sites--B15, B12, B13--to two other developers. There are four towers completed, and 11 more expected.) Now Greenland Forest City Partners can start to take out th...

This is the first among multiple posts concerning the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting Tuesday 10/9/18, held at 55 Hanson Place and sponsored by Empire State Development. I wasn't able to attend but am relying on an audiotape of the meeting. As the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project ramps up toward more construction, with four buildings   likely to start in the next two years or so, the advisory body set up to provide advice and oversight not only is well behind its meeting schedule, it’s losing more members. The Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), according to a June 2014 establishing  document  from Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority overseeing/shepherding the project, "shall meet not less than quarterly." It's been more than six months--two quarters--since the  last meeting  in March, which was the second meeting in 2018, scheduled hastily, it seemed, to position the board to endorse a contract...

From Billboard, 1/25/18, which placed Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark on its Power 100 list  in the business of music, at #97: BRETT YORMARK, 51 CEO, Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment [it's now BSE Global] Last Year's Rank: New ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR: Reopened the Nassau Coliseum on New York's Long Island as NYCB Live after a $180 million renovation. THE YEAR AHEAD: Through BSE's properties, which will soon include the recently acquired Webster Hall and Paramount Theater, Yormark is creating a pipeline that will allow acts to grow within the family. "It's about connecting with artists early and often in their careers, using smaller venues to do that," he says. Meanwhile, Brooklyn flagship Barclays Center marked its fifth anniversary and was the third-highest-grossing U.S. venue, with $83.7 million in revenue. Note of course that gross revenue does not equal net revenue, or profit. That $83.7 million figure does not relate to sports events but r...

8,790 announced attendance at Barclays Center today. Smallest announced crowd since #Isles moved to Brooklyn. — Arthur Staple (@StapeAthletic) October 8, 2018 Expect more of a push to the Nassau Coliseum.

In what's not a surprise, the tower at the northeast corner of the arena block, B4 (aka 18 Sixth Avenue) will contain 810 rental apartments, rather than a mix of rentals and condos, as once planned. It would be a huge addition of inventory to Pacific Park, which so far has 1,242 units in four (of 15/16 expected) towers. The news, first reported yesterday by the Real Deal, comes in the wake of a filing with the Department of Buildings describing a tower 509 feet tall, and with 814,177 square feet of bulk, both slightly below the allowable totals. The tower will be designed by Perkins Eastman , not SHoP, which once had the arena block job (after Frank Gehry, once touted as designing the whole tower, was ditched). Construction is supposed to start in the second quarter of 2019. The tower will include 727,059 square feet of residential space and a not inconsiderable 51,682 square feet of commercial space. With 62% coverage of the .73-acre lot and little room for open spac...

It's not a huge deal, by the standards of recent Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park gyrations, what with Forest City selling nearly all its stake going forward to Greenland USA, and the Greenland-dominated joint venture Greenland Forest City Partners then selling three parcels to other developers, but apparently a new investor entered into part of the "100% affordable" 535 Carlton last year. The 298-unit building was developed by entities in charge of the "moderate/middle" units and the 90 low-income units (about 30% of the total), with the latter known as the "Affordable Owner." (Interesting, isn't it, how low-income units translate into "affordable.") According to a document dated 7/14/17 but not filed in the city's ACRIS database until about six months later, the Affordable Owner, formerly Pacific Park Inc. (which in November 2015 was listed in an SEC document as a Forest City-created subsidiary) was taken over by a new "Inves...

The pre-rusted metal mesh of the Barclays Center has gotten generally positive but decidedly mixed reviews. But what was clearly not anticipated was that the rust would not only drip onto the adjacent sidewalk, it would quickly stain any replacement. Various parts of the sidewalk outside the arena were being replaced, as I wrote in May, but, as the photo below shows on the Atlantic Avenue perimeter, it hasn't taken long for the rust to recur.