Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

For Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park watchers, the proposed new City Council lines are business as usual. On 7/15/22, the New York City Districting Commission released a first draft map of revised district lines, in light of the 2020 Census, and ahead of the 2023 elections for City Council. (Remember, it's currently a two-year term.) As City & State reported , the draft contains some significant poposed changes, such as a revision in southern Brooklyn to connect eastern Sunset Park and northern Bensonhurst, giving the possibility of Chinese-American representation much more likely. From NYC Districting Commission ; shaded sections indicate current districts  But there's no apparent change to the 35th District, currently represented by Council Member Crystal Hudson, and which contains nearly all of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. And while there are a few proposed subtractions and additions to the 39th District, currently represented by Council Member Shahana Hanif, they don't a...

It's time for change at the Nassau Hub , Newsday editorialized 7/16/22, adding, "Nassau Coliseum has served Long Island well but now is an expensive albatross that must be demolished." It begins: For decades, little has changed at the economic wasteland known as the Nassau Hub. An arena with tight corridors and few modern amenities. Dozens of acres of empty asphalt around it. Plan after plan. Deadline after deadline. Dashed hope after dashed hope. Failure after failure. The latest and perhaps the best chance to end this dismal cycle and turn the Hub into a job-creating, revenue-generating destination is in the hands of Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead and developer RXR Realty. They must not get this wrong. That means embracing the right uses, like housing and health care, and rejecting the wrong ones — like gambling. It means removing impediments — like the Nassau Coliseum itself — and welcoming assets, such as potential partnerships with entities like NYU Langone. So...

Greenland shopping Hotel Indigo — again , The Real Deal reported 7/14/22, citing the effort by Greenland USA, the main developer of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, to gain some cash from part of its other big project, Metropolis in Los Angeles. Greenland owns nearly all of Greenland Forest City Partners. While Greenland wouldn't talk, The Real Deal noted that the company, whose parent Greenland Holdings has seen its credit rating plummet to--and recover slightly from--Selective Default, likely needs the cash, given looming bills. That assumes that there's no firewall between parent and subsidiary. Why should there be--after all, the parent initially was said to be able supply equity for projects like Atlantic Yards. In 2018, Greenland sought  $280 million for the hotel, but apparently got no takers. It's unclear whether money raised from the sale of the hotel would go back to the parent, would adjust the Metropolis balance sheet, but if money's fungible, well, it just m...

The context for the reflexive support for Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park from Empire State Development, the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, is that it's controlled by the governor.  And every governor so far--George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson, Andrew Cuomo, Kathy Hochul--has so far been clearly, or at least implicitly, willing to heed the desires of the project developer. That's part of the culture of Albany. And Hochul, though she has (as far as I can tell) loosed control over Freedom of Information Law requests, has not changed the culture enough. Hochul’s Vow to Fix Albany’s Culture Finds an Unexpected Foe: Herself , the New York Times reported 7/11/22, citing Hochul's push for a last-minute $10 billion in tax breaks for semiconductor makers, her willingness to subsidize a new stadium for her hometown Buffalo Bills, and her willingness to exempt "a huge swath of money from independent oversight by the state comptroller’s office and from ...

It was promised by New York State in 2009--before the arena block design changed--as “a significant public amenity." It was described yesterday by a local organizer--in somewhat of a stretch--as a "very important part" of the Atlantic Yards project.  And its absence has, in large part, been ignored, as a "temporary" plaza outside the Barclays Center has become a crucial part of arena operations, a gateway to the transit hub, and a periodic place for public gatherings and protests. But with Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park nearing an inflection point, the unbuilt Urban Room--the glass atrium once planned to serve as a gateway to the arena and the unbuilt flagship tower (B1, aka "Miss Brooklyn")--looms as a potential benchmark and bargaining chip regarding the project's future, notably affordable housing. "We’ve watched for years as the deadline for completing the project’s affordable housing has gotten closer, but no plan for achieving the goal ha...

Today, in a 10 am press conference scheduled near the Barclays Center's SeatGeek Plaza, the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, backed by some elected officials, will call on the administration of Gov. Kathy Hochul to collect fines--potentially totaling $10 million--for failing to build the Urban Room, the glass atrium that's long been supplanted by the "temporary" plaza. To my mind, the effort is both legit and contrived. After all, until recently, no one has publicly made an issue out of the missing Urban Room, which would've linked B1--the unbuilt flagship tower, aka "Miss Brooklyn"--and the arena with a glass atrium. Not until Gib Veconi, the best-informed--or is it only informed?--member of the (purportedly) advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, raised the issue of the Urban Room at a  meeting last month , no one had talked about it. (Yes, that May 2022 deadline had slipped my mind, too.)  At least since 2016, developer Greenland Forest ...

This is the fourth of four articles about the July 12, 2022  Quality of Life meeting . I submitted several questions. Some got answers, as noted below, but the big ones got deflected or ignored by developer Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP) or Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversee/shepherds the project. Affordable housing obligation Does GFCP have a plan to  meet the May 2025 deadline  for affordable housing? Scott Solish of Greenland USA, which owns nearly all of GFCP, said it was the "same answer that we always have. We're moving ahead with our plans with the platform.... We are working on hitting all of our targets, as we always have." Except they haven't hit their targets--for example, they announced in 2019 that the platform would start in 2020.  If that deadline is not met, will ESD enforce the $2,000/month fines for each missing affordable unit? ESD's Tobi Jaiyesimi ignored that question. Project completion If GFCP aims to com...

This is the third of four articles about the July 12, 2022  Quality of Life meeting . The meeting was brief, lasting barely 20 minutes, with all of ten people in attendance. And other than some notable deflection of questions, which I report separately , there wasn't a lot of news. Scott Solish of master developer Greenland Forest City Partners, using the slides below, showed that the sidewalk bridge and overhead protection along Atlantic Avenue near the B4 (18 Sixth Ave., aka Brooklyn Crossing) is starting to come down He said it will diminish over the next few weeks as workers finish the sidewalk installation on Atlantic Amir Stein of TF Cornerstone said that the B12 and B13 towers (615 Dean St., 595 Dean St.) are on schedule, with "our first [temporary] certificate of occupancy by the end of the year." That suggests move-ins might happen before the buildings are finished by mid-year. The B12 tower is fully enclosed, with windows, and B13 should be fully enclosed by mid...

The latest Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Construction Update (bottom), covering the two weeks beginning Monday, July 11, was circulated today at 10:59 am (late) by Empire State Development (ESD) after preparation by Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP), which is dominated by Greenland USA. (The reason for the lapse: an "administrative delay." ) There's not much new compared to the  previous update , and the document again excludes the most dramatic change around the project footprint--the fencing around the arena plaza for revamping of the pavement and other features.  But this time they seem more confident--as stated for the last four weeks--that the preparatory stage of platform work, putting up a fence and eliminating parking, should start. As stated in red in the document below: Received [Department of Buildings] permits for Platform construction; [Department of Transportation] permits for [Maintenance and Protecction of Traffic] erection have been applied for and are ...

This is the second of four articles about the July 12, 2022  Quality of Life meeting . Finally, it's coming? At least a month after the previous expectation , a representative of developer Greenland USA--which dominates Greenland Forest City Partners--said precursor work for the railyard platform is expected to start soon. "We're still in the process of pulling the final permits necessary to commence construction around Block 1120," said Scott Solish, referring to the Vanderbilt Yard block bounded by Sixth and Carlton avenues, and Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street. That includes permits for the construction fence and for changing parking and sidewalk access. Below is an image of the expected fencing around that block, from a presentation at the recent Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation meeting. Page 11 of  AYCDC-Meeting-Project-Update June 7, 2022 Contributed to  DocumentCloud  by Norman Oder (NormanOder (Individual)) •  View document  or...

This is the first of four articles about the July 12, 2022 Quality of Life meeting . Barclays Center spokeswoman Mandy Gutmann said that tomorrow's 11 am game between the WNBA's New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces will be Camp Day, with "a ton of campers that will be out to see the elimination game, so we're really excited to have a ton of our young Brooklyn fans in the building."     She added that "we are projecting that there will be a substantial number of school buses coming to drop off kids for the event. So I just wanted to make sure everyone is aware that we're anticipating buses during midday on Thursday." Bus questions How many buses? Where and when will drop-off and pick-up be? Will the buses linger in the neighborhood?  Gutmann said she's follow up on questions today, so I'll update this when I learn more.  (Updated) From Gutmann:  The latest info I have is 12 confirmed buses (potentially up to 20-25) that will drop off on Dean ...

Where's the latest Construction Update, aka two-week look-ahead, for the two weeks beginning yesterday, Monday, July 11?  It's supposed to be prepared by master developer Greenland Forest City Partners (GFCP) and then circulated by Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversee/shepherds the project. The bi-weekly document is typically circulated before the weeks it accounts for, though is sometimes--as it was two weeks ago --shared on the first working day. In July 2021, they simply missed two weeks--a "severe oversight," acknowledged an ESD official--and didn't even post it after the fact. Could it be that, say, a single person going on vacation can muck it all up? The circulation of these updates is important not just to alert neighbors of work near them, including after-hours work. In this week's case, it's important to have a clear picture of what's actually going on--has work on the platform actually started?--before this eveni...

As I wrote in March 2018, the project Development Agreement states, that "prior to the Substantial Completion of Phase II," which is  May 12, 2035 , the developer (now Greenland Forest City Partners) "shall collectively invest (or shall cause to be invested)" a total of $3 million in the aggregate, for the improvement of existing parks near and around the project site. Within that total, $1 million must be invested before the "Outside Phase I Substantial Completion Date," which is 5/12/22, 12 years after the Project Effective Date, again subject to Unavoidable Delays. As I wrote, if the $1.25 million-plus earlier pledged by original developer Forest City Ratner for the Dean Street Playground comfort station counts, well, they've already met that requirement.  But that was never addressed, nor confirmed. At the time, I wondered if the seeming near-term plan, required as a result of the 2014 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), to upg...

After taking another look at the 2014 Second Amended Memorandum of Environmental Commitments, as mentioned in Friday's post , it's worth pointing out this clause : 13. [The developer] shall maintain an on-site construction coordinator to function as a liaison between FCRC and the community with respect to constructionrelated issues (the “CLO”). The CLO shall be available to consider specific concerns raised by the community with respect to the construction issues and seek to resolve such concerns. The CLO shall keep a record (log book) of construction-related complaints received by the CLO from the public and efforts taken to resolve such complaints. The CLO shall seek to resolve all complaints or provide relevant information to the person who brought the issue to the CLO’s attention within 24-hours or as soon thereafter as is practicable. While there have been various on-site locations for such a Community Liaison Office, for a while that function has been virtual, triggered b...

They're staying on Zoom, for now. The next Atlantic Yards Project Quality of Life Meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, July 12, at 6 pm, hosted by Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds/eases the project. That again means that attendees can't see who else is there or--in most cases--ask follow-up questions.  (Gov. Kathy Hochul last month extended the COVID-19 disaster emergency , which allows for virtual meetings. It must be renewed by July 14.) Here's the link: https://zoom.us/j/97101255496 Dial In: 646-558-8656 || Passcode: 971 0125 5496# Meeting ID: 971 0125 5496 Project-related questions and suggested agenda items to atlanticyards@esd.ny.gov . My questions I have some questions, though I suspect many if not most will be deflected, based on past patterns: --does developer Greenland Forest City Partners have a plan to meet the May 2025 deadline for affordable housing? --if that deadline is not met, will ESD enforce the $2,000/m...

I wrote yesterday how, more than six years ago, developer Greenland Forest City Partners' (GFCP) plan to move most of the bulk of the unbuilt "Miss Brooklyn" (aka B1) across Flatbush Avenue to create a giant two-tower project at Site 5 also involved eliminating the Urban Room. That's the long-forgotten promised publicly accessible space that was supposed to serve as an entryway for both B1 and the arena.  Instead, by decoupling B1 and the other three towers (later built) from the arena construction project, they had to build a temporary plaza--one that GFCP and surely the arena operator would like to see as permanent. From 2016 proposal But they forgot to get it done on time. Though long percolating, the process to allow a bigger project at Site 5--longtime home to the big-box stores Modell's (since closed) and P.C. Richard, and already approved for a substantial, 250-foot, 440,000-square-foot building--was delayed for various reasons. A suit from P.C. Richard wa...