Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

via TF Cornerstone I wrote yesterday about how landscape designer swa/Balsley's master plan design  for Pacific Park Brooklyn, first unveiled in June 2015 ( to the New York Daily News ), and soon presented at a  neighborhood meeting , deserves an update. After all, as shown at the right, there are changes in the configuration of the B12/B13 towers, now known as 595 Dean and nearing completion, plus changes in the open space around them. Balsley's website also includes an image new to me, below, that incorporates massing (and setback) models of the nearly all of the project's towers east of the arena block, keyed to the planned open space. (Missing is B15, aka 662 Pacific or Plank Road, below Pacific Street, because it has no open space. Remember, that parcel was chosen in part to supply a staging area for the arena block buildout, though the latter did not, as planned, involve simultaneous construction of the arena and four towers.) That image below was not a part of the...

I recently took a look at landscape designer swa/Balsley's page with the firm's master plan design for Pacific Park Brooklyn, first unveiled in June 2015 ( to the New York Daily News ), and soon presented at a neighborhood meeting . The 2015 slide presentation is at bottom. That was more than seven years ago, not long after Greenland USA had bought 70% of the project going forward, from original developer Forest City Ratner. Back then, the developers were surely more optimistic about the timing of the project buildout.  That was before changes in (and then the non-renewal of) the 421-a state tax break, the glut in competing apartment units in nearby Downtown Brooklyn, the sale by Forest City of all but 5% of its share, the corporate absorpotion of parent Forest City Realty Trust by Brookfield, and the financial struggles of Greenland USA's Shanghai-based parent, Greenland Holding Corp. Development without open space The first thing to recognize is that the open space pla...

From Sept. 20, 2022  ESD presentation What happened to the bi-monthly Quality of Life meetings, hosted by Empire State Development, the state authority overseeing/shepherding the project? Such meetings, at which representatives of the developer (or developers) typically appear, offer some limited accountability regarding project timetables, neighborhood impacts, and future plans. (The online format, in the pandemic era, limits the ability to ask follow-up questions or for attendees to communicate with each other.) After the 9/20/22 meeting , the 11/15/22 meeting was never held, and no 2023 timetable was ever circulated, though it was typical to circulate annual timetables by the beginning of the year. The January 2023 meeting would presumably be held next week. No date has been announced, nor agenda circulated. Here's  the page  where the next meeting should be listed. Neighbors surely have questions about the final construction and opening of 595 Dean, the affordable hou...

On December 8, I was able to take some photos from the 27th floor terrace of 272-foot 662 Pacific Street (B15, aka Plank Road), near Sixth Avenue. Recently, I posted photos of both Downtown Brooklyn to the northwest, and portions of the nearby Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site to9 the west, in and around the arena block. Below are photos of the remainder of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site to the near-north and near-east, plus the area proposed for rezoning (kickoff meeting tonight )--and already home to approved spot rezonings--east of Vanderbilt Avenue near Atlantic Avenue. Looking east Below, a view showing a relatively small part of the Vanderbilt Yard, about halfway between Carlton and Vanderbilt Avenues, with the B14 tower (535 Carlton) in foreground at right, with the 595 Dean towers behind it. At Vanderbilt and Atlantic avenues and across from the McDonald's is the 29-story 809 Atlantic tower (The Axel) marking the northeast corner, a counterpart in height (but not bulk...

Photo/Brooklyn Nets Yesterday, the Brooklyn Nets/Barclays Center honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (more on King in this NYT essay ) during the home game against the Oklahoma Thunder. As shown in the photo at right, via Brooklyn Nets (see gallery ), team members wore warmups honoring MLK (and, of course, with the Nike logo). On a video shown to attendees, Nets' retirees Buck Williams, Michael Ray Richardson, and Otis Birdsong spoke of King's legacy and, as shown below, current player Seth Curry offered brief remarks. Photo/Norman Oder The KBT Temple Praise choir sang both "Lift Every Voice and Sing," known as The Black National Anthem , and "The Star-Spangled Banner." Continuing to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pic.twitter.com/OCl9HyqHjL — Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) January 15, 2023 In an area off the street-level arena corridor, the Barclays Center posted a series of informational posters, without images, connecting ...

The New Yorker's Eric Lach yesterday published  How Eric Adams Started Mentoring a Con Man , with the subheading "Why did New York’s mayor take Lamor Whitehead, a fraudster Brooklyn church leader, under his wing?" It goes into far more depth, and with more skepticism about Adams and his "mentee," than previous profiles in the New York Times or New York magazine . After all, one person who did business with Whitehead told a federal investigator, "'I think the mayor of New York is on the take.'" (That remains unproven, of course.) And it vindicates the suggestion I made , back in August 2018, that Adams deserved a lot more scrutiny, in part because of his relationship with Whitehead and with the controversial nightspot Woodland. The bottom line One source suggests Adams, while associated with Whitehead and other questionable characters (like the twins who ran Woodland), has not crossed the line. That said, it looks like Whitehead has done so. La...

This signage will change Well, it's the first Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park surprise of 2023: as the New York Times reported last night, after barely 15 months into a 7-year contract with ticketing partner SeatGeek, the Barclays Center is returning to its original one, Ticketmaster, the industry leader. Unmentioned in the Times: surely the arena plaza, named  upon the arena's opening in 2012 for the New York Daily News and later Resorts World Casino NYC, will have to be re-branded from SeatGeek Plaza. That offers another sponsorship opportunity, and potentially new revenue. In either case, the ticketing process involves significant extra fees for ticket buyers. "Abrupt switch" aimed to book more shows? The Times article, written by music industry reporter Ben Sisario, suggested that the rare and "abrupt switch," which begins with newly booked shows--including one announced yesterday for May 11--may have been driven by a desire to book more concerts, given Tic...

Last year, I wrote about what I called "Atlantic Yards and the problem of time," given that the steady increase in Area Median Income (AMI), which is calculated regionally and used to set levels of affordability, meant that a "low-income" two-bedroom apartment, at 50% of AMI, could rent for $1,500. In fact, the AMI levels have risen so much that developers of Brooklyn Crossing (B4) and Plank Road (B15) have not sought the maximum rents available for middle-income "affordable" units at 130% of AMI, recognizing they must compete with the market. The cost of delay also affects the promised 200 on-site "affordable" condos, about which I wrote this week  for CommonEdge, noting the failure to guarantee such a promise, which would instead be contingent on subsidies. I should have pointed out that, even if such units were built, they likely would be aimed for a different, wealthier cohort, given the steady rise in AMI. When incoming Assemblymember Hak...

Photos/Norman Oder Last December 8, I shot photos from the 27th floor terrace of 272-foot 662 Pacific Street (B15, aka Plank Road), near Sixth Avenue. That location, just east of the arena block,offered some fascinating views (below) of both Downtown Brooklyn to the northwest, and portions of the nearby Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site. So the photo at right, showing part of the Barclays Center's not-so-green roof, with pieces of 38 Sixth Ave. (B3) and 18 Sixth Ave. (B4, aka Brooklyn Crossing), hardly tells the full story of the massive amount of recent development. Rather, as shown in the photo at left, there's an array of new towers, completed or under construction, with more to come, dwarfing the 512-foot Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, long Brooklyn's tallest building. Most notable is Brooklyn's first "supertall," 1,066 feet.  Many of these views might be blocked had the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer constructed  "Miss Brooklyn" (aka B1...

There's no timetable or signage yet, but the high-end, Minneapolis-based chain Life Time gym will occupy two floors, plus part of the ground floor, at 18 Sixth Ave., aka Brooklyn Crossing, the Commercial Observer reported 1/9/23. The building flanks the Barclays Center at the northeast corner. Life Time--which, upon a 2016 announcement of its first outpost in Manhattan was described by one publication as "crazy luxe"--opened  a club  in 2021 at Front & York in DUMBO, with membership starting at $259/month. Life Time also will operate a gym, plus a co-working space , at the Brooklyn Tower, the borough's first supertall, at 9 DeKalb. This would be the tenth location in Manhattan and Brooklyn. A restaurant on Sixth Avenue? (Photos/Norman Oder) The Commercial Observer said Life Time leased 36,470 square feet for 20 years. That represents--apparently--the full second and third floors, plus one of the three ground-floor retail spaces.  Here's the building plan . ...

I shot a few photos this afternoon of Just Salad , at 461 Dean, after I saw the buildout finished and staff gathering for training. The #461Dean modular building opened in 2016, first residential tower in #AtlanticYards @pacificparkbk It's taken 6+ years to get a tenant, #justsalad , opening tomorrow Original developer Forest City sold building to Principal Global Investors https://t.co/qdb0EeDKpm — Norman Oder (@AYReport) January 10, 2023

I have an essay in CommonEdge today,  How Atlantic Yards Failed to Deliver Affordable Homeownership (With a Hakeem Jeffries Cameo) . From the lead: U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ inaugural address to colleagues in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 7, showed that the Brooklyn politician, the Democrats’ first Black leader in the House, should be a public fixture for years. While commentators hailed Jeffries’ tour-de-force A–Z passage contrasting Democrats and Republicans, what struck me most occurred in the last third of the speech, when Jeffries stated , “So on this first day, let us commit to the American Dream … if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to provide a comfortable living for yourself and for your family, educate your children, purchase a home, and one day retire with grace and dignity.” An unsurprising list? Well, the reference to “purchase a home” reminded me of one of Jeffries’ first political victories, ...

On Tuesday, Jan. 17, from 6-8 pm, the online  Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan (AAMUP) Community Kickoff  will be held. Registration for the online workshop is  at this Zoom link . My previous coverage is here ; the plan for rezoning and community investments grew out of a request from Council Member Crystal Hudson and other elected officials, building on the M-CROWN proposal from Brooklyn Community Board 8 and the concerns of residents responding to a series of one-off rezonings, which added density--encouraged by the Department of City Planning--without any associated improvements in open space, streetscape, schools, and more. The area includes blocks adjacent to Atlantic Avenue in Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, and Bedford-Stuyvesant, as shown in the map below.  The process is led by the Department of City Planning in collaboration with WXY Studio, local elected officials, and a Steering Committee which includes representation from the three impacted Community Dis...