Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Last week Bloomberg published a predictably reverential article, With the New York Liberty, Clara Wu Tsai Aims for the First $1 Billion Women’s Sports Franchise , which repeats the lore about the Tsais' (Clara and husband Joe Tsai, the Alibaba billionaire) savvy willingness to spend big, beyond the WNBA's salary cap, to make it a magnet for stars, and rebuild the fan base. The article also states, "They also bought the Nets’ home arena, the Barclays Center." Not quite. They own the operating company. The fig leaf of public ownership allows for a tax-exempt site and tax-exempt financing. Hotels and restaurants to help Brooklyn? From the article: Through the Liberty and Nets’ parent company, BSE Global , meanwhile, the Tsais are planning a major development initiative in the traffic-clogged area around Barclays. Adding hotels and restaurants, Wu Tsai says, will help draw more fans for the Liberty and Nets while also benefiting Brooklyn more broadly: Only a fraction of ...

Emerging Developer Cirrus Seeks Tax Abatement, New Funding, & (More?) Entitlements for Railyard Sites ( link ) When will details of request for concessions emerge? What public benefits? Lobby report cites Empire State Development, local elected officials, and even Attorney General James.

Well, as the Atlantic Yards mantra ( link ) goes, "it's a very tight fit." The placement of a dog run (in two parts, one for small dogs, another for large ones), with little effort to tamp down noise, close to a residential building (B13, 595 Dean West Tower) with a glass-and-metal facade, has led to conflict that's difficult to resolve. Looking east toward 595 Dean west tower. Photo: May 8. All photos by Norman Oder After some residents complained about disruptive dog barking, the Pacific Park Conservancy, which manages the 2.7 acres of open space on the southeast block of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, last November reduced the dog run's open hours to 7 am to 6 pm Oct. 1 through April 30, and 6 am to 8:30 pm May 1 through Sept 30. That left dog owners frustrated with overcrowding and the Conservancy's failure to recognize their needs during after-work hours. And it doesn't necessarily relieve the noise problem.  Photo: March 27 Pushing back A letter to t...

In November 2023, the creditors in charge of two loans--from immigrant investors under the EB-5 investor visa program--to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park developer Greenland USA, with about $286 million outstanding, began foreclosure proceedings. Since then, the project has been stalled, because the creditors--and it's a complicated transaction (see flowchart below and my article here )--have to form a joint venture to develop the six railyard development sites offered as collateral. That joint venture has to qualify as a "permitted developer," involving a developer or construction manager with ten years of experience on large projects or--a possible loophole--an entity acceptable to Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. Beyond that, any such joint venture--and Hudson Yards developer Related Companies was interested, until it wasn't--must negotiate with ESD and, perhaps, New York City, on the potential contours of and sub...

So, there's a deadline today that nobody seems to take seriously. And the penalties aren't meaningful. As I've written , there's a May 12 deadline to start the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard, necessary to construct six towers. It hasn't started. (It's two blocks, so it would be at least a two-phase process.) So, what does Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, think? I sent a query and got this response: The Development Agreement specifies that the Platform construction commence within 15 years of the “Project Effective Date”, subject to any unavoidable delays. 15 years from the Project Effective Date is on or about May 12, 2025. If the deadline is not met, the remedy available to ESD under the Project documents is to prevent the Developer from severing any parcels from the Development Agreement until platform constructing commences. Indeed, the penalty isn't so meaningful, though it could be construed a...

Weekly Digest: Cuomo Points to Atlantic Yards Boost. Maybe Adams, Too. ( link )  As the affordable housing deadline approaches, will Cirrus-plus-unions deal surface? Also, I argue: public campaign financing should trigger public support for journalism.

I wrote yesterday ( link ) about how a new project for 395 Flatbush Avenue extension just might signal, among other things, support for towers over the Atlantic Center mall someday. If so, then the view in the photo below, taken from Fort Greene Place and Hanson Place, would change, and the 18 Sixth Ave. (B4, aka Brooklyn Crossing) tower top left might not be visible. Photo May 8 by Norman Oder