Weekly Digest #18: This Newsletter Gets Results
Weekly Digest #18: This Newsletter Gets Results
Empire State Development updates its housing analysis. Will new state housing policy help re-start the project?
This digest offers a way for people to keep up with my Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report blog, as well as my other coverage in this newsletter.
It’s a small but not important thing: Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, should get things right.
So, after I raised questions about the affordable housing chart provided at the March 26 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (at the latter’s request), ESD revised the chart, below, to incorporate a swap of units at 535 Carlton and a mis-classification of units at 662 Pacific Street.
That shows the flaws in relying on the developer and not checking their work. And it suggests the value of institutional memory, whether in government staff or a journalist who’s long followed the project as a watchdog.
Still, the corrected chart does not fully grapple with the lack of affordability delivered, or the "Zoning Lot” Hustle, as I put it, that fueled the swap at 535 Carlton.
Nor does it address another unfulfilled promise, as I’ll write tomorrow.
Stall continues, but…
Also, as we learned at the April 18 AY CDC meeting, the foreclosure auction scheduled for April 30, is likely to be postponed again, as no interested developer has surfaced who might bid on the Greenland USA’s rights to six development sites.
Still, the landscape for future development became somewhat clearer with the passage of the state budget bill yesterday, which includes two policies particularly relevant to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.
First, the construction deadline for projects that started—thanks to even minimal foundatons—by June 15, 2022 have until June 15, 2031 to qualify for the old 421-a tax break, which requires only 30% of units as affordable at 130% of Area Median Income, which serves middle-income households. That could include the B5 tower, 700 Atlantic Avenue, just east of Sixth Avenue and the first tower planned over the Vanderbilt Yard.
The successor 485-x tax exemption requires for buildings more than 149 units, according to the Real Deal, 25% of units affordable to low-income households at 60 percent of AMI. That's a big difference from 130% of AMI, though the baseline keeps rising: for one person, the 2024 income limit is $65,220, and for four $93,180. I’ll write more about this separately.
Other factors regarding the project’s future include the cost of the platform over the railyard and the pending fines—if not renegotiated—of $2,000/month for each of the 876 remaining affordable units not delivered by May 2025.
From: Learning from Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park (Substack)
April 16: A Dive Into Affordability Prompts a Metaphysical Question: If apartments open to middle-income households rent for well below the maximum, do they qualify as moderate-income?
Did I agree that there are more 24 moderate-income studios than my original math? Well, tentatively, but with a big caveat regarding whether units actually housed moderate-income households. Ultimately, no need, since they’re classified as middle-income.
From: Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report
April 15: Yes, Atlantic Yards Community Development Corp. meeting Thursday will address budget. Anything else?
April 16: Broadening the affordable housing applicant pool: when the housing lease-up extends into a new AMI calculation and new income ceilings. Not just 595 Dean but also 662 Pacific and 18 Sixth. That makes it easier to rent middle-income units that are below-market but hardly cheap.
April 17: The Brooklyn Nets report nearly 99% attendance at Barclays Center home games. However, gate count and *paid* tickets unclear. After all, it was a mediocre season.
April 17: After my queries regarding the affordable housing chart, ESD says it's "performing due diligence" after conveying the developers' information.
April 18: In state budget: 485-x, a yet-unspecified incentive for rental housing, plus an extension of 421-a deadline. I wrote that both were presumably somewhat helpful to Atlantic Yards, and that seems so.
April 19: Does ESD have discretion over a potential transfer of development rights in foreclosure? Yes, but the conditions may not be onerous.
April 19: At Atlantic Yards meeting, state says no expectation foreclosure auction will proceed April 30. Quorum allows AY CDC budget passage.
April 20: After transmitting developer's flawed stats and provoking doubts, ESD corrects affordable housing chart. A question lingers.