Weekly Digest: Movement on the Railyard Sites, and a Curious Site 5 Push
Weekly Digest: Movement on the Railyard Sites, and a Curious Site 5 Push
Also, Atlantic Yards advisory board takes up issue (I raised): why the newly enriched Barclays Center operator should pay to keep the plaza. Plus: Nets drama.
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 and elsewhere.
A lot happened this past week.
Brooklyn Nets fans saw the team trade away its best player, though not quite a star, Mikal Bridges, to the crosstown New York Knicks, which, in a win-now mode, were willing to offer a huge haul of draft picks.
The rebuild begins, and fans of the opposing teams likely will be prominent in the Barclays Center. It might work out for the Nets, depending on draft luck.
The notorious Koch family, their wealth and reputation built on conservative activism of the late David Koch, with little fanfare took over a 15% stake in Joe Tsai’s BSE Global, parent company of the Nets, the arena operator, the New York Liberty, and more.
Some women sports fans lobbied for the Kochs to support the women-focused charities the WNBA team had already chosen, to “align their values” with the league, team, and fan community. That didn’t happen, of course, but at least it’s out there.
I argued, in an essay in Common Edge, that the enormous gain in value for Tsai’s BSE Global in the Koch transaction, to a $5.8 billion (at least) valuation from some $3-3.3 billion, was due in significant part to the state-enabled arena, and that New York State deserves some of the upside—and, in fact, had punted on chances in the past.
Movement on the project
My argument was taken up the next day, when the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), in a little-publicized meeting, saw Chairman Daniel Kummer present a motion to ask the parent Empire State Development (ESD), to request a new plan for Site 5, the parcel catercorner to the arena and long home to big-box stores P.C. Richard and the now-closed Modell’s.
That was curious—and, seemingly orchestrated, since there was no outreach to even discuss it first.
Why now a new plan? Well, it also seems that, according to ESD, a new developer may have emerged for the six railyard sites in foreclosure, given information they’ve been provided by the “lender,” an affiliate of the U.S. Immigration Fund, which recruited the immigrant investors who put up the EB-5 loans now in foreclosure.
The plan has not been presented to ESD. The contours of each deal/plan remain murky, but presumably developer Greenland USA, which still controls Site 5, and the new developer would ask ESD for concessions that could include new subsidies, extended deadlines, and increased (and/or shifted) development rights.
Indeed, while Site 5 is already approved for a substantial tower, 250 feet and 439,050 square feet, it has since 2015-16 been proposed for a much larger two-tower project, perhaps 785 feet in the taller tower, and more than 1.1 million square feet, at least if ESD permits the developer to transfer unused bulk from the B1 tower (aka “Miss Brooklyn”), once slated to loom over the arena.
I had argued that not building “Miss Brooklyn” and leaving Ticketmaster Plaza unscathed helps the arena operator overall—sure, it’s a public amenity, though cordoned off for events—and that Tsai should be asked to pay for the privilege.
AY CDC Director Ron Shiffman, a longtime advocacy planner and Pratt Institute academic, took up that argument, to some pushback from ESD staff, who suggested it would be hard to value, and they had little leverage.
Nevertheless, Kummer and the other AY CDC Directors present didn’t object to Shiffman’s request to amend his original motion. I suspect the idea will be buried by ESD.
From Common Edge:
I didn’t publish my big-picture article in this newsletter (though I linked to it). From Common Edge, June 25: As Brooklyn Nets’ Value Booms, a Missed Opportunity With the Arena.
From Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report
June 24: Women's sports fans call for Koch family, acquiring piece of (progressive) WNBA's NY Liberty, to contribute $15 million to reproductive justice & civic engagement
June 26: Breakthrough? ESD anticipates new developer proposed for six foreclosed railyard sites, but no details yet about who, or contours of (likely) concessions requested.
June 26: At AY CDC, a curious motion to hasten tower progress at Site 5, catercorner to Barclays, omits scale but prompts talk of asking arena operator to pay for plaza.
June 27: Street co-naming block party June 29 honoring the late James Caldwell, former head of 77th Precinct Council and controversial Atlantic Yards CBA signatory BUILD.
June 28: The Brooklyn Nets trade Mikal Bridges, their best player but no cornerstone, to the New York Knicks for a draft haul, so they're poised to tank--and rebuild.
But it should be awful at the Barclays Center for at least a season. Will prices go down?
June 29: Barclays Center releases July 2024 event calendar: only five ticketed events, plus three free ones, none past the lobby. Are they renovating arena premium spaces or is it just a slow month?