Weekly Digest: Uncovering Negotiations over the Project's Future. Stay Tuned.
Weekly Digest: Uncovering Negotiations over the Project's Future. Stay Tuned.
Greenland USA sought to supersize project, adding nearly 2,700 apartments in six railyard towers, plus Site 5 opposite arena. Could expansion plan recur with successor, perhaps announced this week?
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.
In January, I filed a broad Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with Empires State Development (ESD), regarding discussions and negotiations over the future of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.
In late May, I received an interesting trove of documents.
(The state authority, while not as transparent as it might be—note short lead times and vague agendas before meetings—does a better job responding to FOIL requests than, say, the New York City Mayor’s Office, which perpetually postpones responses.)
Analyzing the documents, I ultimately wrote a two-part series. The first was published in this newsletter Aug. 1 as To Rescue Atlantic Yards, Developer Sought to Supersize Project. (The follow-up, adding texture, comes tomorrow.)
As I wrote, developer Greenland USA sought permission to add 1.8 million square feet—the volume of more than six Williamsburgh Savings Bank towers—to seven sites already approved for substantial buildings, boosting their value by hundreds of millions of dollars, while gaining extensions and other concessions from New York State authorities.
While the plan didn’t work, a version is likely to recur, perhaps as soon as this week, when a meeting of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC) may reveal project plans, perhaps involving the developer Related Companies.
The meeting’s timing is curious, since the AY CDC only meets on an accelerated schedule when something is brewing.
Behind the story
Why did it take more than two months?
Well, I was also busy at work on the City Limits article published July 24, Despite New Owner’s Promised Upgrades, ‘100% Affordable’ Atlantic Yards Building Endures Hot Water Outages, Broken Door, Even Bees, and I wanted that to emerge first.
Once I learned at the AY CDC meeting June 25 that ESD was expecting a new developer to emerge and the AY CDC Chair made a curious motion to advance plans for Site 5, I needed to step up.
As I worked my way through the issues, I recognized that graphics were needed, so I commissioned graphic designer Ben Keel, who since 2017 has contributed valuable graphics to my site(s), to produce an increasing number of graphics. One final graphic was finished just before publication on Aug. 1.
Diminishing interest
Note: I tried, not too hard, to sell it as a freelance article, but there’s little appetite for coverage of this project.
The publication that’s covered Atlantic Yards most thoroughly in recent years, albeit with a real-estate tilt, is industry publication The Real Deal, which won’t publish me.(They first reported Related’s potential role, but haven’t even picked up my scoop, yet.)
A Google News search on “Atlantic Yards,” sorted by relevance, delivers, at the top of the list, a Feb. 2 article from The CITY, Auction of Atlantic Yards Sites Endangers Hard-Fought Housing Promises and a Dec. 13, 2023 piece from NY 1, Atlantic Yards project continues to face delays 20 years later.
Both are a wee bit out of date.
From this newsletter
Aug. 1: To Rescue Atlantic Yards, Developer Sought to Supersize Project.
From Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report
July 29: Like a game of telephone: how numerous errors sneak into a recent story about the future of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. Does anyone care about fact-checking?
July 30: As Ticketmaster-sponsored New York Liberty summer camp uses truncated Ticketmaster Plaza, another reminder of plaza giveaway to arena operator Joe Tsai's BSE Global. Is this public space, private space, or what?
July 31: Barclays Center August 2024 calendar: 12 ticketed events: seven concerts, three WNBA games, and two bull riding contests, with plaza parties (plus protests?). Stay tuned.
July 31: Revising perspective on Site 5 plans: 2016 proposal from developer Greenland minimized change in scale. Alternate view shows tower dwarfing bank and B1.
No, this isn’t definitive, and we don’t know if/how much Site 5 would block views of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, aka One Hanson.
But we deserve alternatives. This view, of course, was a precursor to my newsletter article the next day on the updated 2021/2023 proposal for Site 5.
Aug 2: From my article about the proposed Atlantic Yards rescue plan: a second look at graphics and charts. For example, the image below suggests how incremental open space might be added by shrinking the footprint of the B6 and B7 towers.
Aug. 2: Are Atlantic Yards changes (like a new developer and new deal) brewing? Empire State Development schedules surprise meeting of advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation for Aug. 8. No agenda yet.
Aug. 3: The inevitable Atlantic Yards renegotiation(s): stay tuned for more. Will there be news on Thursday? A flashback to a 2023 prediction and an acknowledgment that a renegotiation had been happening all along.