Weekly Digest: Will Fortress Have Control of the Six Railyard Sites?
Evidence (plus more today) of the under-the-radar investor's role. Also, advisory group meeting postponed until Tuesday. Maybe some answers then?
This digest offers a way to keep up with my Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report blog and my other coverage in this newsletter and elsewhere.
Last week was supposed to include a meeting of the (purportedly) advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC). That would offer an opportunity to raise some big questions facing the project, such as the May 31 deadline, with penalties, for the project’s 876 unbuilt affordable housing units.
The meeting has been postponed until Tuesday (see below), but the same questions recur: Will Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, enforce the penalties? What might the AY CDC advise?
What’s the role of Fortress?
Before the scheduled meeting, I published one article in this newsletter, citing evidence that the six railyard development sites (B5-B10)—collateral for loans from immigrant investors under the EB-5 program—might be controlled by Fortress Investment Group, a below-the-radar company.
The meeting’s postponement allowed me to publish another article today, in my blog, that offers corroborating, if not definitive, information about Fortress’s role.
From this newsletter
March 18: Who Really Controls the Six Railyard Sites? Maybe Fortress is in the Driver's Seat.
The private investment firm (owned mainly by Abu Dhabi!) may now control the EB-5 collateral. Can Empire State Development clarify this?
From Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report
March 19: Departed Net Ben Simmons selling DUMBO pad less than two years after he moved in, aiming for nearly $3M in profit. (Unlikely, but you never know.)
March 20: City Planning Commission advances Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan. Two Commissioners vote no, pushing for more affordability and required industrial space.
These concerns were advanced at the Planning Commission’s public hearing, covered in my Feb. 13 article in City Limits. The rezoning area starts east of Vanderbilt Avenue, the eastern border of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.
March 20: Atlantic Yards meeting canceled for lack of quorum, will be rescheduled.
March 21: Atlantic Yards advisory meeting rescheduled for 3 pm on Tuesday, March 25, in Manhattan. Will there be any answers? (See link for info about need to RSVP and file comments a day before the meeting.)
March 23: Who controls the Atlantic Yards collateral? More evidence that Fortress has key role, which New York State should clarify.