Atlantic Yards, Part “Two”

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Atlantic Yards, a mega-project off Atlantic Avenue once heralded as the centerpiece of the borough’s downtown revival, has had its fair share of supposed gamechangers.

This time, the state and the de- velopers are convinced the long-delayed proposal to build residential towers over a rail yard really can be completed, thanks to a fresh infu- sion of funding — even if it takes an- other decade, or potentially two, to fully materialize.

On Monday, June 29, state officials revealed a $5 billion plan to finally finish the project, which was first proposed in 2003. The backing is partially drawn from investments by union pension funds, alongside roughly $700 million in added gov- ernment subsidies to help construct the rail yard platforms.

Over the years, a revolving door of developers has made some prog- ress: The basketball stadium, Bar- clays Center, has been a success, and more than 3,200 apartments have been built. Yet despite the ar- rival of a new development team — Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR — 877 of the 2,250 promised affordable housing units, which were legally required to be available by May 2025, remain unbuilt.

The latest update, billed as “Atlantic Yards: Phase II,” aims to add six high-rise apartment buildings that would collectively bring 5,600 units to the neighborhood. Approx- imately 1,200 of these would be in- come-restricted, with 900 set aside for low-income residents.

The scheme will also add up- wards of five acres of open space throughout the project area, which runs from the chaotic intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in the west to the eastern tip of the rail yard, bookended by Vanderbilt Ave.

“People may have issues with it, but I hope there’s a shared feeling in this room that we’re glad we’re at this stage of having a plan for the next phase of this project,” said Daniel Kummer, the board chair of the Atlantic Yards Community De- velopment Corporation (AYDC), a 14-person regulatory body that includes both community members and the development team.

As they presented on the plans, the current developers looked to reassure residents and their part- ners at the unions of their good will. “I think some people sort of wonder, what takes you so long?” said Joseph McDonnell of Cirrus, conceding that it had been several months since his team had spoken to the public. “We’ve had a group of very talented individuals working through different iterations of what Atlantic Yards could be.”

“What we’re showing you today is not iteration one, or 20 — it’s it- eration 40 or 50,” said McDonnell.

But during a public comment period at Monday’s meeting, several residents and lawmakers none- theless voiced concerns about the implementation of Phase II.

“This presentation didn’t really talk about accountability,” said Mi- chelle de la Uz, executive director of the influential Fifth Avenue Com- mittee, noting that the developers had not been forced to pay a $1.7 million monthly fine for breaking the terms of an earlier agreement. “I would love to see the details con- nected to ensuring this actually gets built.”

De la Uz argued that the proj- ect should conform to the require- ments of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH), the city’s baseline for the proportion of apartments in a new building that must be afford- able, rather than existing under a bespoke system.

“If we’re giving five, 10, 15, or 20 more years, whatever it’s going to be to deliver this,” she said, “then I think we have to ensure that the public is getting the benefits in real ways.”

Assemblymember Jo Anne Si- mon, recently reelected to a seventh term, agreed with de la Uz’s assess- ment. Yet she directed most of her scrutiny towards Site 5, a lot across the street from Barclays Center that

was previously occupied by P.C Richards and Modell’s.

“There’s no there there,” said Si- mon. “It’s a very small site. You’re talking about now 1.45 million gross square feet of residential space. Brooklyn Tower — which I just want to say annoys me very much, and we’re going to use that as an example, although it really is a one-off, unusual thing — has a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 15. If Site 5 is a million square feet, you’re talk- ing about an FAR of 25, which is more dense than anything else. And there’s no public realm, no open space there.”

“It’s unfair, if a family is living at Site 5, for them to schlep over to what someday may be the Gar- den of Eden that we were promised twenty-something years ago,” Si- mon stressed.

Although many involved with Atlantic Yards expressed a healthy degree of skepticism at the lat- est news, the product of decades of failed promises, others also ex- pressed relief at having what seems to be a financially viable path for- ward.

“I’ve been involved with this board since its inception in 2015,” said Kummer, “and I’ve been wait- ing for this day for quite some time.”

For more details about the up- dated plan, visit youtube.com/ watch?v=NfBTVtc3Mao to watch the AYDC presentation.