On June 29, the Cirrus/LCOR team certified by Empire State Development (ESD) to complete the stalled Atlantic Yards project presented a more detailed, if still incomplete, vision for the undeveloped portions of the site. ESD also announced a virtual town hall meeting for Monday, July 13 to present more information on the proposed changes and take questions from the public.

Key takeaways

• The completed Atlantic Yards project would be among the densest residential developments in the world, but its affordable housing will be less accessible to low-income tenants than comparable neighborhood rezonings in Brooklyn.​ As such, an announced $700 million in State funding for the project’s rail yard platforms amounts to a subsidy for market rate and luxury housing.

• For over twenty years, Empire State Development (ESD) failed to realize the platform overbuild could not be self-financed by the buildings on it. The project's affordable housing now will be delayed to 2040 or later  because of this failure. So far, Governor Hochul and ESD have resisted calls to provide previously agreed-upon funding for affordable housing elsewhere as compensation for the delay.

• Although the State has now recognized the need to subsidize the platform infrastructure, it has only committed $175 million of what it acknowledges is a $700 million requirement. The absence of a commitment for the remainder is a completion risk for the project's housing and open space.​

• ESD has not announced any measures to improve accountability going forward but has pushed back on calls for an independent oversight body.​

​The details

The proposal would result in changes to the project plan and development agreements as shown in the table below:

Let’s look at what has been proposed in terms of benefit to the developers and to the public.

Additional details of proposed changes to the Atlantic Yards project emerged in March, including a request by developers Cirrus and LCOR for $350 million in new public subsidy for platform construction. Under the original agreement approved in 2009, it was understood that the project would be responsible for self-financing the the platforms. The developers also stated that the first phase of construction would include only a maximum of 500 low- and very low-income apartments, less than half of the 1,031 such apartments remaining to be provided under the terms of a 2005 affordable housing MOU.

In response, on March 30 six elected officials who represent districts overlapping the project area wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul expressing concern with what has been proposed so far. State Senator Jabari Brisport, Assembly Members Jo Anne Simon and Phara Souffrant Forrest, Brooklyn Borough President Antonion Reynoso, and City Council Members Crystal Hudson and Shahana Hanif asked the Governor ensure the following conditions are met with respect to affordable housing:

"The State must ensure the project provides the missing 1,031 affordable apartments for extremely low- to low-income New Yorkers committed under the 2005 affordable housing MOU from the existing approved project density, before factoring in affordable apartments to be committed in exchange for additional density that Cirrus and LCOR are seeking.

"At least thirty-five percent (35%) of additional housing from any increase in density that Cirrus and LCOR are seeking must be offered to households earning an average of 60% of AMI with at least 10% of the units offered at 40% of AMI or below. This affordability is consistent with New York City’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program which was adopted as part of neighborhood rezonings in Gowanus and along Atlantic Avenue recently approved under the City’s ULURP process. The additional affordable housing at these AMI levels should be delivered in the early phase and completed at least in proportion to market rate and workforce housing, not held until the end of the modified plan.

On March 16, Empire State Development (ESD) released its draft findings from an online survey and three community engagement meetings intended to gather public input on proposed changes to the Atlantic Yards project. The findings will be presented at a final online public workshop to be held this Thursday, March 19 from 6:30-8:00PM. We encourage you to attend and let your voice be heard.

Here are our take-aways from the draft report:

The median annual income of most participants and respondents was more than $150K.

That’s important, because the report purports to show a large majority of the public favors affordable housing for moderate and middle income earners. It’s true the median income of participants tracks with the median income of Prospect Heights, which has risen over 40% from gentrification during the years since Atlantic Yards was approved. However, moderate and middle income levels make up only about 7% of the more than one million rent-burdened households in New York City.

• Shouldn’t Atlantic Yards’ housing address the much larger population of low- and very low-income households struggling to pay their rent, including those displaced from the neighborhoods surrounding the project since its approval?