Public-private development is failing the public. How can we fix it?
A virtual panel discussion
City and State governments increasingly rely on public-private development partnerships to provide public goods such as affordable housing, open space, and job creation. Yet, recent experience with approved projects like Penn Station and Atlantic Yards, as well as questions about proposed projects like the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, raise concerns about major development projects not meeting their stated public commitments.
On December 15, we assembled an expert panel to discuss why it has been difficult to realize commitments for public benefits from government-sponsored development projects, and what can be done to improve outcomes in the future. Their experience and insight can help ensure mistakes of the past are not repeated in the next phase of Atlantic Yards. You're invited to listen to the discussion on our YouTube channel.
What Empire State Development needs to know about housing, density, open space and accountability at Atlantic Yards
Submitted by brooklynspeaks on November 16, 2025 - 2:54pm
On Tuesday, November 18, Empire State Development will be hosting the first of four public workshops regarding a new plan for unbuilt parts of the Atlantic Yards project over the rail yards along Atlantic Avenue and at the block known as Site 5 bordered by Flatbush Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Fourth Avenue and Pacific Street across from the Barclays Center arena.
Date: Tuesday, November 18
Time: 6-8PM
Location: Brooklyn Basketball Training Center, 140 Flatbush Avenue (across from Barclays Center)
BrooklynSpeaks urges community members and elected officials to attend. Because Atlantic Yards is a State-sponsored project under the UDC Act, no review of the new plan by Community Boards, the Borough President, the City Planning Commission or the City Council is required. The announced four meetings represent what may be your only opportunity for input into what will likely be more than a decade of additional development at the Atlantic Yards site. Register for the meeting here.
The November 18 meeting is expected to address density, affordability and open space. Here is what Empire State Development and the new development team need to hear. [Download a PDF of this information.]
City, State and Congressional representatives demand Governor Hochul collect affordable housing damages
Submitted by brooklynspeaks on June 17, 2025 - 7:00pm
Stating that "our community has grown severely distrustful of this project," ten Brooklyn elected officials sent a June 18 letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Empire State Development President Hope Knight demanding that ESD move to collect liquidated damages from Atlantic Yards developoer Greenland USA for failure to meet a May 2025 deadline to complete the project's affordable housiing.
U.S. Representatives Daniel S. Goldman, Yvette D. Clarke, and Nydia Velázquez; State Senator Jabari Brisport; Assembly Members Robert Carroll, Jo Anne Simon and Phara Souffrant Forrest; Borough President Antonio Reynoso; and City Council Members Crystal Hudson and Shahana Hanif all signed the letter, which noted that the funds due "can go toward immediate use to address the affordable housing shortage Greenland has exacerbated by failing to construct the required 876 missing units by deepening the affordability of new buildings on city-owned land in the nearby, recently-rezoned Atlantic Avenue corridor."
