In the new Atlantic Yards plan, the public pays more but gets less

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.

New platform subsidy

Although not described in the developer presentation, the most significant  change to the Atlantic Yards project would be $700 million in public subsidy for platform infrastructure over the Vanderbilt rail yard. The tremendous figure represents an admission by ESD that the original plan to have residential development over the rail yard finance the cost of the necessary platforms wasn’t viable. 

Providing public subsidy to fund the Atlantic Yards platforms is one of the very few leverage points in a negotiation in which the development team has a lock on the project due to its shrewd acquisition of the corporate debt of previous developer Greenland USA. If the new proposal improved upon Atlantic Yards’ current commitments for public goods like affordable housing and open space (discussed below), the subsidy might have been justifiable. As currently proposed, it is an unqualified win for the development team, and an abdication of the State’s duty to deliver on decades-old public promises. 

Increased floor area and unit density 

The proposed changes increase the total floor area of the project by 20% or 1.6 million square feet; allow the number of apartments to be increased by 37% or 2,832; allow the height of the tallest Atlantic Yards building to grow by almost 18 stories (or 29%); and allow the average height of buildings over the rail yards to increase by a whopping 61% versus the current plan. The additional development rights significantly increase the value of the land the new development team now controls, and cement Atlantic Yards’ position as the densest residential development in New York City, comparable to megaprojects in Asia. It is expected that the development team will retain the ability to sell lots to other developers in the future.

Part of the value of increased entitlements like these is often recaptured by government to pay for public goods. At Atlantic Yards, the principal public goods offered have been affordable housing, open space and jobs. The changes proposed so far to those project components either meaningfully reduce their value to the public or are neutral. Details about other proposed benefits like community facilities are still incomplete, so the huge increases in entitlements revealed thus far must be considered big wins for the development team, but deliver no value to the public.

Weakened affordable housing commitment 

The recent Gowanus Rezoning and Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan (AAMUP) passed by the City Council both called for affordable housing to be provided under New York City’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) program Option 1. MIH Option 1 requires buildings in the rezoned areas to offer 25% of their apartments as affordable housing targeting tenants earning an average of 60% AMI ($91,620 for a family of 3), with 10% targeting an average of 40% AMI ($61,080 for a family of 3). Developers are obligated to provide these permanently affordable, rent stabilized apartments without receiving public subsidy.

While developers have asked for a 48% increase in the number of market rate apartments at Atlantic Yards, they are offering to build only 16% more affordable apartments. The lack of parity means that the proposed Phase II development will require only 22% of the apartments to be affordable, compared to the 25% that was required of nearby rezonings in Gowanus and AAMUP. Under the proposed affordable housing plan, the majority  of Phase II apartments would target tenants earning 80% of Area Median Income or more (in 2026, $122,160 for a family of three). The current proposal would reduce the percentage of total apartments in the completed project being income-restricted from the 35% commitment that was negotiated as part of BrooklynSpeaks’ 2014 settlement with ESD to only 30%. And just 11% of apartments would target families earning less than 80% AMI.

BrooklynSpeaks’ settlement also set a deadline of May 2025 for Atlantic Yards’ 2,250 affordable apartments to be completed, and liquidated damages of $2,000 per month for every apartment not completed by then to be used to create and preserve affordable housing in the community districts 2, 3, 6 and 8 that surround the project. At the time of the deadline, 877 affordable units had not been started, representing monthly liquidated damages of $1,754,000. Based on what has been shared about the anticipated timeline for Phase II construction, we estimate the liability for damages would rise to nearly $180 million. However, in October 2025, ESD unilaterally agreed to allow the new development team to avoid the liability by making a payment of only $12 million to the New York City Housing Trust Fund. The shortfall of $168 million could help to fund 100% affordable projects in the AAMUP rezoning which contain approximately 850 apartments.

The State is failing to require the project be accountable for the affordable housing agreed upon in a 2005 community benefit agreement, and is itself reneging on a 2014 settlement agreement with BrooklynSpeaks to either deliver promised affordable housing on a timely basis, or to compensate the public by funding it elsewhere if necessary. It is not only a devastating betrayal of decades-old promises to address displacement in Brooklyn, it’s unacceptable and shocking given the depth of the affordability crisis that New Yorkers face.

Open space

During public meetings on November 18, 2025; December 8, 2025; January 22, 2026 and March 19, 2026, the Cirrus/LCOR team proposed leaving the B8 development site on the eastern rail yard platform undeveloped for use as publicly-accessible open space, thereby increasing Atlantic Yards’ open space from 8 to 9 acres. In exchange, the team asked if participants would be willing to accept taller buildings on the other five rail yard sites. However, the team’s June 29 presentation reduced the proposed increase to only half an acre—a mere 6% increase in project open space! At no time in those public meetings were the details of the proposed trade off of slightly more open space for 61% increase in building height shared.

Further, the last part of the project to be developed is the eastern rail yard block bordered by Atlantic Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue, Pacific Street and Carlton Avenue, where construction may not be complete until after 2040. The block not only contains the B8 lot proposed to be programmed as open space, but it forms a crucial connection between open space on the western rail yard block and that which has already been completed on the block between Pacific Street, Vanderbilt Avenue, Dean Street and Carlton Avenue. Although the need for $700 million in funding for platform infrastructure has been stated, the State has thus far only committed $175 million as partial funding for the western platform. If a funding mechanism for the eastern platform can’t be agreed, or development is delayed for other reasons, the public will be left with two isolated islands of disconnected open space, perhaps indefinitely.

With no accountability, the public pays more but gets less

Past promises of affordable housing and open space at Atlantic Yards didn’t materialize because ESD allowed prior developers to take outsized risks, then failed to hold them accountable when those risks were realized. ESD now asks the public to forgive broken promises, and forget about past commitments as it once again moves forward with a plan to develop the easiest and most profitable parts of the remaining project first, and save the most difficult ones for the end. No changes to project management or governance that might prevent the types of delays that have plagued Atlantic Yards for years have been announced. Nor have any limits on the development team’s ability to sell off development rights been announced.  Commitments for public benefits made in the past are being weakened or abandoned, while New Yorkers are expected to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars more. It’s absolutely unacceptable.

What ESD must explain at its town hall meeting

• Why is ESD providing subsidy to offset the cost of infrastructure, but allowing the developers to offer less affordable housing at higher income levels than the Gowanus and AAMUP rezonings?

• Atlantic Yards was originally approved to meet housing and affordability needs in Brooklyn. Under the current proposal, the completed project’s affordable housing would largely target higher-income tenants who are displacing those who earn less. How does that meet New Yorkers’ housing and affordable housing needs today?

• In 2014, ESD agreed that completing 2,250 affordable apartments by May 2025 was necessary for them to be accessible to Black residents in community districts 2, 3, 6 and 8. Under the new proposal, those apartments may not be finished until after 2040. Why aren’t Governor Hochul  and ESD collecting or covering the agreed-upon liquidated damages so that more affordable housing can be provided earlier?

• Does ESD believe participants in the community engagement sessions understood the development team was proposing increasing open space by 6% in exchange for a 61% increase in building height?

• The Phase II proposal illustrates how accountability continues to be absent at Atlantic Yards. ESD has pushed back on calls for independent oversight. How does the agency propose to regain the public’s trust?

Registration for the ESD’s Atlantic Yards town hall meeting is available here.