Archinect - News

Brooklyn's Pacific Park development running out of time to honor affordable housing agreement

2019-08-13T19:00:00-04:00

In the 2014 deal, Forest City Ratner vowed to expedite affordable housing for the 17-building development, under threat of a lawsuit from neighborhood groups that alleged the firm had broken faith with a community benefits pact signed nearly a decade earlier.

After years of delays and false starts, construction on Brooklyn's Pacific Park development is finally moving along. But, the number of affordable housing units that the developer—Greenland Forest City Partners—agreed to construct through the project is falling short of expectations.

The agreement calls for a total of 2,250 units of affordable housing to be completed by mid-2025, but "so far, 782 have been completed. Another 94 will come online in a building now under construction, while approximately 200 units will be housed in two buildings set to rise early next year," minutes from a March presentation to the project’s oversight board show, according to The City.

"Additionally, 258 units at a tower that broke ground in April are slated to be affordable," writes The City. But some city officials don't think that the agreement can be met. "I don't think they'll meet the benchmark by 2025," one assemblymember told The City.

Greenland Forest City Partners has assured the public tha...

SHoP-designed Brooklyn tower – now world's tallest modular building – opens its doors

2016-11-22T14:32:00-05:00

After four years of delayed construction, financial missteps, and lawsuits, Forest City Ratner and Greenland U.S.A. are finally welcoming tenants into 461 Dean Street, currently the tallest high-rise in the world constructed with modular units. The 32-story tower on the edge of Prospect Heights and Park Slope offers sweeping views of brownstone Brooklyn, but its lengthy construction saga highlights the issues developers face when they build with modular construction in New York City.

The groundbreaking (but not trouble-free) development previously in the Archinect news:

The Chinese government is building affordable housing in Brooklyn

2014-12-16T14:44:00-05:00

Greenland’s affordable housing venture in Brooklyn, 298 apartments in an 18-story building in Prospect Heights, is part of a larger 15-tower apartment project in Atlantic Yards, (now rebranded “Pacific Park) adjacent to the Barclays Center, which will cost an estimated $4.9 billion to build. Half of the 298 units are supposed to be for families that make as low as 40% of the median income for the area—that’s about $33,560 for a family of four.

Continued Delays For Housing at Atlantic Yards

2014-09-04T17:53:00-04:00

Work remains halted at the site of the modular residential tower next to the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn. The building is part of the 22-acre, mixed-use development formerly known as Atlantic Yards and now branded Pacific Park. [...] The dispute ... centers on the design and construction of the pre-fabricated units that make up the modular tower. The 34-story residential high-rise was supposed to be completed in July 2014. So far only 10 of the proposed 34 stories are finished

NIMBYs go to court over "modern" home; Zaha gets an apology; global warming rages on: News Round-Up for August 25, 2014

2014-09-02T20:07:00-04:00

Friday, August 29:

MIT's MindRider helmet draws mental maps as you bike: The prototype is currently being used to create a mental-map and guidebook for NYC, and an upcoming Kickstarter campaign will attempt to fund the project for commercial sale.
In Beirut, a grassroots push for more grass: Lebanon's fifteen-year civil war made much of Beirut's green space inaccessible or dysfunctional. The Beirut Green Project is trying to bring at least a modicum of green space back to the city's residents.

Thursday, August 28:

Norwegian artists plan to open art academy in North Korea: Nothing's final yet, but the school is committed to its disbelief in sanctions or boycotts on art.
Alvar Aalto gets a close look from Google's Cultural Institute: Google's cameras go inside the famous Finnish architects studio, as well as a selection of his works, for a curated photo-exhibition.

Wednesday, August 27:

China considering drastic ban on coal: Chinese news outlets claim that work is underway to ban coal in Bei...

After 11 Years of Controversy, Atlantic Yards Becomes Pacific Park Brooklyn

2014-08-27T15:10:00-04:00

Big real estate projects sometimes go through name changes, but the announcement August 4th that the Atlantic Yards mega-development near downtown Brooklyn, which has faced steady controversy since it emerged in 2003, would become Pacific Park Brooklyn, was an unusual, strategic and dubious adjustment.