New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers are considering pledging $175 million to help developers build a platform over train tracks at the long-delayed Atlantic Yards project, according to five people with knowledge of the plan.
The amount is half of what the project’s current developers, which include the firms Cirrus Real Estate Partners and LCOR, requested in March. The funding for the platform over tracks just east of the Barclays Center would come nearly a year after the state waived millions of dollars in monthly penalties after previous developers missed an affordable housing deadline. The joint venture said taxpayer assistance for the platform was essential for it to complete a planned park and thousands of long-stalled apartments and condos.
The Atlantic Yards development plan was first hatched in 2003. In the ensuing years, the firm behind the project pledged to build 2,250 affordable apartments in high-rises on top of and surrounding a new platform by May 2025 or face millions in monthly fines. But 23 years later, only 1,374 affordable units are complete, the platform is still missing and state officials forgave the fees.
Cirrus and LCOR took over the project after the bankruptcy of Greenland Holdings, a China-based real estate developer.
The scaled-down $175 million allotment is expected to be included in the pending state budget, the people with knowledge of the plan said. Four of the people with knowledge of the deal were not authorize were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing negotiations.
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, a Brooklyn Democrat, said she was briefed on the Atlantic Yards budget proposal and supports the state funding, as long as developers adhere to the terms of an earlier agreement, which included a pledge to price about 20% of the affordable units for households earning less than half the area's median income.
“I want it to be more than just the money,” Simon said. “I think we need to lock in the affordability levels, accountability and oversight.”
Simon was part of a Brooklyn community coalition that reached an affordable housing deal with the state and developers in 2014. She and a host of other Brooklyn elected officials sent a letter to Hochul in March outlining their demands for the project, including the adherence to the original affordability agreement.
Empire State Development, the state’s economic development authority, supported the developers’ request for assistance and said the platform would require public subsidy to be completed.
“Platform construction is incredibly complicated,” Joel Kolkmann, Empire State Development's senior vice president for real estate, said at a public hearing in March. “It's incredibly expensive. And I think if you look at a lot of projects throughout New York City that have platforms, there's been public resources dedicated to them."
An Empire State Development spokesperson declined to comment until the budget is finalized. A spokesperson for Hochul also declined to comment. Cirrus Managing Partner Joseph McDonnell and a spokesperson for LCOR did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The development will be financed in part by construction union pension investments. Building and Construction Trades Council President Gary LaBarbera praised the plan to kick in state funding.
“It’s going to lead to desperately needed housing for the community and it’s going to lead to economic justice for workers,” LaBarbera said. “The state is doing something very laudable.”
The state’s estimated $268 billion budget was due before the start of the state fiscal year, which began more than seven weeks ago on April 1.
The funding is expected to be included in one of the seven remaining budget bills lawmakers are planning to put to a vote next week, none of which had been introduced by Thursday afternoon.
The state Legislature is set to return to the Capitol on Tuesday to resume voting.
