'No excuse': Local officials urge Hochul to collect millions in Atlantic Yards penalties

A group of Brooklyn elected officials, including three members of congress, say it’s time for New York state to collect millions of dollars in monthly fines from the owner of the Atlantic Yards development over its failure to deliver nearly 900 affordable apartments by a legally required deadline.

The Chinese developer Greenland and its investors were supposed to complete the affordable housing by the end of May, according to the terms of a 2014 agreement. But when the deadline came and went, the state’s economic development authority opted to suspend the $1.75 million in monthly penalties outlined in the 11-year-old contract. The state was supposed to invest that money in a fund to help build affordable housing elsewhere in the borough.

In a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul shared with Gothamist, U.S. Reps. Yvette Clarke, Dan Goldman, Nydia Velázquez and other lawmakers called that unacceptable.

“There is no excuse to deprive the community of the benefits it was promised, especially affordable housing,” they wrote.

The dispute traces back more than a decade, when the Atlantic Yards owner agreed to build a platform over the train tracks along Atlantic Avenue and construct 876 affordable apartments by May 31, 2025 or fork over $2,000 a month for every missing unit. The agreement followed years of inaction around previous promises to build affordable housing east of Barclays Center since the project was first proposed in 2003.

The project changed hands soon after the 2014 agreement, but the new developer, Greenland, was still bound by the same terms. Greenland is now facing foreclosure and has failed to even break ground on the platform.

Days before the housing deadline, Empire State Development, New York’s economic development authority, told Gothamist it was revising the terms of the agreement to give Greenland and the other firms involved time to transfer development rights and launch a new planning process.

The local lawmakers who signed the letter said that decision only undermines public trust in pledges by government officials and project developers.

“Our community has grown severely distrustful of this project, and our constituents deserve to know that their government is looking out for their best interest and delivering on promises made,” the elected officials wrote.

Already, opponents of a plan to build 7,700 apartments and modernize ports at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Red Hook are pointing to the Atlantic Yards fiasco to cast doubt on the city’s promises and the project’s approval process.

Councilmember Crystal Hudson, whose district includes the Atlantic Yards site, drafted the missive to Hochul and Empire State Development. Hudson told Gothamist that it was “unconscionable” for New York to suspend the fines.

“The state has an obligation to deliver on its promises and fight for every unit of affordable housing we can muster to stop the rapid gentrification of neighborhoods like Central Brooklyn,” Hudson said in a written statement. “We will not stand idly by.”

The other signees include Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, an original member of the community coalition that reached the affordable housing deal in 2014, as well as Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, state Sen. Jabari Brisport, Councilmember Shahana Hanif, and Assemblymembers Robert Carroll and Phara Souffrant Forrest.

Spokespeople for the governor did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawmakers’ demands for Atlantic Yards, which has been rebranded as Pacific Park in the years since the project was first announced in 2003.

Empire State Development spokesperson Matt Gorton said the agency "shares the community's frustrations with the pace of construction of affordable housing at Atlantic Yards," and that the state will impose the penalties if the developer fails to meet a revised timeline for transferring development rights and beginning a new community engagement process.