Developers of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards development on Monday said the long-awaited batch of affordable units in the $4.9 billion project could start being built as early as 2028.
The development group and officials from Empire State Development are currently negotiating the memorandum-of-understanding for the next phase of Atlantic Yards, which will add more than 8,800 apartment units to Prospect Heights and the corner of Fourth and Atlantic Avenues. Developers Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR plan to build five buildings over the railroad tracks that run along Atlantic Avenue (B5-10), as well as another building on Site 5.
At the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation Directors’ Meeting on Monday, Joseph McDonnell, a managing director at Cirrus, said the development team has a "fairly ambitious goal" to first break ground on B6 and shortly thereafter on Site 5, with Brooklynites living in about 1,200 income-restricted units by 2031.
He also said 75% of those units would be for low and very-low income residents.
Local officials, residents and advocacy groups have been pressing the state and development team to add additional affordable housing units at lower income brackets after the last developer, Greenland USA, did not construct all of the promised affordable housing units, and when the state did not enforce legally-binding penalties that could have yielded millions for the community.
Over the past two decades, the project, also known as Pacific Park, has brought forth eight mixed-use buildings that added 3,200 residential units, including over 1,374 affordable units.
Michelle de la Uz, the executive director of the nonprofit Fifth Avenue Committee, asked the executive committee to come up with an accountability plan to make sure promises are met.
"I'd love to see the details connected to ensuring this actually gets built," she said.
