After more than 20 years of stops and starts, the final stage of Pacific Park may finally be moving forward.
A new development team will be selected by August for the long-stalled Prospect Heights megaproject’s remaining sites, according to Empire State Development. The agency is reviewing an application from a prospective developer but declined to provide any more information.
The state is setting new deadlines just as the project is about to blow past a key one.
Under a 2014 agreement, the developer (currently Greenland USA) was supposed to complete 876 more affordable housing units by the end of this month or face millions of dollars in fines. That isn’t going to happen. A platform needs to be built over active train tracks before any of those units can be constructed. It isn’t clear, however, if the state will enforce those penalties nor who would ultimately be stuck paying them.
“In an effort to move this process forward, ESD has set up an updated schedule of deliverable target deadlines for the development team while retaining all rights to issue liquidated damages,” an ESD spokesperson said in a statement. “ESD is actively pursuing paths to restart construction and remains in close dialogue with stakeholders to identify a permitted developer that can meet the moment.”
In November 2022, Greenland defaulted on $350 million worth of loans from Nick Mastroianni’s U.S. Immigration Fund, which raised the capital through the cash-for-visas EB-5 program. The loans were tied to six development sites for the Pacific Park project, where more than 3,200 apartments were planned.
Related Companies was in talks to take over the project but decided against moving forward. In January, USIF announced that it planned to bring Cirrus Real Estate on to co-develop the remaining sites, indicating that other development partners were expected to be brought on.
A representative for Cirrus did not immediately comment on prospective partners.
The company recently announced a partnership with Resorts World to build up to 50,000 units of workforce housing over the next two decades. The arrangement was an extension of an agreement reached with the Adams administration and the Building and Construction Trades Council to launch a $400 million fund dedicated to building workforce housing on public sites.
The state will need to sign off on the new development team, and the project will need to go through the state’s public review process. USIF also still needs to officially foreclose on the property to transfer development rights over from Greenland.
The 22-acre project, formerly known as Atlantic Yards, was first announced in December 2003. The project was initially delayed by years of local opposition and lawsuits, but was further held up by the financial challenges of its developers, as well as a few construction mishaps. Nine of the project’s 15 planned buildings have been completed.
