NEW YORK | 590 Atlantic Avenue | 910 & 450 FT | FLOORS

[NYguy]

https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2025/11/19/cirrus-lcor-pitch-new-pacific-park-plan/

Pacific Park developers pitch new vision for long-delayed megadevelopment
“Contours of a plan” call for total of 9,000 units


By Kathryn Brenzel
November 19, 2025

Developers on Tuesday laid out the “contours of a plan” for seven remaining sites at Pacific Park in Brooklyn, describing a development that would add thousands of housing units to what was previously approved.

During a public workshop, executives from Cirrus Real Estate Partners and LCOR, the project’s new development team, pitched a plan that would result in taller, but fewer towers, and ultimately net 9,000 housing units for the megadevelopment (including those already built). The previous plan called for a total of 6,430 units.

If this version is pursued, the development would include five towers, instead of six, on sites that will require a platform to be built over active train tracks between Pacific Street and Atlantic Avenue. Density from the eliminated tower, dubbed B8 and located at the corner of Carlton and Atlantic avenues, would be shifted to the other sites. Meanwhile, B8 would become green space.

The total development, formerly called Atlantic Yards and first proposed over two decades ago, would result in 9.6 million square feet, compared to the previously planned 8 million. The average height of the project’s buildings would be 550 feet, instead of 350 feet.

The proposals are not final, and any changes will require amendments to the state’s general project plan, a method outside the city’s land use process that lays out the parameters of a project. That will be a separate process from the public workshops.

The changes, according to the developers, would speed up construction of housing, while also ensuring that more open space is part of the plan.

Cirrus’ Joseph McDonnell explained that shifting residential density from B8, which presented logistical challenges, would lead to faster housing construction. Most of that square footage would be moved to solid ground, rather than atop a platform. In other words, to areas where it is easier to build.

“This is a very constrained site. We’re not here to sugarcoat it,” McDonnell said. “We’re here to take what we’ve been given, and it’s imperfect, it’s an imperfect plan from a very imperfect development, and try to achieve more affordability and more open space.”

The development team, he said, is guided by wanting to build “more affordable housing sooner,” to add more contiguous open space and to ensure the affordable housing is available to a range of income levels. Given those concepts, he said it may make sense not to build on B8.

The team also proposed shifting development rights from a public plaza in front of Barclays — once envisioned as a Frank Gehry-designed office tower called “Miss Brooklyn” — to build two towers on what is known as site 5, across the street from Barclays and currently home to a P.C. Richard & Son and a former Modell’s that was recently converted into a youth basketball training facility. Tuesday’s workshop was held at the latter.

The towers on site 5 would rise a maximum of 775 feet, higher than the previously approved 620 feet, though even taller towers were previously contemplated. The developers are thinking of focusing the income levels of the affordable units on moderate- to middle-income tenants, with rents capped at levels affordable to those earning at most 130 percent of the area median income. The previously approved rents were affordable to those earning between 40 percent and 160 percent of the AMI.

[NYguy]

A little more info...


1




2




3




4




5




6




7





8




9




10

[NYguy]

https://gothamist.com/news/new-atlantic-...-with-taller-towers-higher-income-levels

New Atlantic Yards housing plan takes shape, with taller towers, higher income levels


By David Brand
Dec 8, 2025

After years of broken promises and abandoned accountability, a decades-old agreement to build hundreds of affordable housing units at the stalled site surrounding the Barclays Center is getting a makeover.

And the state’s economic development authority and a new team of developers behind the project say they want to hear from Brooklynites about their latest proposal at a public session Monday night inside the arena.

The development group, dubbed Brooklyn Ascending Land Co., is led by the firms Cirrus Real Estate Partners and LCOR, which took over the project in October from the bankrupt firm that failed to deliver nearly 900 units of affordable housing. They have dramatically revised the previous plan and now hope to build taller towers, increase the overall number of units and raise the income levels for apartments considered affordable.

The changes will make the complicated project more financially “feasible,” and potentially more lucrative, according to presentations the developers shared at public meetings over the past month.

Cirrus Managing Partner Joseph McDonnell told community members that building on several sites, especially over an active railyard, would be expensive. He said the project required far more apartments, with the affordable units reserved for higher-earners than the original plan, in order to make economic sense.

Before work above the railyard begins, McDonnell said the companies would first build on “solid ground” at a parcel on Flatbush Avenue, diagonally opposite from the arena, where a PC Richard and Son and defunct Modells are currently located. The new proposal calls for a pair of high-rises reaching up to 775 feet on the site.

And they have publicly discussed reserving the affordable units for individuals making up to $130,000 a year, and families of three earning close to $200,000. Those income levels are higher than the thresholds outlined in the earlier, unfulfilled affordable housing commitment.

Only after that would they resume work on the platform, McDonnell said.

[Crawford]

I didn't know it would be two 775-ft. towers.

And I'm happy these will likely be built first.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I didn't know it would be two 775-ft. towers.

And I'm happy these will likely be built first.

The entire complex will be higher overall, but they need to do whatever it takes to complete the development.

[NYguy]

https://normanoder.substack.com/p/atlantic-yards-in-2025-new-developers

[NYguy]

https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2026/03/24/esd-lays-out-pacific-park-phase-one/

A peek at the first phase of Pacific Park
Officials laid out some details of potential plans for the remaining sites





By Kathryn Brenzel
March 24, 2026

During a public meeting last week, Empire State Development officials provided some preliminary details on how the plan for the remaining development sites is taking shape.

The first phase, per Joel Kolkmann, ESD’s senior vice president of real estate development and planning, could include 2,000 housing units across two sites: site 5, which is across the street from the Barclays Center, and B6, which is located on the solid ground portion of a block where a platform will be built over the railyard.

Of those units, 500 would be affordable to those earning, on average, 60 percent of the area median income.

These details are not final and could change. But the potential first phase, as presented, is short of the at least 876 affordable units that were promised as part of Pacific Park. More affordable units are expected in the second phase, though rents will be higher for those income-restricted units, available to those earning up to 120 percent of the area median income. ESD officials indicated that the number of affordable units will ultimately exceed 876 when the project is completed.

[mrnyc]

they’re pushing taller how ‘bout that?

very good make it so.

[NYguy]

https://normanoder.substack.com/p/would-a-giant-new-building-approved

Would a Giant New Building Approved Up Flatbush Avenue Be a Precedent for Atlantic Yards?
The density argument may be transposed to the Site 5 parcel, though they're not quite parallel.


Norman Oder
Apr 21, 2026

What might Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park look like under the pending new plan from developers Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR?

It involves adding 1.6 million square feet—free “land” worth perhaps $320 million—to the originally approved bulk and eliminating the B8 tower, redistributing its bulk to the five other towers built.

We don’t really know.

While local elected officials, in a recent letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, seem mostly concerned about affordable housing (and oversight), questions of scale and density have received little attention. They shouldn’t be ignored.

Information about the project last surfaced on March 19, including the last public workshop (in this phase) and a meeting of the (purportedly) advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, or AY CDC.

We’re waiting for a Final Community Engagement Report from Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project.

Enter 395 Flatbush Ave. Ext.

Recently, negotiations over a giant new building—Brooklyn’s second-tallest and surely bulkiest—less than half a mile north along Flatbush Avenue reflected a debate over affordability, not scale.

The recent approval of 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension could be used to argue for an increase in Atlantic Yards density, notably at Site 5, a similarly sized parcel. Then again, the settings are not quite parallel, as discussed below.

.....During the approval process for 395 Flatbush Ave. Ext. (FAE), virtually no one challenged the building’s scale, only its affordability. Council Member Crystal Hudson did secure somewhat deeper affordability, more family-sized units, and some funding for Fort Greene Park.

When the 395 FAE plan was unveiled, I suggested that the increased density might be seen as a boost for Site 5. Then again, as the photos above suggest, Downtown Brooklyn has a remarkably dense cluster of towers, with no new park space and a reliance on internal amenities.

The Downtown Brooklyn project was approved with 1,263 apartments, or 1,120 apartments per acre. The Site 5 project might have 1,200 units, I’ve speculated, which would mean 1,074 units per acre.

How big would Site 5 be?

Site 5 was approved in 2021—as part of a state lease, since the city’s not involved—to have 1,242,000 gsf. I previously calculated the FAR as 25.5, which seems astronomical. However, that should be recalculated to account for the difference between gsf and zsf.

A 15% or 20% reduction would result in 1,080,000 zsf or 1,035,000 zsf. That would yield Floor Area Ratios of “only” 22.2 or 21.2, similar to the Downtown Brooklyn site.

If Site 5 has to be ever larger to maximize the number of affordable units and make the development economically viable, what trade-offs does that entail?

Well, even Jersey City, known for trying to supercharge development, set a 20 FAR maximum for parcels under 60,000 square feet at Journal Square, while allowing larger parcels 25 FAR—though, as I’ll write, one large development still has an FAR below that of 359 Flatbush Ave. Ext.

[NYguy]

https://normanoder.substack.com/p/with-less-than-48-hours-notice-new

It’s been reported that the state is ready to provide $175 million in subsidies, rather than $350 million as previously discussed, to build the platform over the Vanderbilt Yard. Is that a cut in proposed subsidies or just a new sequence? Either way, do the funds cover the first of two railyard blocks, or both? How much might be sought, in total?

Unofficial rendering, revised to suggest taller B9 and B5 towers. Also, the taller Site 5 tower on the right is 775 feet tall, and the shorter one is likely around 450 feet tall. The rendering’s angle suggests the latter dwarfs the tapered 512-foot Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, at far right.