'Missing the boat': Residents push back on $5 billion plan to finish Atlantic Yards
The project's new developers inherit two decades of broken promises. Plus more neighborhood news.
Community members and local leaders voiced frustration at a town hall Monday night over the latest plan to finish Atlantic Yards — a megadevelopment near Downtown Brooklyn that was proposed more than two decades ago and has delivered only a fraction of what was promised.
Real estate firms Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR, the project’s new development team, unveiled a $5 billion plan to complete the long-stalled development, largely financed by loans from union pension funds, at an earlier public meeting on June 29. The state is likely to contribute roughly $700 million in additional subsidies, because several buildings would be constructed on top of an active rail yard.
According to the development team’s proposal, the plan includes six high-rises with 5,600 units — 1,000 condos and 4,600 rentals. Of those, at least 1,242 would be priced for low- and middle-income households.
At the Monday night meeting, residents and local leaders argued that the affordability plan skews toward higher earners.
“I still think that we are missing the boat in affordability,” said Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, who represents the 52nd Assembly District. Simon argued the deepest need is among households earning below 80% — and even 60% — of the area median income (AMI), tiers that make up a small share of the plan: 585 units, about 13% of the rentals.
In the New York City region in 2026, 80% AMI for a family of three is $122,160. By comparison, Brooklyn’s median household income across all household sizes was $83,770 in 2024, according to the NYU Furman Center’s latest data.
Leaders from Cirrus and Empire State Development, the state’s economic development authority, stressed that the proposed affordability mix was informed by extensive community engagement, and they plan to continue meeting with the community to improve transparency.
But some questioned whose input that engagement captured. Gib Veconi, who chairs the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, said the community engagement was “very heavily skewed toward upper-income families of the exact income bands that are displacing low-income and very low-income people in this neighborhood right now.”
Cirrus’ own leadership acknowledged the plan’s limitations. “This is not a perfect plan, because Atlantic Yards is not a perfect site,” said Joseph McDonnell, managing partner at Cirrus. “I think it’s actually maybe in a better place than some may think, but still a work in progress.”
The project’s density and size have also drawn concern from residents, particularly over a nearly 800-foot skyscraper proposed for the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Pacific Street.
“It is extraordinarily tall,” said resident Angelica Radacinski. Many of the buildings in the area have already had “substantially troublesome issues” with electricity, Radacinski said. “We lost our heat, our electricity, our hot water last winter when it was below zero degrees because the new buildings blew out our power grid.”
Nearby buildings, including 38 Sixth, an affordable building steps from Barclays Center and one of the few the original Atlantic Yards project produced, have faced their own problems. The building has been plagued by water outages and leaks, Gothamist reported. It has drawn more than 100 housing violations and 1,320 tenant complaints over the past two years, according to Gothamist’s review of city data.
For Atlantic Yards’ new developers, the project’s existing constraints, including its long history of broken promises and financial troubles, are the starting condition, not a surprise. “Atlantic Yards and other sites like it are a bit of an exercise in making lemonade out of lemons,” McDonnell said.
Heights Happenings
The opening night party for the biennial neighborhood fundraiser Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse will take place on Sept. 30 at 1 Monroe Place, an 1852 mansion at Monroe and Clark streets. Tickets will be released in late August.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is currently reviewing a proposal for the conversion of Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague St., which is set to become an amenities building with a Danny Meyer restaurant on the ground floor. The 1909 hotel — once called the “Waldorf Astoria of Brooklyn” — went downhill in the mid-1900s and later became a place for visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses to stay. It then languished in limbo until commercial real estate firm SomeraRoad bought it for $100 million last year.
Mike, owner of local ice cream truck Kustard King, spoke with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle about competition from the Mister Softee truck outside of the Pierrepont Playground.
The Department of Transportation is looking for an engineer to take on the challenge of fixing the deteriorating triple cantilever section of the BQE. “This is an urgent infrastructure priority project, and leading that effort is a career-defining opportunity,” DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn wrote in a LinkedIn post. The section of the highway under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade has confounded transportation officials for years.
An oversized semi-trailer blocked the intersection of Montague Street and Pierrepont Place for over an hour and a half on Sunday.
Diljān launched its pizza program, and preorders sold out within the day.
The New York Transit Museum at 99 Schermerhorn St. is hosting a curator talk for its special anniversary exhibition, “The New York Transit Museum: 50 Years of Stories,” on July 16 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
The Center for Brooklyn History is hosting a conversation between Columbia University historian Kim Phillips-Fein and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Steven Hahn about Phillips-Fein’s new book, “Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight against Equality in America.” The talk will take place at 128 Pierrepont St. on July 16 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Brooklyn Heights neighbor Matt Damon was on Kareem Rahma’s Subway Takes a couple of weeks ago, promoting Water.org, the safe-water nonprofit he co-founded. His take: “Water is underrated!!”
Nearby News
The Pride flag outside of Gallery Kooy on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill has now been vandalized three times. In response, owner David Kooy asked passersby to sign 100 little flags, and set up an exhibit showcasing the signed flags. “I wanted to make sure that this hate crime is balanced by a love crime,” Kooy said in an Instagram post.
The vandalized flag outside Gallery Kooy and Kooy's exhibit inside.
Chris Pine is suing a developer over a Cobble Hill townhouse deal, The Real Deal reported. The actor claims Eckstrom Development’s Carlos Saavedra failed to return $100,000 in fees Pine paid while negotiating a seven-week rental of the property at 487 Henry St.
Womenswear shop M.PATMOS is serving as a drop-off site for Brooklyn Book Bodega. Donate like-new and gently used books for babies, kids and teens at the shop at 358 Atlantic Ave.
Marshlands, a bathhouse and social club, is opening in Dumbo in 2027. The bathhouse will offer contrast therapy, red light therapy, hyperbaric oxygen and IV drips.
Greenpoint-based Sichuan restaurant Breeze is set to open a second location at 590 Fulton St. in Downtown Brooklyn this fall.
Colson Whitehead will discuss his new novel, “Cool Machine,” at McNally Jackson in Downtown Brooklyn on July 21 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
A wrong-way driver caused another car to crash into Garden Gourmet Deli and Grill at the corner of Union and Henry streets in Carroll Gardens on Sunday morning, CBS News reported. No one on the sidewalk or in the deli was injured. The driver, identified as Juan Tenorio Ramos, 24, had a fanny pack with MDMA, LSD and heroin in it, though he was not intoxicated at the time of the crash, according to the complaint. Neighbors have set up a GoFundMe to help the deli recover.