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Bruce Ratner’s Forest City Ratner Companies and their Chinese partners have decided to rename their long in development multi-billion dollar Brooklyn project formerly known as Atlantic Yards. The development will now be called Pacific Park Brooklyn.
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The new name comes from the local Pacific Park which is located alongside the development.
The decision to change the name of the development came one month after Forrest entered into a new partnership with Greenland USA, the American division of the Shanghai based Greenland Holding Group, for it called Greenland Forest City Partners. Greenland now holds a 70% stake in Pacific Park Brooklyn and Ratner owns the other 30%.
The project has already been in development for eleven years. The two firms are sharing the costs of construction equally.
MaryAnne Gilmartin, president of the new partnership said, “While we just closed with our partner Greenland USA, we have been working collaboratively for many months in anticipation of breaking ground on three new buildings over the next year.”
But the name change may just be part of a typical business rebranding effort as the development has been met with controversy. It has been delayed so long due to lawsuits brought by the local residents who were concerned about it changing the character of their neighborhoods.
In response, the developers added a considerable amount of affordable housing.
Gilmartin said of that issue, “We understand greatly the need to bring housing to market quickly, especially affordable housing, and are very excited by the preliminary designs.”
It was also derailed for a few years after 2008 because of the Great Recession.
Currently under construction by the Barclay’s center, home of the Brooklyn Nets, the $4.9 billion project is slated to have 6, 430 apartments, of which 2, 250 units have been reserved for affordable housing, across fifteen rental apartment buildings. This will include all of the 298 apartments in an 18 story tower being built on the corner of Carlton Ave and Dean Street.
Located in the intersection of the thriving Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Boerum Hill, Park Slope and Prospect Heights neighborhoods, it will encompass 8 million square feet of mixed use development across a 22 acre site and into the surrounding neighborhoods. There will be an 8 acre public park, 247, 000 square feet of retail space and 336, 000 square feet of commercial space.
