State Reduces Parking at Barclays Center Lot from 1,100 to 550

Move eliminates need for dreaded "stack parking," but critics say the ESDC needs to do more to protect area residents.

  The state has halved the number of required parking spaces at the Barclay’s Center surface lot, enabling developer Forest City Ratner to throw out its plan for the loud and slow “stack-parking."  The technique uses hydraulic lifts to load as many as four cars on vertical structures. But the process has been criticized as being loud and tedious, slowing traffic to a crawl when the 18,000-seat arena opens in the fall. At Wednesday night’s forum with Atlantic Yards-area stakeholders at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Empire State Development Corporation head Kenneth Adams said the state organization has agreed to reduce the number of mandated spaces from 1,100 to just under 550 at the lot located between Carlton, Vanderbilt, Dean and Pacific, …

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Barclays Center Jobs Announcement a Big Win, or No Big Deal? [POLL]

Separating the good from the not-so-good in Ratner's plan to employ local residents.

At face value, an announcement Thursday that developer Forest City Ratner planned to create 2,000 jobs to be filled by public housing and local residents was good news for the borough's unemployed. However, as the details came in, the picture got a whole lot murkier. As Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, pointed out in a statement, many of the jobs to be offered at the soon-to-be-opened Barclays Center are part-time and in traditionally low paid employment sectors including janitorial, food service and ticket sales.  Forest City Ratner later admitted that the "full-time equivalent" number of positions pegged to Thursday's announcement was actually closer to 1,240. That seems a far cry from the scores of well paying jobs promised …

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Triangle Sports Sold, ‘Neighborhood-Friendly’ Restaurant Coming In

The 97-year-old business across from Atlantic Yards will be closing its doors within weeks.

After just three months on the market, the iconic Triangle Sports building across from Atlantic Yards has been sold. Owner Henry Rosa declined to name the buyer until the contract is completed, but confirmed that the new business will be “neighborhood friendly.” Here's Park Slope reported news of the sale Monday.  According to Sharon Davidson, director of the North Flatbush BID, there was a bidding war and the top five bidders were all restaurants. She said one of them was Hooters, but Rosa confirmed that Hooters is not the buyer. Hooters also approached the nearby Pintchik Paint and Hardware about selling, but the hardware store turned them down, Davidson said, adding, "I think they (Hooters) desperately want to open in the neighborhood, …

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Atlantic Yards Changed Brooklyn Long Ago, Says NYT [POLL]

The transformation of Brooklyn has already been felt in the Atlantic Yards project – and the first phase, the Barclays Center, hasn't even been completed.

Though the Barclays Center doesn’t officially open until September, the Atlantic Yards project has already re-shaped Brooklyn, transforming “neighborhoods prized for their streets of tree-lined brownstones and low-key living,” says the New York Times. “The neighborhood is now becoming an entertainment mecca — anything that’s hip and of the moment,” Robert Schulman, of Flatbush Avenue’s Allied Orthopedics told the Times. The article calls out newcomers like Fish and Sip, Va Beh’, Empire Mayonnaise Co., Bark Hot Dogs and Woodwork as some of the shops and venues that have cropped up following the announcement of the arena and accompanying high-rise residential and office buildings. But the Times says that the changes are evidence that the …

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Atlantic Yards News Roundup

Recent reports on Atlantic Yards from around the web

With the Barclays Center hurtling toward completion, the hustle and bustle of Atlantic Yards seems to be generating more headlines than ever. Taken together, these stories reflect the controversy and excitement that inevitably comes with such a massive project. Here are a few of the most recent: Reaction to project mixed among local merchants. Earlier this month, the Real Deal reported on double-edged influence that this colossal construction project has had for local merchants. While lunch joints are thrilled at the noon rush of construction workers each day, other retailers are frustrated by rising rents and long lines that drive regulars away. When will Carlton Avenue re-open? The ever-vigilant Atlantic Yards Report questions Forest …

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Barclays Police Detail Still Up in the Air

News that the 78th Precinct would police the arena was premature, according to CB 6 district manager Craig Hammerman.

The city is still bouncing around who will be in charge of policing the Barclays Center when the 18,000-seat arena opens in September. Although it was initially reported that the 78th Precinct would police the Barclays Center, the decision on which precinct will keep order around the arena has yet to be confirmed, officials said. "No decisions have been made," Craig Hammerman, the district manager of Community Board 6 said on Wednesday night. "The police are unable to identify who leaked the information from the police to the press, but it's not true." The arena is technically in the 88th Precinct's borders, but a half-mile away from the station house in Clinton Hill. The 78th Precinct on Sixth Avenue in Park Slope is a stone's throw away …

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Is Barclays Center Ugly?: [POLL]

Judging the aesthetic merits of the city's newest sports arena.

Designed by Ellerbe Beckett and SHoP Architects, Barclays Center's mirrored glass and aged steel exterior continues to rise just a stone's throw away from some of the oldest and most historically significant housing stock the city has to offer. So as the arena begins to take its final shape in the middle of Brownstone Brooklyn, a question: Is Barclays Center ugly? Or is it a welcome, intrinsically modern, addition to the landscape of the borough?

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Brick By Brick: Raising the Roof

A photo update on Barclays Center construction.

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NYPD's 78th Precinct Will Keep Order at Barclays Center

Though the Barclays Center is actually located within the 88th Precinct, Park Slope station house is closer to the arena.

The NYPD’s 78th Precinct has been tapped to keep order at the Barclays Center, even though the arena actually falls in the 88th Precinct, reports the New York Post. Though the arena is technically located within the 88th Precinct’s borders, it is a half-mile away from the precinct’s station house in Clinton Hill, while only a block away from the 78th Precinct’s station house on Sixth Avenue in Park Slope, says the Post. The decision will mean more cops in the 78th Precinct, and the paper says that it could also create “mega-overtime” for the officers who have to deal with arena traffic, scalpers and unruly sports fans. So while the choice could be a win for Park Slope residents who will benefit from increased security, the article says …

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