Has the Barclays Center "put a dent" in Brooklyn's unemployment rate? Not at all (but nearby commercial property owners are winners)

Bruce Ratner likes to call himself a "civic developer" because the intent is to always "have an aspect of it, it has a civic component, it has some economic development, or some architectural, some aspect that really contributes back."

New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser, who  once promoted 10,000 Atlantic Yards jobs, wrote a valentine 7/23/12 to Ratner, headlined B’klyn revival’s ringmaster:

The arena will pump 2,000 sorely needed jobs into the economy, putting a dent into Brooklyn’s unemployment, which stood at an unconscionable 10.3 percent in May, compared to 8.2 percent in Manhattan.

And in the Summer 2012 issue of his promotional publication Brooklyn!!, Borough President Marty Markowitz claimed:

Barclays Center is its own economic engine, providing 2,000 full and part-time jobs, plus a shot in the arm to the ancillary businesses around the arena.

However welcome the jobs inside the arena--1240 full-time equivalent, or FTE--and those nearby, the dent has been minor.

A look at the numbers

Let's look at the most recent statistics from the New York State Labor Department.

The Labor Department states:

The data in the table above are not seasonally adjusted, which means they reflect seasonal influences (e.g., holiday and summer hires). Therefore, the most valid comparisons with this type of data are year-to-year comparisons of the same month; for example, March 2012 versus March 2013.

So there's an improvement between March  2012 and March 2013, from 10% to 9.2%, but it would be tough to attribute it to the arena, given that the percentage change from March 2012 to February 2012 was nil.

Even if the numbers in the Employed" category seem off--shouldn't there be fewer employed in February 2013 than March 2013?--this much is clear: with more than 1 million Brooklynites employed, and more than 100,000 unemployed, the addition of 1,240 FTE jobs, especially given that all but 105 come without benefits, cannot make a dent. Maybe a tiny indentation.

A retail wave

There are some clear winners: commercial property owners nearby who've seen the value of their property rise and/or the rents they command rocket.

The Real Deal reported 2/7/13 Thor Equities pays $23M for Barclays-adjacent properties:

Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities closed late last week on a residential and retail portfolio adjacent to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for $23 million in an off-market transaction,The Real Deal has learned.
The mixed-use development, known as Atlantic Gardens, consists of 24 rental units and nine retail shops along Atlantic between Third and Fourth avenues, seller Bennat Berger of BCB Properties told TRD. BCB and Arik Lifshitz of DSA Management had purchased the assets, 525-541 Atlantic Avenue, for $10.93 million just two years before, according to city records, but Berger said the actual price was closer to $11.25 million.
...Sitt plans to “reposition” the retail, Berger said.

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Barclays Center vs. MSG, the All-Star Game, and de Blasio's web of allegiances (and selective advocacy)

An article in this week's Crain's New York Business is headlined Garden CEO Hank Ratner dismisses new crosstown rival: He isn't concerned about competition from the Barclays Center.

Ratner, chief executive of Madison Square Garden Co. since it spun off from Cablevision in 2010, is  supervising the arena's $980 million renovation. He was less dismissive than the headline suggested, calling "Barclays Center is a good thing... Our biggest issue is there's only 365 days in the year and we cannot book everything that we'd like to book."

Told that Barclays, with basketball, concerts and soon hockey, looks like a rival, he responded:

I don't think anybody sees it that way. I'm surprised that you would frame the question that way unless you were just trying to be provocative. The Garden is the Garden, and it's been here since 1879. It sits on top of the busiest transportation hub in New York. It's where people and performers go for big shows. Where else are you going to have the "12-12-12" show? The fight of the century? It happens here; it always has and always will. We hope Barclays is successful. There's room for successful secondary plays around the marketplace.

Well, MSG surely has the edge, but the Barclays Center, with its high-profile events and generally excellent reviews, has surely become more of a rival than expected.

And, unmentioned in this article, the venues are the two finalists for the 2015 National Basketball Association All-Star Game. That's a head-to-head battle both very much want to win.

History vs. hip

Both will be shiny--the Garden will be done this summer--and the Record's John Brennan assessed it this way:

The Garden has all the history, the cachet, and well, what better location than midtown Manhattan?
The Barclays Center is located in the hot borough in Brooklyn, offering the league a much-needed younger, hipper vibe.
The NBA can’t lose, but….
I think that Barclays would have the edge based on freshness – except I wonder if the surrounding neighborhood could handle the clamor as well as Manhattan can with all its experience.

We may hear some more about that "clamor" at tonight's hearing on the scope for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.

The labor issue

There's another distinction, according to Public Advocate (and mayoral candidate) Bill de Blasio. The Daily News reported, in Public Advocate De Blasio tells NBA to nix All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden for ‘anti-union’ James Dolan :

The NBA shouldn’t have the 2015 All-Star game at Madison Square Garden because its owner is a union buster, a top city pol said.
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio fired off a letter to the NBA asking the league to shun the World’s Most Famous Arena in favor of Brooklyn’s upstart Barclays Center for the 2015 All-Star Game - citing owner James Dolan’s clashes with unionized workers at Cablevision, which he heads.
The strife includes a dispute over the controversial firing of 22 workers earlier this year.
“Choosing Barclays would ... ensure that the NBA does not give a tacit stamp of approval to the unfair, anti-worker polices of the owner of Madison Square Garden,” de Blasio wrote to NBA commissioner David Stern.

“Brooklyn would make a compelling host for the 2015 NBA All-Star Game, even without these pressing concerns. I urge you to do right by fans in the outer-boroughs,” he wrote.

Also see coverage in DNAinfo.

Now, there's compelling evidence (see Michael Powell's column) of troubling corporate behavior by Cablevision.

The Ratner connection

But de Blasio's advocacy is just a little selective. If he were truly a crusader for fairness, wouldn't he have written a letter protesting developer Forest City Ratner's failure to hire the long-promised Independent Compliance for the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement?

If he were truly a crusader for workers, wouldn't he have protested Forest City's deceptive claim that its prime construction subcontractor is a union shop or that modular construction shortchanges licensed trade unions? Might he have something to say about Bruce Ratner's inflated claims about arena jobs?

Consider the web of allegiances involving public relations firm BerlinRosen. The company represents de Blasio, the Communications Workers of America (organizing Cablevision workers), and Forest City. Ratner executives have raised money for de Blasio's mayoral run. BerlinRosen long represented ACORN.

Yesterday, Capital New York cited ex-ACORN head Bertha Lewis being at City Hall "for a press conference with union members advocating for Cablevision workers recently dismissed from their jobs, reportedly for labor-organizing activities." Lewis and de Blasio last month were part of a CWA press conference (joined by Council Member Letitia James) "on how Cablevision is shortchanging workers and customers" in Brooklyn.

So de Blasio's letter was no doubt easy to arrange.

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Forest City Ratner again deflects questions about Independent Compliance Monitor for CBA; contrast with Columbia, where local candidate has critiqued CBA

“Atlantic Yards is setting a new standard for inclusion and community involvement for a development, and the ICM [Independent Compliance Monitor] will be everyone’s watchdog to ensure we reach all of the goals and benefits we have agreed to in the CBA [Community Benefits Agreement]," Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner said in March 2007.

Since then, the developer has steadily avoided that contractual responsibility. “Hopefully we'll get it done soon," executive Jane Marshall said in November 2010, claiming the CBA only went into effect when the arena broke ground.

They [FCR] are going to retain a compliance monitor per the CBA, but they are going to wait until the housing phase,” a spokesman told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in January 2012.

The issue came up again last night during a bi-monthly meeting of the Atlantic Yards Quality of Life Committee, held at Borough Hall.

Has an Independent Compliance Monitor been hired, asked Peter Krashes of the Dean Street Block Association.

"I don't think so," Marshall responded, checking with a colleague and confirming, "The answer's no."

Arena hiring and the CBA

Later in the meeting, Terence Kelly, Barclays Center Community Affairs Manager, presented some familiar but upbeat statistics regarding arena hiring: 

• some 100 full-time jobs and 1900 part-time (200  housekeeping, 800 working for AEG on facilities, 900 working for Levy Restaurants) 
• approximately 80% of all hires from Brooklyn
• 35% from the priority Community Boards of 2,3,6,8 
• over 30% are NYCHA residents 
• over 120 employees are BUILD referrals 

“What type of benefits are provided?” asked Gib Veconi of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, in a question that surely an ICM could answer.

“I wouldn't be able to answer that,” Kelly responded.

“There’s no health benefits because they’re part-time employees," added Ashley Cotton, Forest City's External Affairs Executive VP. "However, we feel there's a benefit to being part of a union,” she added, noting she didn’t have the details of the collective bargaining agreement.

(Last July, she cited the “incredible training" available to employees.)

“Do they have health benefits as part of union membership?” Veconi followed up.

“No,” responded Cotton.

“Any options in terms of a savings plan, employer contributions?” he continued.

“I don't know but can get back to you,” Cotton responded.

Worker training

“Will there be with B2"--the first tower, now under construction--"the type of pre-apprenticeship training program that was initially promised for the Atlantic Yards project as a whole?” he asked.  (See part IV of the CBA.)

“The apprenticeship programs working with construction trades are all being developed right now," Cotton responded, "so I think the short answer is yes, but more details are coming.”

Given the closure of CBA signatory Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), “is there any party that taken the place of BUILD,” Veconi asked, responsible for managing the training.

“BUILD is not going to get replaced,” Cotton said, “but the entire CBA monitors us on a regular basis, particularly Charlene Nimmons [of Public Housing Communities], who was one of the key stakeholders and partners in the success of [the arena hiring].” 

Forest City has announced plans for working with (updated: not clearly apprenticeships) three existing job-training organizations. That raises the question of whether BUILD served more as a cheerleader than anything else, and whether there will be pre-apprenticeship training as described in the CBA.

From the press release:

FCRC and Skanska will work with the labor unions and organizations like Non-Traditional Employment for Women, Helmets to Hardhats, Construction Skills 2000 and Brooklyn Workforce Innovation at the Navy Yard’s Employment Center to attract local workers and others to diversify the workforce in a continuation of goals established in the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement.

The monitor again

"Are there plans or is is there a date on which you will hire an Independent Compliance Monitor?” Veconi followed up.

" I don't have a date,” Cotton said.

If the CBA were really monitoring Forest City. well, wouldn't Veconi would have gotten a different answer? (Remember how ACORN's Bertha Lewis in 2006 claimed the monitor would oversee implementation? Or how a year ago they said it was coming?)

The lack of oversight, and the Columbia contrast

Forest City has gotten very little criticism of its failure to fulfill the minimal CBA responsibility of hiring an Independent Compliance Monitor. Project supporters like Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who cite the CBA as the reason for their support, don't follow up, while project opponents have not made it a crusade.

Consider the contrast with the CBA related to Columbia University's expansion, which both has a dollar figure attached far larger--$76 million over 16 years--as well as distribution through a process that appears to have more more transparency.

And even with that, it's provoked significant criticisms, notably from City Council candidate Vince Morgan, who recently wrote to supporters:

"The former chairman of Manhattan Community Board 9, Attorney Larry English, has joined my mission to secure the $2 billion in jobs, benefits and contracts for minorities and local Harlem residents. He has also written a letter to the Empire State Development Corporation, requesting that the agency fulfill its responsibility to the Harlem Community."

English, in his letter, noted the failure, in five years, to hire an independent monitor required under the CBA, and asked the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the state agency overseeing both the Columbia and Atlantic Yards plans, to enforce the CBA.

Morgan subsequently wrote:

"Following my appeal to the Empire Development State Corporation, the agency has agreed to review Columbia University's hiring of Minority, Women and Local Firms on the Manhattanville expansion. This is just the first step in my mission to hold Columbia accountable to its promise of 7000 jobs and $2 billion in contracts and benefits. I have deep concerns that Columbia is distorting its reports by relying on hiring local majority firms to the exclusion of local minority firms. Columbia should take the initiative of releasing which firms have been given contracts and the dollar amount. I will not stop until every job, every contract, every in-kind benefit owed to Harlem is secured. "

The state agency has since announced it would request more details regarding Columbia's hiring record.

Is this more than what's been asked regarding Atlantic Yards?

I can't quite compare the two, but the dynamic is different: there's no one challenging the self-reporting regarding Atlantic Yards, despite defense of the Atlantic Yards CBA by signatory Bertha Lewis, who said it calls for an independent monitoring body that “does not have a dog in this fight” to oversee implementation.

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The Atlantic Yards B2 modular groundbreaking: narrative of innovation nudges aside questions about promises of housing and jobs

Yesterday morning featured yet another well-produced Atlantic Yards press event--not a press conference with questions and dialogue, but a for-the-cameras parade of speakers, inside a tent near the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, with a rectangular metal modular chassis--not yet filled with the components of an apartment--in the background.

Public officials and Atlantic Yards developers/backers all saluted Forest City Ratner's plans for 32-story, 363-unit B2, the tallest modular tower in the world and the fulfillment--so they said--of ambitious plans for affordable housing.

Well, modular housing--assuming Forest City pulls it off--would indeed be innovative, lowering construction costs and impacts, and potentially leading to a new industry and new jobs, changing "the way cities are built," according to Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Unclear, of course, is whether much if any of the savings would be passed on to the consumer. After all, Forest City Ratner executive MaryAnne Gilmartin told investment analysts last month: "We believe if we go modular, it would be invisible to the consumer. This building should perform at the level of finish, fit and feel commensurate with a conventional building, so it is priced accordingly."

News outlets including The Atlantic Cities (describing the modules as "14 feet wide, 35 feet long and 10 feet tall"), NY1, and the New York Observer focused on the modular angle. (Documents, including press release and fact sheet, at bottom.) No one--nor this blog, in earlier version--mentioned that the tower was long delayed; in fact, Gilmartin in September 2010 predicted starting in the spring of 2011.

Photo by Matt Chaban/NY Observer

Promises kept?

Speakers talked up the 2,250 "affordable" units, with the first 181 coming in the summer of 2014 when this building is expected to open.

The other two apartment towers in the arena block should start in a sequence six to nine months after the previous tower, but there's no plan yet for the flagship office tower, slated to deliver a good chunk of expected Atlantic Yards revenues.

“This is a promise made and a promise kept, the beginning of the most progressive affordable housing program in our city’s and country’s history," asserted Bertha Lewis, who helped negotiate the affordable housing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2005 as head of New York ACORN. (That MOU required ACORN to publicly support the project, and Forest City later bailed out national ACORN with a $1.5 million grant/loan.)

Actually, the promise of subsidized units may be met, but not the configuration promised. Speakers, of course, didn't mention the 2,250 market-rate units, or that fact that, as several civic groups pointed out, the subsidized housing wouldn't many Brooklynites who had hopes for the project.

“It’s not just that Brooklyn isn’t getting the affordable housing it was promised and is woefully needed,” said Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee. “By using up the available subsidies to finance smaller apartments for tenants in higher income brackets, FCRC is making it harder to build truly affordable units elsewhere in the City.”

The full video (via the Mayor's Office)



Elected officials in the room

In a sign of broader interest, if not support, from elected officials, those attending, as mentioned from the dais, included not only public supporters like Rep. Yvette Clarke and Council Member Dominic Recchia, but also Council Members Mathieu Eugene and Jumaane Williams, both (I think) supporters, and indicted Assemblyman William Boyland, whose sister Tracy ran against AY opponent Sen. Velmanette Montgomery.

Also, Assemblymember Joan Millman, a sometime critic of Atlantic Yards, attended, as did more forceful critic Council Member Brad Lander and longtime opponent Council Member Letitia James--both, apparently, wanting to know about affordable housing, at least.

Borough President Marty Markowitz was both ebullient and feisty, at one point stating sarcastically, "I see some folks who weren't able to make the groundbreaking of the Barclays Center. Some of you weren't able to make the ribbon-cutting... I want to say how thrilled I am you're here today." He didn't mention anybody by name, but I suspect he meant James and Lander.

Markowitz said he was thrilled by the economic development brought by big spenders coming to arena events, and jabbed back at those concerned about Barclays Center impacts: "By the way, the world didn't end. Atlantic Avenue is still there...  Some would argue that the traffic is moving faster on Flatbush Avenue."

"Bottom line, what's good for Atlantic Yards is good for Brooklyn," Markowitz declared. (Wow.)

Complication: affordable housing

Unmentioned were the complications in the narrative. Yes, Forest City plans a building with 50% subsidized housing. However, despite the statement by Lewis that promises were fulfilled, those 181 affordable units, all studios and one-bedrooms except for 36 two-bedrooms, hardly match the promise of 50% of units (in square footage) devoted to two- and three-bedroom apartments.

"Our commitment to the housing at Atlantic Yards never waned," declared Forest City Ratner Executive VP MaryAnne Gilmartin. "Nor did our commitment to the affordable housing. The new economic landscape, post-2008, however, created unprecedented challenges."

Her boss later seconded that. "What is most important, and what I care most about, is that it is affordable," Bruce Ratner declared. But of course the commitment to affordable housing did wane.

The 36 two-bedroom subsidized units, as I've reported, would not be distributed evenly across the five affordable income "bands," but would have only nine (instead of 14+) units for low-income households and 17 (instead of 7+) units for the highest middle-income band, with households earning well over six figures.

After the event, I asked HPD Commissioner Mathew Wambua about whether he expected Forest City would meet the pledge to build 50% of the affordable units as larger units. "I would talk to them about that," he said. "Certainly, I would support as diverse a unit mix as possible."

Can public officials enforce the pledge? "It's something we can be part of the dialogue about," Wambua responded. Note that city agencies did get Forest City to build more two-bedroom subsidized units than the developer initially wanted, but the number's still far less than the pledge.

Complication: union jobs

The challenges were solved, according to Gilmartin, via a new way to build, achieving world-class design, with greater efficiency and sustainability, with safer work conditions and lowered community impacts.

Who helped Forest City "crack the code"? Gilmartin cited SHoP, Arup, and Forest City colleagues, and then saluted new partner Skanska, which has joined with Forest City to establish a factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. (Unmentioned: partner XSite, whose partnership with Forest City was the subject of a bitter lawsuit.)

"One thing hasn't changed, and that's union labor, which will build this building, like all Forest City building," Gilmartin. In the spring, some 125 union workers will be working in the factory, along with 25 non-union workers.

It's been reported that workers in the factory will earn some 25% less than on-site workers, but Forest City claims that there will be the same number of work hours. There was no proof of that offered, and my back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the number will go down.

Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York City, explained, "We saw without that modular construction that these projects would more than likely not go forward. And we too in the building trades have a sense of community, a commitment to the community, and were equally concerned about affordable housing."

But if Forest City Ratner reneged on the affordable housing it would have to pay penalties and lose development rights, so the unions had more power than LaBarbera acknowledged, especially since Forest City needed union approval to proceed.

Also, the overall tax revenues from construction labor, given the lowered compensation and (likely) fewer numbers, should lower revenue estimates.

Bloomberg and his joke

"Atlantic Yards has already brought a huge boon to Brooklyn," said a lighthearted Mike Bloomberg, who later joked that he might qualify for the affordable housing when the tower opens in mid-2014.

Crain's New York Business reported:

Actually, he didn't say the rapid pace of construction at Atlantic Yards defied all expectations--after all, the groundbreaking for the first tower has been put off again and again. Rather, his "ahead of schedule" comment referred to his administration's overall goals for affordable housing. See video at 8:28.

Bruce Ratner

Bruce Ratner was proud, and a bit defensive. "It was said that we would build the Barclays Center and walk away," Ratner said. Not sure how many said that; after all, Ratner's profits also relate to the "entitlement" to build.

He offered effusive thanks to ACORN, Mutual Housing of New York, New York Communities for Change, and members of the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA).

Numerous backers of Atlantic Yards housing were in the room--some who testified at public hearings--and at least four CBA partners were there, besides Lewis: James Caldwell of the now-defunct BUILD; Charlene Nimmons of Public Housing Communities; Len Britton of the NY Association of Minority Contractors; and Joe Coello of Brooklyn Voices for Children.

"Bertha Lewis is our partner, and she is my friend," Ratner said. "How did I meet Bertha? She protested me, for weeks and weeks and weeks. And finally I said to my quote-handlers, 'Bring her up.'

"Like all marriages, we've had our ups and downs," he said, "but it's a wonderful marriage."

Bertha Lewis

Lewis took the stage to applause from a good number of followers in the audience.

"This project has been a long time in coming. I feel like I've been pregnant for eight years. And finally we're gonna burst this baby. And I got 14 more to go," the theatrical Lewis said, adding sardonically, "So, thanks for knocking me up, Bruce."

She said New York ACORN, "when we first heard about this project, we didn't really know... much about it," so "we polled our members... and, across the board, our members said, 'housing, housing. And if you remember, the original proposition here was to be all luxury housing."

However, when members were polled, they were not asked about affordable housing accessible to those in their income bracket. And the plan announced at the 12/10/03 public launch was to include affordable housing.

So it's difficult to understand what she meant by "the original proposition." In a 10/27/03 article, before Atlantic Yards was officially unveiled, New York Magazine reported:

Adjacent to a new arena, Ratner plans to build a $2 billion, 21-acre development featuring both retail and office space and some 5,500 units of housing, which he says will come in various-size buildings and serve various income levels.

According to John Atlas's sympathetic book on ACORN, Seeds of Change, ACORN surveyed its  members in November and December of 2003 and came up with a plan by January 2004, though the Housing MOU wasn't signed until May 2005:

Soon after the November 2003 election, Lewis began meeting with Jon Kest, sixteens neighborhood leaders... Ismane [sic; actually Ismene] Speliotis, the Director of New York ACORN Housing Corporation... They consulted with city planners, reviewed the city's housing data.... During November and December, the ACORN staff brought the issue to the membership... By January 2004, ACORN's housing expert, Ismane Speliotis, had come up with a plan...

Yesterday, Lewis emotionally saluted longtime ally Jon Kest, executive director of NYCC, who died recently, for the work he did helping establish the housing plan.

A Q&A with Skanska

Curbed published a Q&A with Skanska executive John Dolan, who said:

I think it's better for the industry that we find strategies to build elements and entire projects offsite to minimize the amount of construction that occurs on the work site. The Atlantic Yards site is very difficult to navigate around. We're reducing the amount of activity. There will be fewer trucks.

Atlantic Yards B2 Groundbreaking, press release, Dec. 18, 2012

Atlantic Yards B2 Fact Sheet

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Questions for the modular press conference: how do plans for affordable housing and union jobs compare to earlier Atlantic Yards promises?

Tomorrow, at a press conference, a host of people will celebrate the groundbreaking for the first tower at Atlantic Yards--a 32-story, 363-unit B2, which should be the world's tallest modular building.

Officials expected include Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Forest City Ratner CEO Bruce Ratner, Forest City Enterprises CEO David LaRue, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York President Gary LaBarbera, Skanska USA Building CEO William Flemming, and Bertha Lewis--the latter whose affiliation isn't billed, but who signed the May 2005 Affordable Housing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Forest City as the leader of New York ACORN.

At the groundbreaking, Forest City will display one of the 930 modules used to create the apartments, "50 percent of which will be affordable," according to a press notice.

50 percent affordable

But what does 50 percent affordable mean, and how does that comport with initial promises?

As I reported in August for the Brooklyn Bureau, the housing MOU promised not only that 50 percent of the rentals would be affordable but that 50 percent of the latter, in square footage, would be devoted to two- and three-bedroom units.

At other points, Lewis and Forest City claimed not that half the affordable square footage, but that half the affordable units would be two- or three-bedroom.

Instead, as Forest City said in a recent presentation (excerpt above), 20% of affordable units will be two-bedroom units, with no three-bedroom units.

Why so few? Because the city offers subsidy per unit, not per bedroom, and it costs Forest City more to build larger units. Also, the city and Forest City's Community Benefits Agreement partners have pushed back only partially, accepting a deviation from the pledge.
So, one lingering question: will Forest City fulfill the pledge in future towers?

Skew toward higher incomes

Also, as I reported in August, the two-bedroom units are not distributed evenly across the five affordable "bands," two of which are low-income, three moderate- and middle-income:

But Tower 2's skew toward higher incomes remains. Of the 36 subsidized two-bedroom units, nine would be occupied by low-income families, five would be set aside for renters of moderate-income, five for the first middle-income band and 17 would be subsidized for the highest affordable “band,” with monthly rents, of $2,740 today (plus electric), and surely higher when the building opens in a year or two.
While that’s some discount off market—new two-bedroom, two-bath high-rise apartments in nearby downtown Brooklyn cost $3,300-plus—that's too much for “the missing class” of people just above poverty, as well as those below the line who rallied with ACORN for Atlantic Yards.

That configuration may have been tweaked--no one's said so--but, if so, likely not significantly.

So, another lingering question: In the future, will the larger apartments be distributed evenly?

Construction jobs

There will be 125 union workers and 25 supervisors at the factory, according to Forest City Ratner. About 40% of the labor force should work onsite.

The rough math suggests 250 workers over 18 months, assuming they work steadily, though that's not assured. If so, that's 375 job-years to build 363 units, plus the jobs associated with trucking and other support services.

That suggests fewer than 7,000 job-years (not counting trucking, etc.) to build the 6,430 apartments planned. (That doesn't count the unbuilt office tower.)

Still, Forest City said the number of man-hours to build the first tower will be approximately the same as conventional construction, but wouldn't answer a question about a similar calculation: the number of job-years involved.

Will construction match the 15,000 and 17,000 jobs (actually, job-years) once promised for the project? They should show us the math for both the original and current calculation.

The Times reported:

Under the new agreement, Mr. La Barbera said union factory workers would earn $55,000 a year, 25 percent less than the average union construction worker. But, he said, the trade-off is that the factory worker will work steady hours throughout the year, regardless of the weather.

That still doesn't answer the question: does that mean the same amount of job-years for the project?

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More hiring at the Barclays Center; enlarging the pool, or coping with layoffs already?

There's more hiring at the Barclays Center, but, in the absence of any evidence of more jobs, it looks like they're just refilling or enlarging the pool of potential part-time workers.

If they're just re-filling the pool, then, that suggests some earlier hires are getting laid off. (I queried Forest City Ratner yesterday but didn't hear back.

It's doubtful that they plan to staff the arena with more people; a Forest City executive said last month "We wanted to be sure to open right, so some of the staffing levels, et cetera, have been higher than we would anticipate over the long term."

New hiring: concessions and housekeeping

A message from Community Board 2 yesterday:

Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) has announced two new job opportunities at the Barclays Center, for concessions workers and housekeeping positions.
These positions are separate from the recruitment drive held over the summer, as well as the overnight positions announced in October and the line cook jobs announced earlier this month.
FCRC has committed to prioritizing the hiring of candidates from Community Boards 2, 3, 6 and 8, NYCHA residents and graduates of BUILD.
Pre-screening recruitment events will be held in Downtown Brooklyn today through Friday, November 28-30. All interested and qualified candidates must attend a pre-screening event to be considered for a position. Registration is required to attend pre-screening events. Final interviews will be conducted starting Friday, November 30, 2012.

Registration is here.

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