TF Cornerstone Picks Up Two Pacific Park Sites for $143M
By Rebecca Baird-Remba February 26, 2019 3:55 pm
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TF Cornerstone has closed on its purchase of two parcels at the Pacific Park project (formerly Atlantic Yards) in Brooklyn for $143.1 million, Commercial Observer has learned.
The developer acquired two adjacent parcels at 615 and 595 Dean Street from Greenland Forest City Partners, a joint venture between the U.S. arm of Shanghai-based Greenland Group and Forest City New York, according to a TF Cornerstone spokeswoman and public records. TFC plans to build two towers with 800 apartments, retail, parking and 72,000 square feet of open space, in keeping with its previously announced development plans. It will break ground next year. TFC hasn’t said whether it will keep the same design or architect as Greenland Forest City, which had aimed to construct a 25-story condominium tower designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.
“TF Cornerstone has five decades of experience working on large-scale public-private developments, and we are very excited to bring our expertise to Pacific Park,” TFC Principal Jeremy Shell said in a statement.
The Elghanyan-led firm is technically taking over two development leases that Greenland and Forest City have with the Empire State Development Corporation. The leases will convert to ownership when construction is finished.
Although TF Cornerstone is mostly known for its extensive collection of Long Island City, Queens, rental buildings, it is slowly building a Brooklyn presence. In 2017, the company completed a massive 714-unit rental building at 33 Bond Street in Downtown Brooklyn, not far from Pacific Park.
Brodsky Organization also recently acquired a Pacific Park parcel at 664 Pacific Street, where it plans to build 300 rental apartments, 30 percent of which will be affordable, and a new middle school.
Greenland Forest City announced last fall that the two development firms would be acquiring three sites in the 22-acre megaproject, as The New York Post first reported. The news came after Greenland and Forest City restructured their joint venture to reduce Forest City’s stake in the project to just 5 percent, upping Greenland’s ownership interest to 95 percent from 70 percent in the process.
When it’s complete, Pacific Park will include 6,430 apartments, including 2,250 below-market-rate units, along with office space, retail, community facilities and eight acres of public open space. Greenland Forest City is also getting ready to break ground on the complex’s fifth building, a 500-foot-tall residential tower at 30 Sixth Avenue, at the corner of Atlantic Avenue.
