The Atlantic Yards Park Prospect Heights Is Promised Is the Last Piece in Line
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
The headline feature of the revised Atlantic Yards plan for Prospect Heights is a new open space. The state's draft drops Building 8, a tower once planned for the rail yard between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, and puts what developers call a "signature" public open space on its parcel. For anyone looking at Dean Street, Pacific Street or Vanderbilt Avenue, a park in place of a 50-story building looks like good news.
The schedule tells a different story. That open space is on Block 1121, the last block in the construction order, and the state has no plan yet to pay for its platform. The changes coming first are a block and a half west, at Site 5 and on the Sixth-to-Carlton block. Two buyers a few hundred feet apart could face timelines that differ by a decade.
Empire State Development, the state authority overseeing the project, released its Draft Scope of Work in August 2026. That document starts the environmental review for what remains of the project. It lays out the construction order:
The draft projects construction from 2028 to 2040. It also says the schedule "is subject to some uncertainty" and that project documents are expected to allow more time before the developer would be found in default. So 2040 is the state's planning assumption, not a promise.
Building over a working rail yard requires a deck before any tower can go up, and that deck is the expensive part. The new development team is a joint venture of Cirrus Workforce Housing and LCOR, which ESD approved in October 2025 after the previous team left. Its July 2026 memorandum of understanding with ESD says the first platform block depends on $350 million in state money. When the memorandum was signed, $175 million had been appropriated and ESD was still seeking the other $175 million.
The memorandum does not fund the second block. At a September 14 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, ESD executive vice president Arden Sokolow put the estimated subsidy for Block 1121 at another $350 million, for about $700 million across both blocks. As City Limits reported, she said, "It's very far in the future."
The deadlines in the memorandum follow the same pattern.
| Parcel | Boundaries | What the draft proposes | MOU completion deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site 5 | Fourth Ave, Atlantic Ave, Flatbush Ave, Pacific St | Two towers, up to 799 and 570 feet | 12/31/2037 |
| Block 1120 | Sixth Ave to Carlton Ave | Platform, then Buildings 5, 6 and 7, 452 to 684 feet | Platform by 12/31/2032, buildings by 12/31/2037 |
| Block 1121 | Carlton Ave to Vanderbilt Ave | Platform, Buildings 9 and 10, open space on former B8 parcel | 12/31/2040 with a timely funding agreement, 12/31/2042 regardless |
Block 1121 is the only parcel with a fallback deadline, 2042, that applies if no funding agreement is signed. City Limits described that clause as "potentially portending another project reboot." Missed milestones on the first platform block can be extended for $500,000 in the first year and $1 million in the second. After that the developer may be found in default, or ESD may grant further extensions at its discretion.
The memorandum is nonbinding. Binding documents and the amended plan still need environmental review, public review and approvals. Every height, unit count and date in this post is proposed, not approved.
In December 2025 coverage of a developer workshop, Norman Oder reported that the proposed open space on the Building 8 parcel had no stated delivery date. He wrote that construction of the towers to its east could limit it at first, and that wind and shadow effects had not been tested at that stage.
The neighborhood coalition BrooklynSpeaks raised a related point in its September 2026 scoping recommendations. It asked ESD to analyze a possible delay to Block 1121 and its open space. The group has followed this project since negotiating the 2014 affordable-housing deadline, so the question is on the record for the environmental review to address.
The first changes are concentrated at the western end. ESD's Joel Kolkmann told the September meeting that the first three towers, at Site 5 and Building 6, would be built on solid ground, where construction is easier. According to City Limits, the developers say those first towers could open as early as 2031, with about 2,000 rentals, 500 of them low-income affordable units, plus 400 condos.
Site 5 is the parcel diagonally across from Barclays Center, long home to P.C. Richard and the now-closed Modell's. Under the no-hotel option it would hold up to 1,403 homes in 1.45 million gross square feet. Across all remaining parcels, the draft assumes up to 20% of units could be condominiums and the rest rentals. Most of the new supply is rental. New condos at Site 5 would compete most directly with existing condo resales nearby.
The memorandum also proposes conditions on when those condos could open, to be written into future binding documents. Construction on the first platform block would have to start before Site 5's condo units could receive a temporary certificate of occupancy, and Site 5's affordable units would have to receive theirs first. Anyone trying to estimate when new condos would come to market can watch for the start of platform work.
Whatever the final schedule, the blocks between Sixth and Vanderbilt will live alongside active construction for years. The Draft Scope says ESD will study construction staging, truck routes, temporary sidewalk and lane closures, work hours, noise, vibration and shadows. In May 2026 reporting, Oder projected that the platform and towers along Atlantic Avenue from Sixth to Vanderbilt would require lane closures and could move or temporarily remove bus stops. That is a forecast, not a final traffic plan.
The same Oder article also relayed a public comment describing traffic, idling and heavy-equipment noise tied to recent street closures on Vanderbilt, Dean and Carlton. A buyer near this stretch can ask a seller or a building's board how recent closures have affected their block.
On the south side of Site 5, LCOR's Anthony Tortora pointed to the wide avenues around the parcel as a reason to put density there. City Limits noted that the parcel's southern edge borders "narrow, low-rise Pacific Street." BrooklynSpeaks has asked ESD to study Site 5 traffic on that street specifically.
PropertyShark's figures for Q3 2026, the quarter when the memorandum was signed, show prices rising on low volume.
These figures cover all of Prospect Heights, so they can't show whether homes on Dean Street sell at a different price than homes near Grand Army Plaza. Fewer sales at higher prices points to tight inventory rather than any neighborhood-wide discount tied to the rail yard plans. Neighborhood-wide data won't show the effect of the construction order. Pricing a home near the yard comes down to individual comparable sales and how close each one sits to Block 1120 or Block 1121.
ESD held its virtual scoping meeting on September 24. Public comments on the Draft Scope can be emailed to [email protected] through Monday, October 26, according to Norman Oder's Atlantic Yards coverage. The comments shape the draft environmental impact statement, which will get its own public hearing. City Limits reports the review is expected to finish by the end of 2027, with construction possibly restarting in 2028. The scope and supporting documents are on ESD's environmental review page.
Daniel Kummer, chair of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, said at the September meeting, "We have to get this done, perfectly or imperfectly," as City Limits reported. The board's priority is getting the first block done. The second block, with the open space, has no funding plan and a later deadline.
Is the revised Atlantic Yards plan approved? No. As of October 2026 it is in environmental review, and the July 2026 memorandum with the developers is nonbinding.
How many homes would the finished project hold? The draft calls for up to 5,600 more homes on top of the 3,212 already built in eight buildings, which would bring the total to about 8,812.
Which part of the north edge changes first? Under the draft order, Site 5 and Building 6 on the Sixth-to-Carlton block come first. The Carlton-to-Vanderbilt block and its open space come last.
If you're weighing a home near the yard, we can go through the comparable sales on your block and where it falls in the construction order. Start a private consultation with Poljan Properties, or read more about the neighborhood on our Prospect Heights page.
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