A public promenade at the center of the Pacific Park mega-development in Prospect Heights will feature a dog run, a basketball court, a bocce court, and areas for tots to play, according to a new master plan released by developers.
A Forest City Ratner Companies honcho praised the plan and said the park would be a boon to surrounding neighborhoods as well as the future residents of the towers.
“Pacific Park, the namesake of our entire 22-acre development in the heart of Brooklyn, will make this pocket of the borough more livable for residents of many different Brooklyn neighborhoods,” said MaryAnne Gilmartin, the president and chief executive officer of Forest City Ratner. “There will no longer be a dearth of green space in the heart of Brooklyn; instead, there will be sprawling lawns, shaded benches and valued neighborhood amenities across eight acres of public open space that will reknit these communities together.”
Released on Wednesday, the new plans detail an eight-acre open space at the heart of the project formerly known as Atlantic Yards, a feature the state demanded in its final environmental impact statement regarding the massive undertaking by Forest City and Greenland, a Chinese government-owned majority partner in the 16-tower mega-project.
According to the plans, the park will included lush, tree-lined pathways, lawns, and gardens.
A neighbor of the development who has been involved in many of the negotiations between community members and developers was cautiously hopeful after seeing a presentation on the new plan.
“Going forward I’m most interested in seeing how well the open space at Atlantic Yards can integrate with the rest of the community,” said Gib Veconi, a member of the activist group BrooklynSpeaks, which works to keep Forest City accountable to neighbors. “The vision is a nice vision, and hopefully it will be fulfilled in a way that the project originally intended, which was to integrate and link with the surrounding neighborhoods.”
The first phase of the park, a grass corridor running through the center of the block between Vanderbilt and Carlton avenues, is expected to be unveiled next summer in conjunction with the towers at 535 Carlton Ave. and and 550 Vanderbilt Ave., according to a spokeswoman.
Those buildings, for which work is already underway, will accommodate 298 units and 278 units respectively, with all of the apartments in the Carlton Avenue tower slated for below-market rates.
Developers expect to complete the park by 2025, according to a spokeswoman for the public relations firm BerlinRosen, which represents Forest City.
