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Atlantic Yards Stalls

By Bendix Anderson

New York City — Community opposition, the crisis in the capital markets, and rising construction costs have delayed the 6,400 mixed-income condominium and apartments planned at the Atlantic Yards project indefinitely.

Lawsuits brought by opponents, led by the group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), have delayed the start of construction for the last two years while the condominium and office markets cooled and construction costs more than doubled for construction materials like metals and concrete.

Developer Forest City Ratner has no set timeframe to start on any of the residential parts of the project, which would have included 2,250 units of housing affordable to low- and moderate-income families, in addition to 336,000 square feet of office space and a quarter million square feet of retail space.

Forest City Ratner still plans to start construction on a $950 million arena on the 22-acre site by the end of 2008. However, even this reduced plan could be derailed — DDDB has appealed its eminent domain lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.