An arm of developer
Forest City
Ratner Cos. will buy its partner's stake in the Brooklyn Navy Yard
modular-construction facility that had produced units for the former Atlantic
Yards residential project. That process ended late last summer when a lawsuit between
the two parties brought operations to a standstill.
The modular subsidiaries of Forest
City and Skanska USA
Building , itself a
division of a Swedish construction giant, jointly made the announcement Tuesday
morning.
The current litigation between the firms will not be
affected by the agreement. Work on the residential tower B2 Brooklyn has been
stalled for months due to disputes over delays and cost overruns between Forest
City Ratner and Skanska.
By taking over Skanska’s ownership share for an undisclosed
amount, Forest City hopes to get the project going
again. But it may be a while before construction resumes, said a person
familiar with the project.
“Basically it will take some time (for the factory) to ramp
up and be operational again,” the person said, adding that Forest City Ratner
will likely look for a firm with modular-construction expertise to replace
Skanska on the project.
B2 Brooklyn, a tower straddling the Barclay’s Center in
Brooklyn, was set to become the tallest modular residential tower in the world
and was once billed as the future of affordable housing construction in New York . Units were
built in an off-site factory, and the stacked on top of each other like
shipping containers. But the FCRC Modular and Skanska Modular, who jointly
operated the factory, soon ran into trouble with the pioneering technique.
While Forest City Ratner demanded that Skanska stick to the
agreed-upon price despite cost over-runs, the construction firm wanted to
renegotiate the terms of the contract and issued a stop-work order. The firms
later sued each other over the costs resulting from the delays and work
stoppage. The litigation is ongoing.
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