Will The Atlantic Yards Project Go Bust?

21 March 2008 - 12:00pm

The slowing economy is causing Forest Ratner to re-think buildout plans for their controversial Atlantic Yards development. New York City history tells us it won't be the first time a large scale project goes the way of the economy.

"The slowing economy, weighed down by a widening credit crisis, is likely to delay the signature office tower and three residential buildings at the heart of the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, the developer said.

'It may hold up the office building,' the developer, Bruce C. Ratner, said in a recent interview. 'And the bond market may slow the pace of the residential buildings.'

Mr. Ratner, chief executive of Forest City Ratner, did not specify the kinds of delays possible, but suggested that construction could be put off for years. His comments are his first public indication that the darkening economy has slowed the ambitious project, spanning 22 acres at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues."

Source: The New York Times, March 21, 2008
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It is hard to think of a starker contrast than that between Moses modernism and Jacobs localism. Yet the standoff between Jacobs and Moses only ever sparred two separate wings of the middle class concerning how to build and rebuild the city for people of greater rather than lesser class privilege.