AY construction jobs relatively scarce

Bruce Ratner’s massive Atlantic Yards project has only created 100 construction jobs thus far, despite past predictions by the Empire State Development Corporation that 1,476 people would have been put to work by late 2010, according to the Daily News. Of course, the project’s groundbreaking was beset by delays due to funding, eminent domain holdouts and a slew of lawsuits after the state made those predictions in 2009. But even taking those few months’ worth of postponements into account, the disparity between current jobs numbers and those expected is significant. According to the ESDC’s documents, 563 construction workers were expected to be working at Atlantic Yards in the first quarter of 2010, 742 were expected in the second quarter, and 1,055 were expected in the third quarter. Overall, 17,000 year-long construction jobs were supposed to be created by the planned Nets arena and the 16 additional towers on the site — a point that was touted as a project benefit for the blighted Prospect Heights area. “The number of job-years hasn’t been altered; they will merely be created at a different pace in light of the changes in the construction schedule,” an ESDC spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Forest City Ratner said the number of construction jobs would hit 450 by next spring. [NYDN]