Like Atlantic Yards’ affordable housing component before it, the Long Island Rail Road train yard Forest City Ratner promised to build to win approval for a basketball arena and residential development is experiencing delays. The Wall Street Journal reported that construction on the rail yard was supposed to begin June 30, but Forest City reached a deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to push back the start date to Dec. 31, 2013. This comes on top of a previous deal to reduce the size of the promised rail yard.
The MTA still values the project at $150 million and expects its LIRR facility to be completed by 2016. But the delays serve as another example of the financial downturn’s affect on the massive Brooklyn development project, and Forest City’s inability to keep promises it made to the community in exchange for the right to build. As previously reported, affordable housing construction has already been pushed back, although it is expected to begin later this year.
“It’s more of the same,” said Jo Anne Simon, a Democratic district leader in Brooklyn who is a critic of the project. “There’s a whole host of things that are problematic and have been delays in benefits.” [WSJ]