Forest City Ratner’s prefab tower delayed six months

The opening of B2, the first residential tower in the Atlantic Yards megaproject, has been pushed back six months.

The 32-story tower at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street will likely open in the last quarter of 2014, rather than that summer, Jane Marshall, an executive for developer Forest City Ratner, said last night at an Atlantic Yards Quality of Life Committee meeting. The delay occurred because the developer has spent more time than expected on launching a modular factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Marshall said.

The building is slated to be the tallest prefabricated residential structure in the world, but has come under fire from construction unions for not creating as many full-time jobs as promised, as previously reported. Construction started in December.

In July, the Plumbing Foundation of New York City, a nonprofit association of licensed contracting firms, manufacturers and suppliers, sued the Department of Buildings, alleging that the residential component of the $4.9 billion, 15-building mixed-use project ignores major building safety rules. [Atlantic Yards Report] — Mark Maurer