Atlantic Yards work temporarily suspended
From Crain’s NY Business
Atlantic Yards work temporarily suspended
By: Catherine Tymkiw
Published: April 27, 2007 – 11:57 am
The Empire State Development Corp. and developer Forest City Ratner Cos. said Friday that all demolition work for the Atlantic Yards Brooklyn arena project has been halted following a partial building collapse a day earlier.
ESDC and Forest City said, in separate statements, that work would resume once the city Department of Buildings finished its preliminary investigation into what caused Thursday’s building collapse.
Early Thursday morning, the entire northern parapet of the Ward Bakery building collapsed. While no one was injured, local officials and community groups opposed to the Atlantic Yards project came out swinging.
“We simply don’t believe that the building was unstable, that is until Ratner’s contractors went in,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein, in a statement released Thursday. “There should be no ‘next time.’”
While Mr. Goldstein said the temporary suspension on demolition work was the clearly the right course of action, “They need to go beyond this and have a way to monitor what’s going on here. There’s too much that can go wrong.”
ESDC and Forest City’s decision to suspend all abatement and demolition activities came just hours ahead of a planned rally organized by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, which had intended on calling for an immediate work stoppage at the Prospect Heights site.
“It is tragic that 350 residents, consisting of 94 families, have been displaced because of [Thursday] morning’s occurrence,” said Councilwoman Letitia James.
And Brooklyn Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries said the collapse “highlights the need to proceed with extreme caution as the developer moves forward with the Atlantic Yards project.”
Both ESDC and Forest City reiterated their commitment to the project. “The Spitzer administration has set an entirely new tone,” said ESDC spokesman Errol Cockfield. “We’re in constant contact with all the payers and doing our best to address the concerns of the community.” Forest City executive Bruce Bender echoed the sentiment, adding that “safety remains our primary concern.”
The 97-year-old Ward Bakery building, which had been unoccupied for two years, was acquired by Forest City last year.
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