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Posted Apr 19, 2014, 5:30 PM
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Homo sapiens sapiens
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: 3rd planet from the Sun
Posts: 1,666
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Slow Start Spurs Shift for Towers Near Arena
By CHARLES V BAGLIAPRIL 18, 2014
Quote:
The first residential tower at the sprawling Atlantic Yards development near Downtown Brooklyn rises only five of its intended 32 floors nearly a year and a half after construction started, making it one of the slowest-moving projects in a city with an unquenchable thirst for housing.
The building is supposed to be a groundbreaking achievement in construction. Nearly two years ago, Forest City Ratner, the developer of Atlantic Yards, said it had “cracked the code” for prefabricated construction, allowing it to erect the world’s tallest modular building at great speed and providing a template for how to better create affordable housing. Increasing affordable housing is a signature priority of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Forest City has been working on the 22-acre site for 10 years, but so far the only completed structure is the $1 billion Barclays Center arena.
Now the developer is completing a deal to bring in a Chinese partner and the company says it will accelerate construction and will start work later this year on three additional buildings, comprising over 900 apartments.
But the three new residential towers would be built conventionally, not with the pathbreaking modular, or prefabricated, system that Forest City had said would provide quick delivery and millions of dollars in savings.
The developer’s new partner, Greenland Holding Group, which is buying a majority stake in the development, is eager to build quickly in Brooklyn’s booming market. Indeed, its executives have said they want to complete Atlantic Yards within eight years. But real estate executives said the Chinese company was not persuaded that the modular construction was preferable.
Forest City executives said for the first time that they had trouble working out all the kinks at the factory in the nearby Navy Yard, where 145 workers transform tubular steel chassis into fully equipped apartments. The chassis are transported to the construction site, where they are lifted and stacked into place onto the building, known as B2.
“With our newly formed Greenland partnership we want to go vertical and build expeditiously,” said MaryAnne Gilmartin, the chief executive of Forest City Ratner. “So while we work to prove out modular on B2, we will launch three new buildings using conventional construction.”
So far, the developer has installed 122 of the 930 modules that make up B2. Half of the 363 apartments are intended for low- and moderate-income tenants. But the completion date has been moved to late 2015, Ms. Gilmartin said, which is more than a year behind the original schedule.
In recent days, Ms. Gilmartin has met with Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development, to talk about the next three buildings and the possibility of additional housing subsidies for apartments for poor and working-class families.
“We’re going to drive a tough but fair bargain so we can get this project moving,” Ms. Glen said. “We’re not happy about the pace of construction. But we think that modular is something we should continue to pursue across the city.”
[...]
One rental tower will be erected next to B2. A second rental building will be on the eastern end of the site, next to a planned condominium.
Little has gone according to plan at Atlantic Yards since it was conceived in 2004, when Bruce C. Ratner of Forest City bought the Nets with the intention of moving the basketball team to a new home in Brooklyn that would be the centerpiece of a large residential development.
Mr. Ratner’s ambitious development plan called for an 18,000-seat arena at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, a park, an office tower or hotel, and 14 residential buildings with over 6,000 apartments, including 2,250 for low-, moderate- and middle-income families. The city and state provided hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies.
[...]
James Garrison, an architect who has designed smaller modular projects, said Forest City was engaged in a “noble experiment” with prefabricated high-rises. “With any innovation comes risk,” he said. “Evolution is always necessary. If it’s going to be successful they have to continue.”
Forest City executives acknowledged that B2, at least, would cost more than a conventionally built tower. With a pipeline of 14 residential buildings at Atlantic Yards, the developer could justify establishing a factory. Presumably, each successive high-rise would be built more efficiently. But at the very least, the decision to build the next three towers conventionally interrupts the learning curve.
With its development costs rising rapidly, Forest City has sought in recent years to sell parts of the sprawling development, including a majority stake in the Nets and a smaller stake in the Barclays Center, to various partners in order to raise capital and spread the risks.
Forest City agreed to sell a 70 percent stake in Atlantic Yards (excluding Barclays Center and B2) for about $200 million to Greenland. As a result, Forest City had to reduce the value of its $527.4 million investment in the project by about 45 percent.
The joint venture will be overseen by a board with five members, three appointed by Greenland and two by Forest City. Ms. Gilmartin said, though, that the two companies had equal say over key issues: architects, contractors, unit mix, scheduling and community relations.
As for the slow-moving tower, Ms. Gilmartin said, “It’s been terribly frustrating. But I don’t think this is a referendum on modular. The best way to prove that this works is to build B2.”
“And,” she added, “I hope that the fifth building will be modular.”
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No more modular, please! 
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Although a year behind schedule isn't really good. Eh, we'll see if it speeds up or not.
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