Dive Brief:
- Construction on a 32-story Brooklyn apartment building, touted as the world’s tallest prefabricated structure, has stalled.
- The developer, Forest City Ratner, had said the modular system of building would cut 30% of the cost and 25% of the time required to construct a conventional, same-sized apartment house.
- A newly shuttered factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard was to supply more than 900 steel-framed boxes for the eco-friendly tower.
Dive Insight:
The crown jewel in the planned 22-acre, 3,000-unit Atlantic Yards complex, the high-rise tower was first scheduled to open in June with 363 apartments, but the ribbon-cutting date was later revised to 2015. Stakeholders in the project blamed the cost overruns that shut the project down last week on problems with the modular design, crew training, and establishing the supply chain.
This is a high-profile setback for factory-built housing, which is considered by some as a panacea for the inevitable delays and cost overruns associated with building projects. Still, Forest City CEO Mary Anne Gilmartin told the New York Times, “This is not a referendum on modular. It’s a monetary dispute.”