Collapse Stops Atlantic Yards Work
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NEW YORK (AP) – Work temporarily stopped on a massive development project that includes a professional basketball arena, after a piece of a building set for demolition abruptly collapsed, the developer and state authorities said.
Work will stop while city buildings officials investigate why a 200-foot hunk of the parapet atop a five-story building came loose and plunged onto a sidewalk, according to the developer, Forest City Ratner, and the Empire State Development Corp., a state agency that approved the giant Brooklyn project, called Atlantic Yards.
“We recognize the need for the Atlantic Yards project to continue to progress safely without causing disorder in the lives of residents of the surrounding neighborhoods,” the development agency said Friday.
No one was hurt when the parapet section fell off the former Ward Bread Bakery building on Thursday. But about 350 people at a homeless shelter next door were temporarily evacuated, and several parked cars were damaged.
The collapse came as workers were removing asbestos to prepare the bakery building for demolition, according to the buildings department. The former bakery, on Pacific Street in the Prospect Heights neighborhood, is one of several buildings slated to be razed to make way for Atlantic Yards.
The project promises to redraw the Brooklyn landscape with 16 skyscrapers and an 18,000-seat arena for the NBA’s Nets. It is to include office suites, a hotel, 6,400 apartments and a 500-foot glass tower.
Supporters say Atlantic Yards will create jobs and housing. The developers have agreed to offer at least 2,250 new rental apartments to families living on low or middle incomes, and at least 600 condominium units also will be available at reduced prices to families who meet income guidelines.
But opponents say the project will destroy neighborhoods, and some have filed lawsuits seeking to block it. Some opponents hailed the temporary halt in work at the site after the parapet collapse.
“We were very encouraged that the ESDC understands the gravity of what happened,” said Jim Vogel, a spokesman for the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods.
A state court hearing is set for May 3 in one lawsuit against the project.
