It’s official: Forest City Ratner and its Swedish contractor are divorced.
The developer has bought out Skanska at the Navy Yard factory where the two companies had made pieces for the modular B2 tower, the first residential building of the mega-development formerly known as Atlantic Yards. Work on the 32-story building at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street halted at 10 stories when Skanska furloughed the factory’s 157 workers and sued Forest City, claiming problems with its Lego-like design are responsible for $50 million in cost overruns, which Forest City blames on Skanska.
In court documents, executives at the Swedish construction giant allege that the completed tower might leak. Forest City denied the claims and filed a counter-suit, saying Skanska isn’t living up to its contract.
The two had created a joint company to oversee work at the Navy Yard facility. The buyout price was not disclosed.
A Forest City spokesman said the company will try to rehire out-of-work factory staffers and reboot production soon.
The deal does not appear to involve the majority owner of the rest of the planned mega-development at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, the Chinese-government-owned Greenland.
Greenland bought a 70-percent stake in all of the proposed 16-building complex except for B2 and the Barclays Center.
The court battle over the cost overruns is ongoing, but since Skanska terminated its construction contract the lawsuit should not hold up work at B2.
Greenland and Forest City have asked people to start referring to the project as “Pacific Park.”
