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Lawsuit challenging DOB's approval of Atlantic Yards modular plan set for Dec. 17 court hearing; two Forest City affiliates added as intervenors

Remember that lawsuit challenging the Atlantic Yards modular plan? ENR New York reported yesterday, Oral Arguments Set for December in SHoP-designed Brooklyn Modular Tower Suit:
Two trade groups and the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) are scheduled to give oral arguments on December 17 before a state judge in a case involving the prefabricated building units of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards' B2 Bklyn tower, designed by SHoP.
A factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard is making the 350 units for developer Forest City Ratner Companies' $117-million, 22-story modular high-rise, the first residential tower at the Atlantic Yards site. But the trade groups—Mechanical Contractors Association of New York (MCANY) and the Plumbing Foundation City of New York (PFCNY)—charge that the prefab work is being done without licensed trades people and sued DOB in July.
If the lawsuit is successful, it might delay the building, though presumably a large bond would be needed. As of now, according to ENR, the finished modules are supposed to be shipped to the B2 site beginning in January.

That's a slightly delay from late September, when a Forest City executive said "we think that the mods are going to start to arrive in the winter sometime--at the end of the year, beginning of the year."

The building is supposed to be finished at the end of 2014.

Parties added

State Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower on 10/30/13 allowed two Forest City Ratner affiliates, who were not named as defendants, to intervene in the case and file legal motions.

The lawsuit, filed in July, points to a draft DOB document that would have required such licensed specialists at the modular factory, where some 60% of the first Atlantic Yards tower, the 32-story B2--the world's tallest modular tower--is being built.

That draft was never issued, despite a reported statement by DOB Commissioner Robert LiMandri that he supported such a change.

The two intervenors, whose motion was not opposed, are Atlantic Yards B2 Owner, the entity that will own the building, and FC+Skanska Modular, the factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where the building modules are being constructed.

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