The enormous City Point project in Downtown Brooklyn has hit a major snag; Albee Development has failed to pay several contractors involved with the site, and construction is almost at a total stop.
An insider informed YIMBY that over 120 workers walked off the project on November 11th, leaving concrete and excavation work at a complete stand-still; apparently steel work has also slowed to a crawl. The breadth of the dispute covers several of Albee’s contracts, and City Point could now face significant delays before it is completed.
City Point provided the following statement – “It is critically important that we maintain our project schedule, and we changed our concrete contractor in order to do so. Contrary to the claims of some, construction continues apace and all contractors are being paid in a timely manner.”
The Brooklyn Supreme Court decided the matter on the 15th, ruling against Albee, and in favor of Casino Development – which was City Point’s concrete contractor. Besides the dispute over payment, Albee blocked access to the removal of Casino’s equipment. Those objects include extensive concrete formwork, valued at over $1 million – which Casino says it needs for a new project on 56th Street, in Manhattan.
Consequently, the court has placed a restraining order on Casino’s equipment, preventing its use by Albee; this is an especially crucial fact, as the form-work is a particularly critical element to construction.
City Point construction progress earlier this month
With the depth of problems at City Point – and the litany of legal issues that Albee is now dealing with – it seems progress will take a major pause, especially as replacing both the contractors and equipment at issue will be very time consuming. In addition to existing woes, the insider has informed YIMBY that new contractors are hesitant to join the project, given the dispute that has developed between Albee and its former partners.
New developments frequently see problems in their construction, but the maladies of City Point go far beyond simple disagreements and equipment issues, as Casino’s full complaint shows; hopefully the transformative development will resume work soon, but it seems that near-term prospects for the future heart of Downtown Brooklyn are bleak.
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