Forest City Ratner has filed yet another law suit against its partner in the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards development, the Swedish firm Skanska.
FCRC Modular, a Forest City Ratner limited liability company, filed the new suit last Friday in New York State Supreme Court, over Skanska’s having halted all work at the new modular residential building that the two firms were developing in partnership. This time Ratner is accusing Skanska of breach of contract for laying off more than 150 construction workers without having first consulted with them.
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“We are asking the court for an injunction that would allow us to reopen the factory immediately, ” MaryAnne Gilmartin , chief executive of Forest City Ratner, said in a statement Friday. “We remain committed to completing B2 as soon as possible, despite Skanska’s indifference to the well-being of these workers and the project.”
Skanska, for its part, has maintained that Forest City Ratner already violated their mutual understandings when it previously announced that the firm would construct the next three buildings at Atlantic Yards with conventional construction methods, rather than modular.
“If they really did care about the workers, they would have engaged in dialogue with us and resolved the significant commercial and design issues facing the B2 Project, ” Richard Kennedy, co-chief operating officer at Skanska USA Building, said in a statement.
Ratner has asserted its concern for the people put out of work when Skanska closed the modular factory FCS Modular that the two companies opened near Atlantic Yards for the sake of the development. It is also now attempting to take full control of the factory in order to restart operations.
