NEW YORK, NY March 21, 2008 —Ever since it got approved at the end of 2006, Forest City Ratner has said it is sticking to its schedule for completing the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn within 10 years.

Now the developer acknowledges that the shaky economy may delay construction after all. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman has more.

Forest City Ratner was given enormous zoning rights and 300 hundred million dollars of subsidies largely because of the benefits that it promised.

But the longer the project takes to build, the longer Brooklyn will have to wait for the 22-hundred affordable apartment and the hundreds of jobs that were supposed to be located in its office buildings.

A spokesman for the developer confirms construction of the 45-story Miss Brooklyn tower will be delayed while an anchor tenant is sought.

Ratner says the company is still committed to building the full complex. It vows to start the NETS arena next fall and residential construction in 2009.

For WNYC, I'm Matthew Schuerman.