Economic Downturn Breeds Stalled Construction Sites

After commenting earlier today that the number of stalled sites seemed to be dropping quickly, this article appeared in Google alerts:

Williamsburg and Greenpoint saw a pre-recession development boom. Since 2009, approximately half of the city’s stalled sites have been located in these neighborhoods. Currently, 92 sites are inactive in the area, compared to 129 in all of Manhattan.

I’ve always been skeptical of the City’s official count of stalled sites, both in terms of undercounting and overcounting (which means the gross number might be roughly accurate, but the actual site list probably isn’t). It would be interesting to map actual vs. perceived stalled sites and see where the discrepancies lie. Certainly there are still some big ones, like the Domsey site illustrated in the Epoch Times article, the North 4th and Bedford hulk, and the South 4th sites on and near Bedford, but often they have very atypical back stories (epic bankruptcies, construction accidents, lawsuits and the like). But a number of prominent stalled sites are back in construction or nearly so, including 111 Kent, the North 6th and Wythe site (steel is going up) and North 1st and Kent steel skeleton.