Two decades and billions of dollars later, one of Brooklyn's most anticipated projects remains unfinished.

"It’s always been the pat on the head, don’t worry, we’ll get to that. So what happens is there’s an incentive for the state to push things down the road?" said Regina Ford-Cahill, the chair of the North Flatbush Avenue Business Improvement District.

Sunday marked 20 years since then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled the Atlantic Yards project.

"This will create construction jobs, housing, fun and excitement, and reasons to come not just to Brooklyn, but to New York," Bloomberg said at the time.

It came with the promise of bringing an arena to Prospect Heights and bringing the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn. Both of those things happened.

"There was uncertainty, but it was also like, let’s go ahead and do this. Let’s try to make it work," said Ford-Cahill, who has lived in Prospect Heights for nearly 50 years.

She says the city and the sole developer, Forest City Ratner Companies, planned a new school, eight acres of open space and commercial and residential real estate, including up to 6,430 apartments, 2,250 were supposed to be affordable housing units.

But 20 years later, 3,212 apartments have been built and 1,374 are affordable.

"Since then, the arena and eight residential buildings were constructed. Yet after 20 years, the rail yards remain undeveloped, leaving most of the project's open space incomplete and 877 affordable apartments unbuilt," said Gib Veconi, the chair of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council.

Six apartment buildings were supposed to be constructed above Vanderbilt Yards, located on two plots of land east of Barclays Center. But in 2023, the rail yards have not even been covered.

"Now we’re stuck with so many different changes and turns in the road. Oh, we’re going to do this and we’re going to do that, but never really listening to the community," Ford-Cahill said.

Forest City Ratner Companies went into partnership with Greenland USA in 2014.

By 2019, the company had owned 95% of the development. But last month, Greenland USA defaulted on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, according to the real estate publication The Real Deal.

Advocates and longtime residents are calling for accountability and a change in oversight.

"I think they have to put the brakes on things for the moment and then really reassess what the neighborhood needs and figure out a way to subsidize it," Ford-Cahill said.

Development rights on the rail yards are reportedly scheduled to be auctioned off on Jan. 11. Meanwhile, the next developer has until May 2025 to make good on the remaining affordable housing units.

NY1 reached out to the Empire State Development Corporation, which oversees the development, but has not heard back.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct the name of the agency that oversees the development.