The project, first announced in 2002, was intended to improve access to and connections among the New York City Subway services stopping at the Fulton Street station. Funding for the construction project, which began in 2005, dried up for several years, with no final approved plan and no schedule for completion. Plans for the transit center were revived by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The project used to be referred to as the Fulton Street Transit Center, but was re-branded the Fulton Center in May 2012 because of a heightened emphasis on retail. The complex officially opened on November 10, 2014, along with the adjacent Dey Street Passageway.