« Not Seeing the Light | Main | Skeptical bond market could be latest hurdle for NJ Nets' Brooklyn arena project »
October 17, 2009
All In On Atlantic Yards
The Am Law Daily
An item insde "The Frank McCourt Chronicles: A Semi-Regular Look at Sports and the Law" encapsulates legal developments regarding the proposed Atlantic Yards project from this past week.
Before Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and his New Jersey Nets begin playing in Brooklyn, New York's top court must rule on a civil suit seeking to block the multi-billion dollar real estate complex that includes a new arena, offices, stores, and apartments.
Landowners represented by Matthew Brinckerhoff from New York's Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady are suing a state agency using eminent domain to seize land for the Atlantic Yards development. Bryan Cave's Philip Karmel and J. Kevin Healy and New York's Berger & Webb are advising the Empire State Development Corporation, which is seeking to sell the land to developer Bruce Ratner.
Reuters reports that Ratner must begin building an arena for the basketball team before the year's end or he will lose out on $700 million of low-cost, tax-free debt. (Consumer advocates and public officials filed another suit this week seeking to block a related land sale to Ratner.)
The appellate court is expected to rule in December.
Posted by steve at October 17, 2009 7:11 AM