« Groundbreaking signals start of Barclays Center arena | Main | Groundbreaking at Atlantic Yards comes years late »
March 11, 2010
If Walter O'Malley sold out Brooklyn (as per new arena advertisement), who's the hero now: Ratner? Prokhorov? Barclays?
Atlantic Yards Report
According to an advertisement on page 2 of the Spring 2010 issue of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's promotional publication Brooklyn!!, the Atlantic Yards arena (aka Barclays Center) is being promoted as repairing the losses felt when the baseball Dodgers left in 1957.
But things are a tad different these days, as I explained in an FAQ today, excerpted below.
And one question raised by the advertisement: if Walter O'Malley sold out Brooklyn, who's Brooklyn's benefactor?
Is it Forest City Ratner, led by Bruce Ratner, described by history professor Fred Siegel as "the master of subsidy.... He never builds without someone else taking the risk."
Is it Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia's richest man, able to buy 80% of the Nets and 45% of the arena in a good deal, after Forest City Ratner did the heavy lifting?
Is it Barclays Capital, buying naming rights from Forest City Ratner, after the state gave them away as "part of the financing of the project"?
Could it be that there are no heroes--and that thanking "Brooklyn" is kind of meaningless?
NoLandGrab: By that logic, hasn't Bruce Ratner "sold out Jersey?"
Posted by eric at March 11, 2010 12:16 AM