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April 29, 2010
New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner's $3M payout speeds billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's take over
NY Daily News
by Mitch Lawrence and Michael O'Keeffe
When Nets owner Bruce Ratner agreed last week to pay $3 million to last Atlantic Yards holdout Daniel Goldstein to move from his Brooklyn apartment by May 7, most press accounts noted that the payout made sense because delays in construction of the Barclays Center were costing the developer $6.7 million a month.
But there was another reason why Ratner was willing to pay Goldstein far more than other residents who stood in the way of his wrecking balls: The sooner Goldstein moved, the sooner Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov could take over the Nets and start rebuilding a laughingstock team that won just 12 games this season.
"The state's rush to push me out was to serve Prokhorov's interests and the Nets' interests and not the public interest," Goldstein told the Daily News. "It had everything to do with Prokhorov and ownership of Nets. It didn't have anything to do with housing or jobs."
Goldstein's attorney Michael Rikon, an expert in condemnation law, said people pushed from their homes by state officials exercising eminent domain authority are typically given six months to move after the state takes control of their property. Ownership of Goldstein's apartment was transferred to the Empire State Development Corp. on March 1, and on April 9, ESDC filed documents requesting that a court evict Goldstein and his wife and daughter by May 17 - the day before the draft lottery, in which the Nets are favored to land the No. 1 pick.
Posted by eric at April 29, 2010 10:33 AM