December 29, 2011
Brooklyn's largest subway hub will be co-named (not re-named) for Barclays arena (timing, name not yet announced)
Atlantic Yards Report
To clarify a report on About.com (picked up by the Brooklyn Eagle) that Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street Station Goes Corporate, Will Now Be Renamed Barclays Terminal, the MTA confirms that it will be a co-naming, not a renaming.
Neither a precise name nor timing have been announced, but I doubt the co-naming would occur until the arena opens. The official opening date is 9/28/12, but there should be a soft opening in August.
The first-ever sale of station naming rights was announced in 2009, for $200,000 a year over 20 years--a bargain, I'd contend.
Related...
Posted by eric at 10:25 AM
November 11, 2011
P.S. 9 and M.S. 571 Celebrate New Playground
The ribbon-cutting of the $305,000 revamped space was marked with poetry, dance, song ... and a giant silver fox.
Prospect Heights Patch
by Amy Sara Clark
P.S. 9 and M.S. 571 celebrated the opening of its $305,000 playground yesterday with song, dance, poetry and even a visit from the NETS mascot, Sly.
...The revamped space was funded in part by Out2Play, a non-profit that raises funds to refurbish NYC public school playgrounds, the NYC Department of Education, Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, and the Barclays Nets Community Alliance, a partnership of Forest City Ratner, the NETS and Barclays that, since forming in 2007, has given area non-profits $1 million a year, according to a NETS news release.
NoLandGrab: Here's a recent Atlantic Yards Report piece on the Barclays Nets Community Alliance's playground funding.
Posted by eric at 10:44 AM
November 9, 2011
Barclays Nets Community Alliance no longer claiming "it has funded" refurbished playgrounds but rather "funded in part"
Atlantic Yards Report
The latest press release promoting a playground refurbished by the Barclays Nets Community Alliance has a subtle but significant change in language, as the team/sponsor no longer seem to claim all the credit. (I'm checking on the actual numbers.) They still get to issue the press release, though.
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Previous claim
About two months ago, the alliance was claiming that "it has funded" a refurbished playground, leaving the impression it deserved most of the credit, even though the alliance paid about one-eighth the cost.
Posted by eric at 10:12 PM
November 8, 2011
Barclays CEO Diamond slammed for inadequate defense of banks as "good citizens"
Atlantic Yards Report
Barclays Capital, which bought naming rights to the Atlantic Yards arena that the state gave away, has come in for a bit of criticism of late.
Posted by eric at 10:37 AM
October 17, 2011
B is for Barclays
Brooklyn Spoke
Brooklyn Spoke's Doug Gordon snapped this photo yesterday.
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I spotted this during a ride up to Prospect Heights on Sunday. It’s the B for the Barclays Center façade at a staging area on the corner of Dean Street and Carlton Avenue.
Posted by eric at 11:05 AM
October 1, 2011
On CNN Money, Ratner tours/touts arena, makes unfounded claim about winning "37 lawsuits," claims Barclays "stuck with us"
Atlantic Yards Report
In a video posted yesterday, Tour the new Nets arena with Bruce Ratner, CNN Money offers publicity to an arena a year away from completion.
Ratner offers two reasons for the long path. "There were a lot of litigation. some people unhappy, it's a democracy, it's our country, entitled. We won 37 lawsuits." (At the groundbreaking in March 2010, Ratner claimed "34 lawsuits.")
How can he say that with a straight face? The number of lawsuits was about ten--maybe there were a bunch more decisions on motions. Ratner and the state, notably lost the last decision--which will be appealed--which combines two lawsuits..
The economy
More important to the delays, he said, was "the Great Recession... We were just about to get the financing when the world fell apart, and we had to re-do everything."
That would include not just dropping Frank Gehry's design but reopening settled deals with two state agencies, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Empire State Development Corporation.
A Barclays question
"Can you talk a little more about the partnership with Barclays?" he was asked.
"First of all, they've been amazing partners--they've stuck with us," Ratner stated. Actually, Barclays renegotiated the naming rights agreement twice and the official figure was cut in half.
Posted by steve at 2:11 PM
September 24, 2011
Urban Parent Expo today: lead sponsor is Barclays/Nets
Atlantic Yards Report
The Urban Parent Expo, held today at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, has a Platinum Sponsor: the Barclays Center/Brooklyn Nets.
(Hm, not sure if that team name is official yet.)
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The activities include:
- Brooklyn NETS Basketball & Conditioning Activities (Show your basketball skills with conditioning drills and exciting contests!)
- NETS Airbrush Tattoo Artist (Free NETS airbrush tattoos)
- NETS Dancers (Enjoy a performance, learn some moves and get an autograph.)
- Team Hype & Sly the Mascot
NoLandGrab: The Nets Dancers must be there to help build self-esteem in girls.
Posted by eric at 10:20 AM
September 1, 2011
NEIGHBORHOOD POWER RANKINGS
Brooklyn Magazine
The offensive commercialization of a local schoolyard costs Carroll Gardens to notches in the standings.
09. (-2) Carroll Gardens
Signs for Barclays, sponsor of the coming Atlantic Yards stadium, appeared on the playground fences of a local elementary school. Blech.
Posted by eric at 10:59 AM
August 20, 2011
So, is that Barclays naming rights deal really worth $400 million? This time the Times hedges
Atlantic Yards Report
From today's New York Times Sports section, published online as Reports: New Meadowlands Soon to Be MetLife Stadium:
If MetLife’s contract averages as much as $20 million annually, it will equal what Citigroup is paying to have its name on Citi Field, the home of the Mets. The other sports facilities in the New York metropolitan area with corporate names are the Prudential Center, the home of the Devils; Barclays Center, the future home of the Nets; and Red Bull Arena, where the Red Bulls play.
The Times did not assert that the Barclays Center naming rights deal was also worth $20 million a year.
However, FoxBusiness did so, in Report: MetLife Lands Naming Rights Deal for Meadowlands, published 8/19/11:
In fact, the last large-scale deals in this area were a pair of 20-year, $400 million sponsorships signed by Citigroup in 2006 for the home of the New York Mets and by Barclays in early 2007 with the New Jersey Nets.
...
Why didn't the Times assert the Barclays deal was also worth $400 million, especially after the Public Editor (credulously) recently expressed satisfaction with the Metro desk's verification of the issue?
Maybe because today's story was written by Sports Business reporter Richard Sandomir, who, in a 1/6/10 article allowed the arena promoters to make their claim, but left it somewhat ambiguous:
The recession and the departure of the star architect Frank Gehry led to the renegotiation of some terms of the Barclays-Nets deal. According to a bond document, the arena naming rights were halved.
The Nets insist that they have given Barclays more for its sponsorship money and that the bank’s total annual payments, including fees for other rights, remain unchanged.
NoLandGrab: Whatever the deal is worth, none of the money will go to the State of New York that gave away the naming rights..
Posted by steve at 4:06 PM
Ratner and Yormark meet with NHL executives; talk of preseason for Islanders at Barclays or a move?
Atlantic Yards Report
Late Thursday night, NetsDaily reported that Barclays Center arena operators Bruce Ratner and Brett Yormark met with National Hockey League officials, leading to renewal of talk about the possibility of the New York Islanders, whose Nassau Coliseum renovation plan was just voted down, could become the Brooklyn Islanders.
No details emerged--was it just about pre-season games?--but Newsday and CBSSports.com's Eye on Hockey followed up. Pre-season games are absolutely plausible; consider that the New Jersey Nets booked such dates at the Prudential Center in Newark before moving to an interim home there.
The Barclays Center, due to its basketball-centric design, would have the smallest capacity in the NHL, some 14,000, and with inadequate sightlines for a certain segment of fans.
Then again, moving to Barclays could bring revenues through more expensive suites and seats--and preserve a lucrative local cable TV contract, a factor that a Forbes writer thinks would ensure a Brooklyn move rather than one out of town. Neil deMause, however, thinks that Islanders owner Charles Wang will give a new arena one more try.
Posted by steve at 4:03 PM
July 20, 2011
Rhetoric check: arena now dubbed "Barclays Center of Brooklyn," taking advantage of Brooklyn connection (and connoting civic virtue)
Atlantic Yards Report
As noted on NetsDaily, the Barclays Center arena is now being called the Barclays Center of Brooklyn.
What's in the name?
Clearly arena promoters are taking advantage of the geographic location--Brooklyn's got a lot of buzz these days--but there's something more going on, I'd suggest.
It's very unusual to attach a geographic location to an arena, as these lists of United States and Canadian arenas show. (Ditto for stadiums.) Of the few arenas with geographical locations, it's not typical to use "of." The list includes, for example, HP Pavilion at San Jose.
What it means
The name "Barclays Center of Brooklyn" is designed, I believe, to leave the impression that the arena is somehow embedded in the borough, a contributor to civic virtue and local coffers.
Posted by eric at 9:30 PM
June 16, 2011
Barclays Signs at P.S. 58 Defaced
Messages condemning rich white people were stuck to schoolyard advertising.
Carroll Gardens Patch
by Georgia Kral
The writing is on the wall.
Apparently, someone doesn't like the Barclays-sponsored signage attached to the P.S. 58 schoolyard.
Pardon Me For Asking noticed that two stickers were affixed to one of the two Barclays signs at the school.
They read, respectively:
"Crazy, Crazy (Rich) White People!"
"When Will It End?"
While the message is a bit unclear -- are the saboteurs condeming Barclays or the school? -- one thing is certain: the signs are now defaced.
Related coverage...
The L Magazine, Barclays Buys Up Naming Rights to Local Playgrounds, Too
A debate among parents has ensued, of course, of which Atlantic Yards Report has a pretty good rundown. The Patch piece sums it up as "Even...Snapple machines in school cafeterias is too much corporate encroachment" vs. "it ain’t even that big of a sign." Any sign is too big of a sign!
Posted by eric at 12:26 PM
June 14, 2011
Will Barclays get naming rights to Brooklyn schoolyards too?
Atlantic Yards Report
Apparently the Barclays Nets Community Alliance, which has contributed funds to the nonprofit Out2Play to rehab school playgrounds, also gets signage, as Patch reports, following up news reported earlier by Pardon Me for Asking (which has photos too).
It's a local version of the naming rights Barclays bought for the Atlantic Yards arena (after the state gave naming rights away) and Forest City Ratner bought for Barclays at the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street transit hub.
P.S. 58 in Carroll Gardens has a nice new playground (right; click to enlarge). Some parents are dismayed at the signs advertising Barclays, and some aren't.
Public funds, private layer
I'd point out that, when Out2Play seeks individual donations, they don't advertise the possibility of getting your name on a school playground. That must be reserved for bigger donors.
Out2Play explains:
Every dollar we raise from the private sector often translates into nine dollars in public funding. Each of our playspaces costs an average of $250,000.
How much did Barclays give to P.S. 58? I haven't checked, but would note that the initial $150,000 grant was supposed to help refurbish eight playgrounds.
That's less than $20,000 a playground--pretty good if you get a sign out of it too.
Related coverage...
Pardon Me For Asking, What's The Deal With Barclays Signs On PS 58 Schoolyard Fence?
...whatever monies Barclays coughed up shouldn't give the bank the right to turn a schoolyard into a place for advertisement. What's next? McDonald signs? It's kind of a slippery slope.
Posted by eric at 10:07 AM
June 13, 2011
Barclays "Advertising" on P.S. 58 Playground Has Parents Talking
The signage, sponsored by the Barclays Nets Community Alliance, has parents talking.
Carroll Gardens Patch
by Paul DeBenedetto
School, brought to you by TEAM HYPE!
New signs advertising the Barclays Nets Community Alliance at P.S. 58 in Carroll Gardens has caused a stir among some parents in the community.
The signs, which appeared on the fence earlier this month, display the Barclays Center (a.k.a. Atlantic Yards) and Nets logos, and the slogan “Building Success Together.”
Parent Melissa Dadourian, 42, felt uneasy with the signs’ placement.
“It’s kind of weird to have advertisements outside of a public school,” she said.
The signs are part of a partnership between Barclays, the organization behind development of the new Barclays Center sports arena, and Out2Play, a non-profit organization that partners with donors and corporations to renovate schoolyards in public schools throughout the city.
Posted by eric at 10:43 PM
May 2, 2011
The charity strategy: Barclays/NETS Community Alliance now giving to Brooklyn Steppers, Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Atlantic Yards Report
I wrote last June how the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance had not only given donations to playgrounds and to the Brooklyn Historical Society, it had begun to support the Brooklyn Public Library's summer reading program.
Let's add a few more recipients to the growing list. On April 17, as the graphic at right indicates, the Brooklyn Steppers drumline--a stalwart at Atlantic Yards events, by the way--held a fundraiser, the Battle of the Drumlines, featuring "a head to head battle of two of the nation's top Historically Black Colleges and Universities - North Carolina A&T State University vs. South Carolina State University."
Also, the alliance serves as the lead sponsor of the 2011 Benefit Bash for Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a Sunset Park nonprofit that aims "to empower low and moderate income Brooklyn residents to secure quality housing and build financial assets."
The charity strategy
Using charitable donations to make friends and neutralize potential critics is not a new strategy; after all, Forest City Ratner has practiced this tactic for years, as has--on a much grander scale--Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
And organizations that need money, in an era when government support is scarce, can't help but be grateful.
Ultimately, however, these gifts are an easy call for the donor, since the public is essentially paying the freight.
Posted by eric at 12:12 PM
March 29, 2011
Morgan Spurlock, Filmmaker
Here's Park Slope
Morgan Spurlock is no fan of the corporatization of New York City.
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is perhaps best known for his groundbreaking 2004 film Super Size Me, in which he ate nothing but McDonalds for 30 days and ended up 24 lbs. heavier, with the liver of a chronic alcoholic. Born in West Virginia, he recently moved back to Park Slope after living in Fort Greene for the past couple years, and is glad to be back. We met up this morning at Cafe Martin and discussed his background, his love of Park Slope, and his newest project, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, a documentary about finding product placement and sponsors for that documentary, in theaters April 22nd.
...HPS: What's your ultimate goal with this film?
Morgan: What I would love to see happen is for people to become so incredibly aware of the amount of marketing happening in their lives that we start to question how much sponsorship we want in our daily lives. Does everything need to be brought to you by some sponsor? The City Council just passed a law, they're going to start selling off parks and things in New York City to corporate interests. Giving them the naming rights, much like Barclays Station instead of Atlantic/ Pacific. Is that where we are as a society, that literally the only people we can turn to are corporations to come in and underwrite things? If that's the case, I can't wait to go skiing in Pepsi, Colorado!
NoLandGrab: Coincidentally, Spurlock's The Greatest Movie Ever Sold will open the Hot Docs festival in Toronto at which Atlantic Yards documentary Battle for Brooklyn will have its world premiere.
Posted by eric at 11:07 PM
March 4, 2011
Media meme #1: why is the Barclays Center naming rights deal reported as "nearly $400 million"?
Atlantic Yards Report
How exactly are sports reporters still reporting that the Barclays Center naming rights deal resembles the $400 million deal announced in January 2007?
Consider the cliche-ridden USA Today article headlined New Jersey Nets go global to help domestic image. (No, it's not about EB-5.)
The article begins:
New Jersey Nets CEO Brett Yormark looked at Brooklyn and saw the world, a melting pot of humanity.
He also saw a world of opportunity for the Nets as the franchise planned its move to Brooklyn starting with the 2012-13 season.
Yormark began an aggressive pursuit of international brands the Nets could partner with, scoring a lucrative 20-year naming-rights deal worth nearly $400 million for the Brooklyn arena with Barclays, the London-based banking and financial services giant.
How does the reporter know the value of the naming rights deal?
Because the $400 million figure was promoted relentlessly by the Nets and Forest City Ratner, and repeated dutifully by journalistic outlets like the New York Times.
What about the cut?
The cut in the agreement, to $200 million and unspecified "certain fees," got covered in a few media outlets. The Times barely covered the story; it referred to "an additional sum" and later reported the Nets claimed "that the bank’s total annual payments, including fees for other rights, remain unchanged."
No evidence was cited. The available evidence, as noted at bottom, suggests otherwise.
Posted by eric at 10:32 AM
January 30, 2011
Barclays, proud sponsor of...
...integrity?
No, not really.
Posted by eric at 6:11 PM
September 20, 2010
Bicycle Mischief Targets Barclays
The Wall Street Journal
by David Enrich and Paul Sonne
It would appear that the British megabank, none too popular in Prospect Heights, isn't wowing them at home, either.
When British bank Barclays PLC agreed to shell out £25 million ($39 million) to sponsor London's new public bike-rental program, it envisioned the marketing benefits of seeing its sky-blue logo draped on thousands of cycles around the city.
But this week Barclays' prime marketing opportunity quite literally turned into a curse.
Londoners woke up Friday morning to find obscene stickers affixed to a number of the rental cycles. Attached to the bikes just above the bank's logo, the decals delivered a one-word message that, combined with the bank's name underneath, succinctly conveyed many Britons' anger toward the banking sector: "F– Barclays."
"There are fairly resourceful people out there, even if they've got potty mouths," said Matt Brown, a spokesman for Transport for London, which runs the city's extensive network of public buses, trains, boats and now bikes.
NoLandGrab: First Bruce Ratner, now Barclays. To what do they owe their popularity? Visit Wooster Collective for NC-17 photos of London's rebranded bicycles.
Posted by eric at 6:19 PM
September 14, 2010
Ex-federal agent: Barclays, banks get "wrist slaps" for violating trade sanctions, but individuals should be held responsible
Atlantic Yards Report
Last month, I wrote how Barclays Bank PLC, has committed, as part of deferred prosecution agreements, "to forfeit $298 million... in connection with violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act."
Barclays voluntarily disclosed its long-running violations only eight months before the Atlantic Yards naming rights deal was announced. While the settlement was approved by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, it came after Sullivan a day earlier criticized it as "a sweetheart deal."
Who's responsible?
Today, former federal agent Robert Mazur, takes aim at the deal in a New York Times op-ed headlined Follow the Dirty Money. His point? Individuals should be held responsible.
Posted by eric at 9:36 AM
September 7, 2010
Throw Your 'Diamond' in the Air! Barclays Bumps Bob to CEO Spot
NY Observer
by Mike Taylor
Barclays, the giant British criminal enterprise bank and Brooklyn icon, is getting a new Godfather CEO.
Barclays, the British banking giant that bought Lehman Brothers shortly after its September 2008 bankruptcy, today announced that John Varley would be stepping down as CEO on March 31. Bob Diamond (pictured with Jay-Z at the March 11 Atlantic Yards groundbreaking ceremony in Brooklyn) will succeed Varley.
Diamond, originally from Massachusetts, has been with Barclays for 14 years and currently serves as president in charge of corporate and investment banking and Barclays Wealth. He played a key role in Barclays' purchase of Lehman.
NoLandGrab: And, let's not forget, a key role in Barclays' purchase of Bruce Ratner's arena naming rights.
Photo: Getty Images
Posted by eric at 9:59 AM
September 2, 2010
Why no company has signed a naming-rights deal with the Giants and Jets
New Jersey Newsroom
by Evan Weiner
Looks like Barclays was the last of the big-time spenders — and even they won't be spending anywhere near what they were once said to be spending.
Fred Wilpon is clearly one lucky owner although New York Mets fans will clearly disagree with that statement based on the on-field results of Wilpon's baseball team. Bruce Ratner was also one lucky owner while he controlled the New Jersey Nets basketball team although Nets fans will clearly disagree with that statement based on the on-court results of Ratner's Nets.
Both Wilpon and Ratner are in much better shape than the owners of the Giants (the Mara and Tisch families) and the Jets (Woody Johnson) in that they got two banks, Citibank and Barclay, to come up with a multi-year, multimillion dollar agreement for naming rights at Wilpon's Queens baseball park and Ratner's Brooklyn multi-purpose arena.
The Mara-Tisch-Johnson troika is still looking for a financial angel and if one major industry player is correct, it may be a long while before the East Rutherford, New Jersey home for the Giants and Jets along with the Arlington, Texas-based Cowboys Stadium and Major League Baseball's Nationals Stadium in Washington, D. C. will get naming-rights partners.
Posted by eric at 10:17 AM
August 22, 2010
Yormark says Barclays deal was crucial to arena project (duh); note how FCR not only renegotiated but sweetened the pot
Atlantic Yards Report
I don't have access to Comcast, but the NetsDaily summary of an interview with Nets CEO Brett Yormark quotes him as saying, if Barclays had pulled out of the Brooklyn arena naming rights deal, "we wouldn't be here today."
Remember, the once-announced $400 million deal was reduced to $200-plus million, still crucial funding for arena construction.
And not only did the state simply give away naming rights, that benefit to Forest City Ratner (and now Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim group) was never counted as a subsidy, not even by the New York City Independent Budget Office.
Renegotiating the deal
No wonder Forest City Ratner and Yormark were so willing to renegotiate the deal. Barclays, Yormark once told favored interviewer Alexis Glick, had never wavered--though that was before starchitect Frank Gehry left the project.
Two other signs of FCR's effort to sweeten the pot:
- the subway/LIRR station naming rights agreement, paid for by the developer (not Barclays), to add Barclays Center to the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street complex
- the groundbreaking event extravaganza in March, aimed to boost Barclays, with Prokhorov barely mentioned
Posted by steve at 12:20 PM
August 19, 2010
Barclays, beneficiary of what judge calls "sweetheart deal," agrees to pay $298 million to avoid prosecution for "trading with the enemy"
Atlantic Yards Report
And people were upset about "Citi Field?"
So Barclays Bank PLC, the "major global financial services provider," is in the news this week, and it's not because the company has committed more than $200 million to plaster its name on the in-construction Atlantic Yards arena, aka the Barclays Center.
Nor is it because Forest City Ratner has promised $4 million to add the Barclays Center name to the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street transit hub.
Rather, it's because Barclays has committed, as part of deferred prosecution agreements, "to forfeit $298 million to the United States and to the New York County District Attorney’s Office in connection with violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA)," according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Essentially, the bank used subterfuge to let banks from Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Burma, as well as prohibited persons, move money through the U.S. financial system.
The tab for Barclays might have been more, since it agreed to pay $176 million for other violations, but the DOJ press release described that as "concurrent," which means that the violator's obligations are satisfied via the $298 million. (The exact calculations of fines is ambiguous.)
None of the coverage, as far as I can tell, connected the Barclays prosecution with the firm's effort to establish a foothold in the United States via the Brooklyn arena. But this certainly casts doubts on Barclays as a "good corporate citizen," a term the Empire State Development Corporation used for Forest City Ratner, which has a murky role--with no charged wrongdoing--in the Ridge Hill corruption case.
The "sweetheart deal"
And while the settlement was approved yesterday by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, it came after Sullivan a day earlier criticized it as "a sweetheart deal."
"Why isn't the government getting rough with these banks?" the judge asked, according to the Wall Street Journal. He called it "an accommodation to a foreign bank, and that concerns me."
Posted by eric at 9:35 AM
May 31, 2010
Barclays gags Guardian over tax
Injunction forces news website to remove seven leaked memos showing how bank avoided hundreds of millions of pounds in tax
The Guardian
Gustav Peebles, co-author of the Atlantic Yards-economic-bonanza-debunking Kim/Peebles Report [PDF], happened across this March, 2009 Guardian piece about Barclays, a company that makes BP look like the Park Slope Food Coop.
Barclays Bank obtained a court order early today banning the Guardian from publishing documents which showed how the bank set up companies to avoid hundreds of millions of pounds in tax.
...The internal Barclays memos – leaked by a Barclays whistleblower – showed executives from SCM, Barclays's structured capital markets division, seeking approval for a 2007 plan to sink more than $16bn (£11.4bn) into US loans.
Tax benefits were to be generated by an elaborate circuit of Cayman islands companies, US partnerships and Luxembourg subsidiaries.
The documents had been leaked to Cable by a former employee of the bank, who wrote a long account of how the bank works.
The anonymous whistleblower wrote to Cable: "The last year has seen the global taxpayer having to rescue the global financial system. The taxpayer has already had a gun put to their head and been told to pay up or watch the financial system and life as we know it disappear into a black hole.
NoLandGrab: Tax-cheating, gag-ordering British banks, Russian billionaire oligarchs "self-made" through back-room deals — such is the company Bruce Ratner keeps.
Posted by eric at 9:33 AM
May 13, 2010
Barclays Center Business Alliance Breakfast Club!
Those spammers over at Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (aka BS & Entertainment) are at it again. This hit our inbox earlier today.
Good Morning,
Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment would like to extend a personal invitation to you and a guest to join us at an upcoming Barclays Center Business Alliance Breakfast Club event. You will be extended the opportunity to meet company executives, your dedicated suite sales team, other NY metro area businesses, Brooklyn dignitaries, special VIP guests and Brett Yormark, President and CEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment. The breakfasts will be held at the Junior’s in Brooklyn.
Please choose from the dates below and RSVP with the contact information provided.
- Tuesday, May 18th – 8am (space is limited)
- Wednesday, June 16th – 8am
- Wednesday, July 21st – 8am
Call 646.616.9511 or email suites@brooklynse.com to reserve your spot.
We look forward to introducing you to a best in class experience and welcoming you to our family of Barclays Center suite holders. Please visit www.barclayscenter.com for more information about our new arena in Brooklyn.
Posted by eric at 4:46 PM
April 30, 2010
Barclays Center Ad Campaign
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
DDDB has a little Photoshop fun with Barclays' recently launched taxi-top ad campaign.
Related coverage...
Noticing New York, Barclaying Up The Wrong Tree: "Brutally Weird" Advertising That Hits “Home” In All The Wrong Ways
Who thunk that one up? (Clunk!) And what were they thinking? What were they thinking?
...The advertising for the proposed Ratner/Prokhorov “Barclays Center” super-subsidized Nets basketball arena is so “brutally weird” to borrow a favorite trademark phrase from Norman Oder’s Atlantic Yards Report.
How incredibly tone deaf can an advertising copywriter be to promote what is one of the most notorious modern icons of eminent domain abuse as:
“Your Home Away From Home”
Posted by eric at 1:04 PM
April 21, 2010
Your Home Away From Home
As the last homeowner in the Atlantic Yards footprint was forced to sell his condemned property, the irony of the headline on this taxi-top advertisement, photographed today in Manhattan's East Village, was no doubt lost on the creative geniuses who dreamt it up.
Mad Men, indeed.
Posted by eric at 10:57 PM
April 5, 2010
Barclays' Bob Diamond under the gun in the UK; another look at his platitudes at the groundbreaking
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder follows up on recent criticism of Barclays President Bob Diamond emanating from the UK.
The Barclays Center naming rights agreement is a savvy form of deal-making. Consider the sequence:
- The state (Empire State Development Corporation) gives away naming rights to Forest City Ratner
- Forest City Ratner sells the naming rights to Barclays
- Barclays uses the deal as a marketing platform to grow in the United States
Smart business, most likely. Public giveaway, for sure.
Posted by eric at 10:11 AM
April 4, 2010
Lord Mandelson gets personal over banker’s pay
The Times of London
by Rachel Sylvester and Katherine Griffiths
Barclays President and Jay-Z fan Bob Diamond is catching some heat from the Lord for his excessive pay package.
Lord Mandelson has singled out the president of Barclays as the “unacceptable face” of the banking sector in one of the most vitriolic attacks on financiers since the financial crisis.
The Business Secretary, who said 12 years ago that Labour was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes”, said that Bob Diamond was socially useless and paid an unjustifiable amount of money.
Mr Diamond, 58, who is American-born, is the number two at the bank and head of its highly profitable investment bank.
Lord Mandelson told The Times: “If you look at Bob Diamond, who took £63 million in pay — that to me is the unacceptable face of banking. He hasn’t earned that money, he’s taken £63 million not by building business or adding value or creating long-term economic strength, he has done so by deal-making and shuffling paper around.”
He added: “If anyone could justify that I’d like to see them do so. Just because somebody is very rich, it doesn’t mean to say different standards of morality apply to them.”
NoLandGrab: Lord Mandelson apparently has a quaint, merry-olde-England sense of morality, since over on this side of the pond, different standards of morality most definitely apply to the very rich. Exhibits A and B: Ratner, Bruce and Prokhorov, Mikhail.
Posted by eric at 10:15 PM
March 28, 2010
Nets Arena Begins Construction -- Oops, No It Doesn't
If people are confused as to whether construction of a Nets arena has begun, it could be due to confusing media coverage.
Sun Sentinel, It cannot be easy being Yormarks
By Sarah Talalay
This first article, a quick look at the Yormark brothers, includes the trouble Nets CEO Brett Yormark has had in promoting perhaps the worst NBA team ever. The article seems to confuse a ground breaking with actual construction.
Brett has weathered the very public change in architects for the Nets’ planned Brooklyn arena from the world-renowned Frank Gehry to Ellerbe Beckett; difficult discussions to move the Nets on an interim basis to the Prudential Center in Newark from the Meadowlands; and continued delays on the Brooklyn project. Construction of the new arena did finally begin earlier this month.
The Star-Ledger, Nets president Rod Thorn still unsure whether he has a future with team
By Dave D'Alessandro
Dave D'Alessandro knows that arena construction has not begun and lets his readers know why.
The transfer of ownership is being held up by two things, as Thorn sees it: The Board of Governors won’t give its official approval until April 16th; and there is still a “vacant possession” issue, which means the transaction cannot be completed until the Atlantic Yards project footprint is completely vacated by area tenants, which cannot happen before April 3, according to one report.
“The land needs to be vacant,” Thorn said. “They said it is, but it isn’t.”
Posted by steve at 8:09 AM
March 16, 2010
Diamond’s shining moment amid the crisis
Financial Times
by Justin Baer
The FT profiles Barclays president, Jay-Z fan and Atlantic Yards groundbreaktaker "Diamond" Bob Diamond.
Bob Diamond sat patiently on the dais set on a cluttered construction site last week, as New York’s top civic and community leaders took turns praising the future home of Barclays Center, a sports arena to be built on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards.
“It is with great enthusiasm,” bellowed Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn’s loquacious borough president, “that I introduce you to this shining diamond.”
Eighteen months before sharing a stage with rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, Mr Diamond stood under a different spotlight.
As president of Barclays, Mr Diamond starred in a thrilling chapter of the financial crisis: the UK bank’s frantic takeover of Lehman Brothers’ US securities business.
Posted by eric at 10:19 AM
March 13, 2010
Barclays breaks ground with 18,000-seat basketball stadium in Brooklyn
The Guardian
By Andrew Clark
Barclay's President, Bob Diamond, will become another name in the list of those who claim to improve Brooklyn while they destroy it.
Seated alongside rap star Jay-Z, Barclays president Bob Diamond beamed cheerfully as a soul rendition of the US national anthem was partially drowned out by the din of circling helicopters and noisy protesters.
In a marquee on a disused rail yard in the New York borough of Brooklyn, hundreds of dignitaries including the city's mayor gathered to watch a ground-breaking ceremony for an 18,000-seat basketball stadium to be named the Barclays Centre under a naming deal that has cost the British bank more than $300m (£200m).
...
But Barclays' brand-building efforts have not been universally welcomed. One New York City councillor, Letitia James, has suggested the bank's involvement is unwelcome in an area of ethnic diversity because it did business in South Africa during the early 1980s despite that country's regime of apartheid.
And some community activists have railed against the compulsory purchase of properties to redevelop Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards. Protesters outside the ground-breaking ceremony waved placards reading "stop the rape of Brooklyn" and heralding "the destruction of Brooklyn's soul day".
Posted by steve at 7:42 AM
January 6, 2010
When it comes to details of the Barclays naming-rights deal, the Times plays "he said, she said," leaving Ratner with the last word
Atlantic Yards Report
A New York Times Sports section article today headlined What’s in a Naming Right? Certainly Not Cash discussed the lack of a naming-rights sponsor for the new Giants/Jets football stadium in the Meadowlands, and then gave Forest City Ratner some gentle treatment regarding its naming rights deal.
...Who do you believe? The Nets or a document
The reporter on today's piece, Richard Sandomir, wrote a prominent article in January 2007 about the Barclays deal, but now treats the details as an episode of "he said, she said."
He writes:
The recession and the departure of the star architect Frank Gehry led to the renegotiation of some terms of the Barclays-Nets deal. According to a bond document, the arena naming rights were halved.
The Nets insist that they have given Barclays more for its sponsorship money and that the bank’s total annual payments, including fees for other rights, remain unchanged.
Have the Nets and Forest City Ratner--whose business relationship with the Times again went unmentioned--released any document that proves that claim? No. Until then, shouldn't the bond document be trusted as more authoritative?
Posted by eric at 11:57 PM
What’s in a Naming Right? Certainly Not Cash
The New York Times
by Richard Sandomir
A Times story on the absence of a naming-rights sponsor for the new Giants/Jets football stadium in the Meadowlands touches on the Barclays deal for the planned Brooklyn arena.
For the Giants and the Jets, finding a naming-rights buyer for the new stadium will take time. If they planned to dedicate revenue from such a deal to help pay their construction debt, they will have to use money from other sources.
The market has been largely dormant and may never return to its prerecession peak, when Citigroup agreed in late 2006 to pay the Mets $400 million over 20 years to name the team’s ballpark Citi Field and Barclays followed soon after with a similarly priced deal to put its moniker on the Nets’ proposed arena in Brooklyn.
As Atlantic Yards Report will surely point out, the Barclays deal may never have been worth anywhere near $20 million per year. It surely isn't now, though the Nets still claim otherwise.
The recession and the departure of the star architect Frank Gehry led to the renegotiation of some terms of the Barclays-Nets deal. According to a bond document, the arena naming rights were halved.
The Nets insist that they have given Barclays more for its sponsorship money and that the bank’s total annual payments, including fees for other rights, remain unchanged.
NoLandGrab: All but the most naive among us learned a long time ago not to believe anything that comes out of the Ratner/Nets industrial complex.
Posted by eric at 10:26 AM
December 8, 2009
The Barclays naming right deal may not be a record, after all; will the revised agreement get noticed by the Times, which puffed it?
Atlantic Yards Report
The most important issue regarding naming rights for the Atlantic Yards arena is why the state simply gave them away--because they were part of arena financing, an Empire State Development Corporation official said not-so-convincingly last July.
That deserves coverage. But also deserving of coverage. especially in the New York Times, is the revelation that the Barclays Center deal, once touted as record-setting, may not be a record, after all. Or, if it remains a record, it's by a fraction.
...Now, however, we know the revised deal is $10 million a year for the arena plus other unspecified payments to the Nets. The total that is hardly double the deal in Atlanta and, given adjustment for inflation, may not even be any larger.
...The New York Times and the New York Daily News, however, haven't reported on the revised deal, though they--especially the Times--has treated the previous deal as fact multiple times. Given the parent New York Times Company's business relationship with Forest City Ratner, some more skeptical coverage is in order.
Posted by eric at 8:18 AM
December 5, 2009
Nets naming-rights deal at Brooklyn arena pays half of original figure
The Star-Ledger
Barclays has proclaimed it is committed to the proposed Nets arena. Perhaps the fact that they're paying half of what was originally announced for naming rights could be a factor.
The British-based Barclays Bank is paying half of what it originally agreed to for naming rights on a planned Brooklyn arena for the NBA's Nets team, a report in NorthJersey.com said.
The newspaper said the once-record $400 million naming rights deal was chopped to $200 million, according to a statement prepared by Goldman Sachs sent out to investors for the $900 million arena. The original $400 million deal would have shattered the record for the most lucrative deal for an indoor arena in the United States, according to the New York Post. Still, at $10 million a year, the renegotiated deal would be double what Prudential paid for naming rights on the Devils’ hockey arena in Newark, the report said. And the document indicates the New York Islanders could be another potential tenant.
NoLandGrab: Yet to be rationally explained is how a hockey team will play in an arena that cannot accommodate a hockey rink.
Posted by steve at 8:13 AM
December 3, 2009
Did Barclays Get a Discount on Nets Naming Rights?
NY Observer
by Eliot Brown
Are the naming rights for Bruce Ratner's planned Nets arena worth what they used to be?
In January 2007, Mr. Ratner, Nets owner and developer of the planned $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, trumpeted a record-setting naming rights deal for the new $900 million basketball arena that would be the centerpiece of the project.
While Mr. Ratner's firm never released an exact number, it was widely reported that British bank Barclays would pay nearly $400 million over a 20-year deal to slap its name on the venue, which, at the time, was to be designed by stararchitect Frank Gehry. The move was a huge win for Mr. Ratner, a record price that would bring in a big injection of funds with a well-respected name.
But now, after a historic economic crash, lengthy project delays, and the dropping of Mr. Gehry as project architect, there's reason to think the deal is less than it once was.
According to documents related to the arena's financing that were released Thursday, Barclays will pay $10 million a year to the arena's owner for the 20-year deal. Looking solely at this, it would seem to make it a half-off discount, but there are a number of other untold fees paid directly to the Nets as part of the naming rights, according to the documents. Forest City Ratner declined to provide those numbers, and a spokesman for Barclays declined to comment.
Click through for more.
Additional coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, After two renegotiations, Barclays naming rights agreement is $10 million a year (not $20 million, never formally confirmed)
Well, the Barclays Center Project Preliminary Official Statement (see p. 38 and 78-79) indicates that the 20-year Barclays Center Naming Rights Agreement was renegotiated twice and is worth $10 million a year.
(The document was acquired by Eliot Brown of the New York Observer, who quotes Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, spinning as always, as asserting the value is more because it includes "the arena, team and hospitality assets." Sure. But they're not saying $20 million a year.)
Other previous evidence of sweeteners: the addition of Barclays to the bond deal and the naming rights agreement for the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street station.
By the way, the New York Times just this week asserted the agreement was for $20 million a year.
NoLandGrab: A pie-in-the-sky estimate for the number of annual arena events. An incredible-shrinking-naming-rights deal. These one-notch-above-junk bonds are looking junkier by the day.
Posted by eric at 3:02 PM
September 1, 2009
not exactly the Bedford Falls Building and Loan
Fans For Fair Play
Scott M.X. Turner dissects Barclays CEO Bob Diamond's recent interview with the Star-Ledger's Steve Politi.
Diamond repeated carefully-parsed talking points: Ratner's the man, the recession has been tough on poor Bruce, Big Evil Community Opposition has slowed the project.
There were, however, a couple of newsworthy and cringeworthy sentiments.
Diamond let slip that Barclays has seen the newly-revised designs for Ratner's arena. Yes, the designs that aren't supposed to exist and can't be made available for public scrutiny before the state agency overseeing the project votes to re-affirm the it. Wacky Barclays, letting the cat out of the knickers, or torch or wireless or lift or jumper or whatever mistakenly-spilled beans are called in Merry Olde.
Then there was this from Diamond: "The original intent...was branding. We wanted to continue to enhance the brand of Barclays and do something in New York, where the majority of our clients are. There were many opportunities when it came to naming rights, and what really tripped our trigger on this one was the recovery of Brooklyn and a community that was really quite poor. It not only fit our need to brand, but it fit the fact that we like to give back to the community."
- The "recovery of Brooklyn"? When was the last time Bob Diamond set foot in Brooklyn? During the '77 Blackout? Brooklyn's been doing fine all by our lonesome, clawing back one block, one small business, one family at a time, without Ratner's help, never mind Barclays'. (And if Diamond says "hey, I live in Brooklyn," then those blinders he's wearing must be way too tight.)
- "The original intent was branding" Well goodness, all this time we thought it was Jobs, Hoops and Housing. Glad this has all been about flying that blue eagle in neon over the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic.
- "tripped our trigger" The shepherd's pie falls even closer to the tree...
- "a community that was really quite poor" What community are you talking about, Bob? The Black community? The public-housing community? The immigrant community? Any community that stands between you and Barclays' exciting new branding offensive?
- "It fit the fact that we like to give back to the community" If Barclays hasn't actually been here before (outside of those Middle Passage profit margins in the 17th century), to whom are you giving back? Nothing a like a bank that prides itself on big ol' helpings of warm and fuzzy paternalism.
Posted by eric at 9:14 PM
August 30, 2009
Barclays reaffirms commitment to AY arena; company head calls community "poor" and predicts 2011 season opening date
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder assesses statements from Barclays about the proposed Nets arena.
Barclays PLC President Bob Diamond tells Star-Ledger columnist Steve Politi that, while delays on the planned Brooklyn arena for the Nets are "agonizing and frustrating," the banking company remains committed to the Barclays Center.
That's not surprising--Barclays wants its name around the media for branding purposes--but Politi apparently didn't ask if the naming rights deal, reported at $400 million over 20 years, had been renegotiated.
[Addendum] As noted in March and last November (when Barclays recommitted), the bank may have renegotiated the naming rights deal down. With and since that recommitment, there have been a couple of sweeteners: Barclays got a piece of the bond deal and a naming rights deal for the subway station bordering the arena site.
...
Notably, Diamond said he had seen the new arena design, via Ellerbe Becket and (apparently) an unnamed additional firm, and while less preferable than Frank Gehry's design(s), he was fine with it.
That means that, while the public hasn't had a chance to see designs or a site plan during the comment period (which ends Monday) on the Modified General Project Plan, the developer and its partners have seen them. More importantly, the New York Police Department hasn't yet had a chance to weigh in on security issues.
...
Diamond said, "we think it's the 2011 season that it'll be open." Well, maybe in the second half of the 2011-12 season, but I think the best-case scenario is a 2012 arena opening--and it's unlikely the team would move across state lines late in the season.
Politi reports:
"The original intent ... was branding," he said. "We wanted to continue to enhance the brand of Barclays and do something in New York, where the majority of our clients are. There were many opportunities when it came to naming rights, and what really tripped our trigger on this one was the recovery of Brooklyn and a community that was really quite poor. It not only fit our need to brand, but it fit the fact that we like to give back to the community." (Emphasis added)Which community exactly was "really quite poor"? The community that Forest City Ratner recruited via housing advocacy group ACORN?
Or the people living in and around what Chuck Ratner of parent Forest City Enterprises calls "a great piece of real estate" and where there have been numerous speculative market-rate condos built lately?
Posted by steve at 11:04 AM
Barclays still behind Nets' plans for Brooklyn moveStar Ledger
Star Ledger
By Steve Politi
A constant feature in the Atlantic Yards fight is the attempt by project boosters to give the proposed project an air of inevitability. This article seems to be an attempt by Barclays to use that strategy.
Barclays president Bob Diamond called the delays on the new Brooklyn arena for the Nets "agonizing and frustrating," but he said the banking giant remained committed to the controversial project.
And, yes, Diamond is better than you. He is allowed to have exclusive access to the arena design. The public at large has to review the project without knowing this crucial information.
Diamond said that he had seen the new design of the arena - which has yet to be revealed to the public - and while he preferred the original Frank Gehry-designed project, he was satisfied with the plans.
Note in this statement how "I know" would have been much more reassuring for project supporters than "I think."
"As it finally resolved all the hurdles, then it was tough to get any construction money from the banks," he said. "I think we're in a good place now, but absolutely, it was frustrating and we would have preferred it to be accelerated. But as a partner, we think (owner) Bruce Ratner did everything he possibly could do, and we're very strong partners with him."
When is financing for the arena ready? "Fairly soon" is fairly vague.
Diamond, speaking before the third round of The Barclays golf tournament at Liberty National in Jersey City, said the he expected financing for the project would be "set fairly soon." The arena is expected to cost $800 million.
The article goes on to point out why there is good reason for Barclays to be less than certain as to the future of an arena for the Nets. Indeed, who can say for sure at this time what Barclays has agreed to pay for naming rights for the arena?
The Nets remain committed to moving to Brooklyn, but legal challenges from the community have prevented the team from breaking ground. The project now faces two important dates: An Oct. 14 hearing before the New York Court of Appeals dealing with eminent-domain issues and a Dec. 31 deadline to begin work in order to qualify for tax-exempt bonds.
Barclays agreed to pay a reported $400 million over 20 years for naming rights to the new arena in January 2007. That was before the collapse of the financial markets put the Atlantic Yards project in peril.
For all the talk of being "strong partners", Barclays still knows where the find the exit in its relationship with developer Bruce Ratner.
Barclays can opt out of the naming-rights deal if construction has not started by then, but Diamond said yesterday, "We won't be walking away." He said the project remains important for the company's profile.
Posted by steve at 10:19 AM
July 8, 2009
Barclays buys rights to Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street station name
The Times (UK)
By Christine Seib
Barclays, which is keen to develop its brand in the US, has paid to have its name added to one of the busiest subway stations in New York in the first deal of its kind.
Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street Station in Brooklyn will have Barclays added to its already lengthy moniker after the British bank paid more than $300 million (£185 million) for the naming rights to a nearby sports stadium — the 18,000-seat Barclays Centre.
...
The change will not come into effect until the stadium opens in 2012. As part of its deal with Barclays, Forest City Ratner, the developer of the venue, threw in the naming rights to the station.
Posted by lumi at 4:36 AM
July 7, 2009
Brooklyn subway stop named for British bank
CNN.com
Bruce Ratner's naming-rights deal with Barclays and the MTA is spreading the controversy around Atlantic Yards to those who are wary of commercialization of the public domain.
Several subway riders are outraged that Barclays has purchased the naming rights to this subway stop, which sees about 10 million people go through it each day.
One straphanger said, "A London Bank shouldn't be the name of this train station; it's something that belongs to the public domain."
Another said, "It's just everywhere we go, everything we do, it's just branding, branding, branding. It's America now."
Renaming the Atlantic-Pacific Station is tied to the construction of Barclays Center, the new sports arena for the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets.
Posted by lumi at 6:10 AM
June 28, 2009
How did Barclays sign that naming-rights deal?
The Brooklyn Paper
By Cristian Fleming
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Posted by steve at 8:12 AM
June 11, 2009
Barclays to stuff Nets deal?
TheDeal.com
With sponsorships out of favor for big banks, it comes as little surprise that the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets should fear the possibility of Barclays plc (NYSE:BCS) abandoning the team's plans to move to Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Nets, which currently play in the New York suburb of East Rutherford, N.J., have had plans to move to Brooklyn on the table ever since 2004 when real estate dealmaker Bruce Ratner and rap impresario Jay-Z bought the team for $300 million (The Deal Pipeline subscribers see additional details). Part of that deal included a $400 million, 20-year naming rights agreement with the British bank.
However, the plans to move to Brooklyn have been blocked first by activists opposed to the arena's construction and then by the credit crisis. The latest "pick" is a Dec. 31 deadline to issue tax-free bonds to build the arena, notes New Jersey newspaper The Record. If the bonds aren't issued, then Barclays may seek a fast break from the deal.
NoLandGrab: If the bonds aren't issued by December 31st, then there likely will no longer be any deal from which Barclays could seek a fast break.
Posted by eric at 6:29 PM
March 31, 2009
Noticing Noticing New York
Michael D. D. White explores the history of Frank Gehry's buildings and leaks. In Cambridge, MA, Gehry blamed the leaks on "value engineering," which doesn't bode well for two Forest City Ratner projects — Beekman Tower (or "Stump," depending on where it tops out) and Atlantic Yards — both of which are currently getting the value-engineering treatment.
Here is prediction that somebody should perhaps be making about the Beekman. Have you watched the way water runs down mountainsides in a heavy rainstorm? Look at how the Beekman facade has channels that will collect rivuleting water into expanding streams, especially when pushed around by wind. We really can’t help ourselves; we are expecting that there may be water problems at the Beekman. As water cascades down the side of the building where will the water go? Leaks into the building’s interior may not be the only problem.
That’s what we were thinking before word came out that the Beekman may be redesigned and built at only half its originally planned height. Where are we now? All we can say is happy value engineering!
Commentary on AIG, Barclays and the Nets arena naming-rights deal:
What makes this a windfall paid for at U.S. Taxpayer expense is the fact that, in a self-dealing fashion, AIG executives routed substantially more money to Barclays than it deserved. We said in our previous article:
As people closely following the scandal know, AIG has been routing federal bailout money around the world and to Wall Street, essentially buying favor with big firms and banks by unnecessarily paying 100% on the dollar to extinguish collateral obligations which should have been extinguished with much lower negotiated discount sums. This has turned into windfall infusions of cash, a counterintuitive reward for financial companies who (foolishly?) placed their bets on AIG’s unregulated derivatives and CDO division being sound.
...
Adding our two cents to the points [Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn] made, we found, with respect to those [retention] bonuses, another analogy with respect to Atlantic Yards (like the AIG scandal, also a product of New York’s “FIRE” sector- Finance, Insurance and Real Estate culture). We asked why the executives who steered AIG into the mess thought they were entitled to be retained (through bonuses) to clean up that mess. This, we said was the same thing as the financially teetering Forest City Ratner executives expecting that they have some sort of propriety right to clean up the mess they very consciously created in Prospect Heights and Fort Greene.
Posted by lumi at 5:02 AM
March 29, 2009
Follow the Money
The Architect's Newspaper Blog
Sometimes things slip past us. This blog entry is from March 17, but wasn't posted here on NoLandGrab. This dreadful oversight is now corrected. Here's your chance to again contemplate how taxpayer money is helping to pay for the naming rights to the basketball arena of the proposed Atlantic Yards project.
And you thought the bonuses were the worst part of the AIG bailout. If you happen to oppose Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, it turns out that there might be bigger fish to fry, as the gang over at Develop Don’t Destory Brooklyn are blaming the bailout for helping to keep the notoriously nascent project afloat.
In a press release, DDDB argues that because AIG paid $8.5 billion of its $170 billion federal bailout to Barclays, and Barclays is paying $400 million to Ratner for the naming rights of the arena, Ratner is therefore receiving $400 billion from the federal government. DDDB’s Dan Goldstein put it thusly:
Why are TARP bailout funds flowing through AIG to a British bank to Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises for a billion dollar arena in Brooklyn? Why are federal taxpayers being forced to pay for Barclays’ marketing scheme? There is no justification for it, especially as TARP funds are supposed to spur banks to start lending again, rather than prop up activities such as the Barclays-Ratner boondoggle. The federal bailout of AIG was not intended to assist Barclays in hyping its brand in Brooklyn, or to help them slap their logo, for 20 years, no less, on a basketball arena already heavily dependent on city, state and federal subsidies.
Granted, it seems like a bit of a stretch to us–and Aristotle, too–no matter how fungible money is.
UPDATE: Then again, we’ve been wrong before. Both the Bergen County Record and Daily News look into the bailout connection, which seems to pass their smell test. News columnist Juan Gonzalez connects the dots:
Posted by steve at 7:24 AM
March 27, 2009
The Barclays naming rights deal may be well under $400 million after all
Atlantic Yards Report
Maybe, as British news report with an unnamed source indicates, Barclays Capital would pay much less than the reported $400 million for the Atlantic Yards arena naming rights deal
One of the lingering questions of the AY saga is why Barclays has stuck with the deal so steadfastly. Sure, they believed--not without evidence--that a Brooklyn arena might be a way to splash their name across America.
But they signed up in January 2007 for a Frank Gehry arena, not an "inspired by Frank Gehry arena" or a "Frank Gehry arena produced by architects who happen to work for someone else."
So as New Jersey Nets CEO (Chief Exaggeration Officer, to NLG) Brett Yormark does damage control about Gehry's role, maybe Barclays has already renegotiated the deal downward.
Gumby Fresh blogger Gari N. Corp makes a cameo as he tries to explain why a Barclays PR flack might have initimated to a reporter for a British publication that "we're not on the hook for anywhere near as much. We're not that mental."
Additional coverage...
Gumby Fresh, Name Over
Let's go back that old set of arena projections, shall we (you can find a discussion here)? We see that the developer was looking to meet between $30 million and $35 million of the arena's then-projected (and probably too low) $43 million in yearly debt service with sponsorship revenue, which would presumably include the naming rights. Any reduction in the naming rights' contribution to this already meager total might be fatal.
Posted by lumi at 6:39 PM
British press watch
The Independent, Row grows in Brooklyn over Barclays' Nets deal
The Barclays naming-rights deal scandal has been reported in the British press.
Building Desgin Online, Foster and Gehry hit as New York projects go on hold
Frank Gehry's misadventure leads an article in a British architecture trade publication:
Speaking to US-based publication the Architect’s Newspaper, Gehry said: “The Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn—I don’t think it’s going to happen.
“There are projects underway that are being threatened, and may not be completed. That would be devastating to me. Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles is also on hold.”
Gehry, who turned 80 earlier this month, has since issued a statement saying his comment was “misconstrued as a prediction of the future of the Atlantic Yards development”.
It read: “All of us at Gehry Architects New York are immensely proud of our work with our client Forest City Ratner on the Atlantic Yards Project and remain hopeful that it will come to fruition in the very near future.”
Earlier this month, Gehry admitted he had been forced to cut staff numbers at his practice by 50% over the last year as projects were stopped or stalled.
His comments came as a number of high-profile developments hit trouble in New York.
Posted by lumi at 5:12 AM
March 24, 2009
Pascrell asks Treasury to force Barclays to bail on Ratner arena naming-rights deal
Yesterday, NJ Congressional Representative Bill Pascrell sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, asking that the government step in to force the cancellation of Barclays $400 million naming-rights deal for Bruce Ratner's new Nets arena.
There are four main distinctions between the Barclays and CitiGroup-Mets deals, both valued at $20 million per year over 20 years:
- the Nets arena at Atlantic Yards hasn't even broken ground,
- the Barclays deal has an "out" clause,
- unlike CitiGroup, Barclays was an indirect recipient of federal bailout funds, channeled through AIG,
- the Barclays deal was reaffirmed AFTER AIG received its initial infusion of federal bailout money.
Here are links to and highlights from the coverage:
The NY Observer, Jersey Pol Takes Swipe at Bruce Ratner's Arena Deal
...New Jersey electeds have generally refrained from publicly disparaging the plans, at least in the past couple years. But now, with the more than $4 billion project on death watch due to the economy and a lengthy legal battle, there seems to be a change in tune.
Today, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell publicly released a letter he wrote to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, requesting that the Obama administration act to block Barclays bank from leasing naming rights for the arena—a move that, if realized, would be a major blow to the project.
The NY Times, Congressman Wants Barclays-Nets Deal Scrapped
Pascrell said in a telephone interview: “The bailout money was never anticipated to be used to put your name on a sports arena. The circus is over. The taxpayer has to be protected. I’m more outraged about this than the A.I.G. bonuses.”
Barclays and the Nets signed their 20-year deal in early 2007, two months after Citigroup signed its $400 million deal with the Mets to put its name on Citi Field. Citigroup has received $45 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds. Barclays got its bite out of TARP from A.I.G., but has not taken bailout money in Britain.
In the Barclays’ situation in Brooklyn, Pascrell said, “A shovel hasn’t been put into the ground, the agreement has an escape clause and no money has been exchanged.” He added, “The secretary has to appeal to these people.” Pascrell said he would consider legislation “as a last resort” if Geithner cannot persuade Barclays to drop out.
The Bergen Record, Pascrell seeks cancellation of Brooklyn arena naming rights
“I believe that any further payments of taxpayer money… be conditioned on the cancellation of any stadium or arena naming-rights agreements that may be in place,” wrote Pascrell. “Federal money was made available to banks and companies like AIG in order to stabilize the financial system and free up credit markets, not for high-priced marketing opportunities.”
NY Newsday, NJ lawmaker seeks cancellation of arena name deal
In a letter Monday, Pascrell, a Democrat from Paterson, told Geithner he believes any further payments of taxpayer money to financial firms should be contingent on cancellation of any sports naming rights deals.
Atlantic Yards Report, On Barclays/AIG, NJ Congressman vaults story into media; Yormark spins regional benefits, affordable housing
Norman Oder traces the growth of this story and counters Nets CEO Brett Yormark's argument that Atlantic Yards represents "benefits for the entire region":
A new arena would compete with the already-built Prudential Center for a finite number of events. The city's rationale for subsidies is that the arena would poach tax revenues from New Jersey. It's surprising that more New Jersey officials haven't glommed on to Pascrell's media gravy train.
DDDB.net, Yormark Says Arena Will Provide Housing
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn notes that, in his official statement to the press, Nets CEO Brett Yormark is trying to sell the Barclays naming-rights deal as a regional jobs and affordable-housing program.
Nets Daily, Congressman Asks for End to Barclays Naming Rights
Here's one opposing view.
NJ.com, Whose money is it?
So why punish Barclays? Barclays not only didn't receive any corporate welfare here, but they didn't need a bailout from their own government. When they needed additional funds, they got them the old fashioned way - they convinced investors to invest in them.
NoLandGrab: Yeah, they got funds the old-fashioned way — they struck a deal with investors in Qatar and Abu Dhabi who could end up owning almost a third of the bank, in order to avoid at all costs having to answer to UK bank regulators.
Posted by lumi at 6:00 AM
PRESS RELEASE: PASCRELL REQUESTS GEITHNER INTERVENE IN NAMING RIGHTS AGREEMENT BETWEEN BARCLAYS, PROPOSED NETS ARENA IN BROOKLYN
PASCRELL: FEDERAL MONEY FOR FINANCIAL STABILITY, NOT PRICEY MARKETING SCHEMES
WASHINGTON—U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-08) today requested that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner intervene in the naming rights agreement between Barclays PLC and the proposed Atlantic Yards arena in Brooklyn on the grounds that Barclays is the recipient of $8.5 billion dollars in bailout money from U.S. taxpayers through credit default swap payments by AIG.
“I believe that any further payments of taxpayer money, whether through TARP or the Federal Reserve System, be conditioned on the cancellation of any stadium or arena naming-rights agreements that may be in place,” stated Pascrell a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means. “Federal money was made available to banks and companies like AIG in order to stabilize the financial system and free up credit markets, not for high priced marketing opportunities.”
[The text of the letter can be found after the jump.]
March 23, 2009
The Honorable Timothy F. Geithner
Secretary of the Treasury
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3134
Washington, DC 20220
Dear Secretary Geithner:
I am writing to request that the Department of Treasury take all appropriate and legal steps to reign in the questionable business practices engaged in by Barclays PLC. Specifically, Barclays plans on spending almost $400 million for the naming rights to the proposed Atlantic Yards arena in Brooklyn, despite recently receiving $8.5 billion dollars in bailout money from U.S. taxpayers through credit default swap payments by AIG.
As you are aware, Barclays is one of the world’s largest financial services companies. While the company is headquartered in London, it has operations that stretch across six continents, including a significant presence in the U.S. Like most banks, Barclays’ business has suffered and continues to weaken as a result of the current global economic crisis, leading to thousands of employees being laid off worldwide, including here in the United States.
However, this has not stopped the company from moving ahead with their plan to spend $400 million over the next twenty years to have their name on an arena. This situation is aggravated by the fact that the arena’s construction will be financed, in part, by taxpayer dollars. Considering Barclays’ financial position, the recent revelation that they have received almost $8.5 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars through AIG, and that taxpayer money will be contributed to the funding of this stadium project, I believe that allowing this naming rights deal to remain in place makes little sense for both taxpayers and Barclays.
I understand that the Treasury Department allowed CitiGroup, which had a similar naming rights agreement with the New York Mets in place, to move forward even after receiving federal bailout money.
However, unlike that deal, construction on the Atlantic Yards arena has not yet broken ground. Furthermore, press reports indicate that the agreement between Barclays and the Atlantic Yards arena includes an opt-out clause and no money has exchanged hands.
I believe it is appropriate for the U.S. to request that Barclays cancel this naming-rights agreement as a result of the payments made to it through AIG and respectfully request that you take action to that effect. Furthermore, I believe that any further payments of taxpayer money, whether through TARP or the Federal Reserve System, be conditioned on the cancellation of any stadium or arena naming-rights agreements that may be in place. Federal money was made available to banks and companies like AIG in order to stabilize the financial system and free up credit markets, not for high priced marketing opportunities. We must do everything in our power to ensure that taxpayer money is being effectively utilized to restore our economy and return our country to prosperity.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information. I thank you for your attention to this matter, and look forward to the favor of your reply.
Sincerely,
Bill Pascrell, Jr.
Member of Congress
Posted by lumi at 5:08 AM
March 19, 2009
Follow the money...
The Brooklyn Paper, Tish: Follow the money
Councilwoman Letitia James has found a Brooklyn angle on the nation’s populist outrage against AIG, calling on the British bank Barclays to not use the billions in taxpayer funds funneled to it by the insurance giant on its $400-million naming rights deal at the proposed Atlantic Yards arena.
James (D–Fort Greene) condemned any use of the federal bailout — officially, the Troubled Assets Relief Program — for anything other than jump-starting the economy.
“TARP money is for banks to start lending again, not for Barclays to polish its corporate identity,” said James.
The Daily News I-Team Blog, Trickle-down economics in Brooklyn
Backed by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's flowchart graphic and Councilmember Letitia James' statement, the "I-Team" explains why Barclays' naming-rights deal for the Atlantic Yards arena doesn't pass the smell test:
American taxpayers spend $170 billion to bail out AIG, which spends $8.5 billion to help Barclays, the huge British bank that is choking on its own financial woes. Barclays then says it will honor its $400 million naming-rights deal for Nets owner Bruce Ratner’s proposed Brooklyn arena.
Posted by lumi at 6:03 AM
March 18, 2009
Naming deal for arena criticized because of bailout money
NorthJersey.com [Bergen Record]
by John Brennan
DDDB got a fair amount of traction with its press release yesterday connecting the dots between US taxpayers and Bruce Ratner's planned Barclays Center arena.
AIG’s distribution of $8.5 billion in federal bailout money to Barclays Bank means Barclays should call off its $400-million naming-rights deal for a proposed Brooklyn arena, project critics charged Tuesday.
A spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn — a group which for several years has protested the Atlantic Yards arena and housing project — questioned the propriety of Barclays’ continued financial interest in the plan.
The New Jersey Nets are slated to be the marquee tenant at the proposed arena.
“Why are federal taxpayers being forced to pay for Barclays’ marketing scheme?” Daniel Goldstein, the spokesman, asked in a statement. “The federal bailout of AIG was not intended to assist Barclays in hyping its brand in Brooklyn, or to help them slap their logo for 20 years on a basketball arena already heavily dependent on city, state and federal subsidies.”
...Spokesmen for the Nets and Barclays each declined to comment Tuesday.
More coverage...
NY Daily News, Looting goes far beyond bonuses: AIG doled out payments to a small group of banks, including UBS
For those who have forgotten, Barclays is the bank that agreed back in 2007 to pay $400 million in a 20-year naming rights deal for Forest City Ratner's proposed new basketball arena in Brooklyn.
Last November, in the midst of a world financial meltdown, and with prospects for Ratner's Atlantic Yards project looking bleaker than ever, Barclays reaffirmed its intention to spend that $400 million for what is essentially vanity advertising.
So just around the time Barclays receives $8.5 billion from AIG's bailout package, the British firm decides to go forward with its naming rights deal in Brooklyn.
If it ever gets built, we should call it the American Bailout Arena, for the old ABA, where the Nets got their start.
Even as millions of Americans lose their jobs, homes and retirement savings, these jackals are paying themselves off with our money.
Urbanite [amNY blog] Critics slam Nets arena deal with bank that got AIG funds
Add one more voice to the anti-AIG outrage.
Atlantic Yards Report, The AIG to Barclays story has legs
Posted by eric at 10:03 AM
March 17, 2009
DDDB PRESS RELEASE: U.S. Taxpayers To Pick Up Tab for Barclays' Vanity Project
AIG Bailout to Fund Barclays' Naming Rights Deal For Bruce Ratner's Proposed Barclays Center Arena
BROOKLYN, New York — On Sunday troubled insurance giant AIG revealed the counterparties who benefited from the $170 billion taxpayer bailout of the besieged company. $400 million of that bailout would go to a proposed basketball arena, which, if it’s ever built, is already slated to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies funded by New York City, New York State and federal taxpayers, and is reliant on New York state’s use of eminent domain to seize homes and businesses.
Britain’s Barclays Bank was the beneficiary of some $8.5 billion worth of the AIG bailout by US taxpayers. Barclays has a $400 million naming-rights deal for Forest City Enterprises developer Bruce Ratner’s proposed $1 billion Barclays Center basketball arena, the centerpiece of the company’s floundering Atlantic Yards development plan in Brooklyn, New York.
Thus the American taxpayer is, in essence, picking up the tab for a British bank’s $400 million vanity project.
“Why are TARP bailout funds flowing through AIG to a British bank to Clevland-based Forest City Enterprises for a billion dollar arena in Brooklyn? Why are federal taxpayers being forced to pay for Barclays' marketing scheme? There is no justification for it, especially as TARP funds are supposed to spur banks to start lending again, rather than prop up activities such as the Barclays-Ratner boondoggle,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “The federal bailout of AIG was not intended to assist Barclays in hyping its brand in Brooklyn, or to help them slap their logo, for 20 years, no less, on a basketball arena already heavily dependent on city, state and federal subsidies.”
In February there was a political and public uproar over Citigroup’s $400 million naming rights deal for the nearly completed home of the New York Mets—Citi Field—because the financial firm had received $45 billion worth of the TARP bailout. At the time the New York Daily News reported that the House Financial Services Committee Chair, Congressman Barney Frank, said that:
...Naming rights deals will be off limits for firms taking taxpayer money in the next $350 billion installment of bailout money for banks and financial institutions.
"I'm confident you won't see anything like that going forward," in the next bailout round, Frank said.
Unlike Citi Field, the proposed Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn has not even broken ground.
“When Congressman Frank learns of yet another instance of fungible bailout funds going towards a lucrative naming rights deal, we expect that he will not be pleased and will quickly take action,” Goldstein concluded.
Posted by eric at 11:17 AM
March 16, 2009
Money: Taxpayers to AIG to Barclays to Ratner
From Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:
|
Atlantic Yards Report, Are American taxpayers paying for the Barclays Center naming rights deal?
Are American taxpayers paying for the Barclays Center naming rights deal?
Well, if money's fungible, you certainly could say so.
Posted by lumi at 7:24 PM
March 10, 2009
Is a U.S. Government bailout paying for Barclays Center naming rights?
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder declares that money is still fungible, which means that the report that Barclays Bank received a cut of the US Federal bailout funds through AIG and then reaffirmed the arena naming-rights deal with Ratner's NJ Nets is a BIG DEAL:
The money was not directly funneled into the arena naming rights. But if money's fungible, and last time I checked it was, whatever benefit Barclays gained could be redirected to other ventures. (And, as DDDB notes, Barclays will benefit from a bailout from the U.K. government.)
Maybe that's why Nets CEO Brett Yormark was always so confident Barclays would stick with the deal.
NoLandGrab: Keep in mind that the public and political outcry over Citibank's naming-rights deal with the Mets was for a done deal. Barclays' contract with the Nets allowed the British bank to walk away from the deal back in November, but it didn't. FYI: Both deals are valued at $20 million/year for 20 years.
Posted by lumi at 7:06 AM
March 9, 2009
New name for Nets arena? How about "U.S. Taxpayer Bailout for U.K. Bank Center"?
Barclays got a share of U.S. bailout money to AIG last fall at the same time the Brit bank re-affirmed its deal to pay Nets $400 million for its name on Brooklyn arena.
The Smart Asset [Village Voice financial blog]
by Ward Harkavy
While the cloud hanging over the U.S. economy grows bigger and darker, it's comforting to know that precious American tax dollars are flowing to British bank Barclays. Are they helping to prop up Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards, too?
Working both sides of the Atlantic, British behemoth Barclays got sneakily paid off by U.S.-taxpayer-financed bailout funds late last year given to whiny insuror AIG, and now Barclays is negotiating, of course, to get U.K. government help in getting rid of toxic assets.
It turns out that while the U.K. conglomerate was getting a share of the bailout money, it recommitted last November its deal to pay $400 million to the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets for naming rights to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. "Barclays still loyal to Nets' cause," the Bergen Record trumpeted on November 13:
"Barclays is unwavering in its commitment to the Barclays Center and we are very pleased with our long-term alliance with our great partners, the Nets and Forest City Ratner Companies," Barclays chief administrative officer Gerard LaRocca said in a press release. "We are excited about being part of the continued renaissance of Brooklyn, and we eagerly look forward to opening night at Barclays Center."
(Sidelight: Bank of America, which also got part of the AIG bailout money, last month called off its similar naming-rights deal with the Yankees.)
Whether Bruce Ratner will continue with construction of the Barclays Center may be in question, but at least the foreign bank was able to get U.S. bailout money more or less under the table.
Posted by eric at 7:32 PM
February 3, 2009
Mets plan to honor partnership with Citigroup
Newsday
By Wallace Matthews
In his defense of the Citi Field naming-rights deal, an official for the Mets flunks his audition to be a contestant on Jeopardy:
The federal government may have bailed out Citigroup, but the Mets insist they're not bailing on their $400-million naming rights deal with the bank whose name adorns the walls of their new ballpark, Citi Field.
"We're committed to our agreement with Citi, and Citi has indicated it is committed to us," said David Howard, the Mets' vice president for business affairs. "They're our partners and both sides are going to live up to the agreement."
...
Howard said the Mets believe Citi is being "unfairly singled out," and rattled off a list of 12 financial institutions - including Barclays Bank, which bought the naming rights to the still-unbuilt Atlantic Yards complex in Brooklyn - as examples of companies that took the money but have thus far escaped public criticism.
NoLandGrab: Howard may be interested to know that Barclays is a British bank headquartered in the United Kingdom, which is commonly found in Europe.
Barclays has not been the recipient of federal bailout money and, allegedly in order to maintain control over executive pay, has yet to receive assistance from the Bank of England.
Posted by lumi at 4:51 AM
January 21, 2009
Could the Barclays Center become Her Majesty's Arena?
Here are a couple stories regarding the plight of Barclays, proud holder of the naming rights to the would-be arena at the center of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. A major bailout by the Bank of England might be the only thing standing between Barclays and bankruptcy.
FT.com, Barclays remains under pressure
Barclays fell another 9 per cent on Wednesday afternoon as fears about the health of the banking sector following the government’s latest bail-out persisted.
The UK’s second largest bank, which has more than halved in a week, closed 6.8p lower at 66.1p. Earlier in the session the bank’s shares had fallen as low as 47.4p, a fall of 35 per cent, amid speculation it could bring forward its annual results statement. The bank, which turned down the opportunity to participate in the government’s bank rescue earlier this week, is due to release full-year results on February 17.
That 47.4 pence per share, equal to about 65 cents, matches a low not seen since 1985.
Worries about the banks’ potential exposure to further significant writedowns and the creeping threat of nationalisation have put the sector under pressure all week, but other banking stocks managed an afternoon rally on Wednesday.
Bloomberg News, Barclays Falls Seventh Day on Nationalization Concern
Barclays Plc, the U.K. bank that turned down government funding last year, declined for a seventh straight day in London trading on speculation that it may be forced to take more writedowns and be nationalized.
Barclays, which dropped as much 35 percent earlier in the day, recovered to close down 9.3 percent at 66.1 pence. The shares have lost 57 percent this month, valuing the company at 5.5 billion pounds ($7.5 billion).
Barclays last week said it would beat analysts' consensus 2008 earnings estimate of 5.3 billion pounds. Some are skeptical that Barclays could do that when other banks are writing off billions.
“There is genuine fear from shareholders, who see a real risk of nationalization,” said Simon Maughan, an analyst at MF Global Securities Ltd. who has a “sell” rating on Barclays. “The whole rest of the world, operating in the same business as Barclays, has seen significant losses. There is talk that Barclays will bring its results forward to prove its case. Bring it on.”
NoLandGrab: Wonder what the Nets' marketing rep's job will be on "A Day in the Life" of Barclays? Helping tear up the arena naming-rights contract, perhaps?
Posted by eric at 3:28 PM
January 19, 2009
Two years later, a look at the promise by Barclays of a 2009 arena opening
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder looks back:
When this Barclays Center ad appeared exactly two years ago in daily newspapers, the arena sponsor promised that its "gift" to Brooklyn was "technically not until 2009, but our excitement can hardly be contained."
At the time, I wrote that, given potential delays from lawsuits and other factors, 2009 might better be seen as a goal than as a given.
That was probably conservative. In retrospect, there was little chance to meet the 2009 goal. Now there's little chance to meet the stated 2011 goal, nor to produce something that looks like this picture any time soon, if at all.
Posted by lumi at 5:24 AM
November 14, 2008
Barclays recommits to naming rights agreement, but details are scant
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder briefly summarizes and analyzes recent events.
On the Barclay's naming-rights deal:
The deal had to be renewed by the end of the month and there was at least speculation that Barclays might reconsider.
...
Despite a statement that Barclays was "unwavering" in its commitment, it's reasonable to question whether Barclays, which had some leverage and has faced losses of its own, renewed at the previously announced $400 million ($20 million a year over 20 years) figure.
...
I'd bet they managed a better deal of some sort.
A new twist in the arena financing:
The press release also stated that "Barclays continues to play a major role as the co-lead in the financing of the Barclays Center," which is news to me, since previous news coverage described Goldman Sachs as the lead. Has Goldman tried to spread the risk, reward, and responsibility of getting the deal done?
Stock watch:
I imagine that officials at parent company Forest City Enterprises hoped that the announcement might nudge investor confidence. Instead, the stock went down more than 5%, to $7.16, continuing a stunning decline.
English-to-English translation service:
Barclays "affirmed its commitment to the future arena in Brooklyn and the updated timeline for a 2009 groundbreaking."
In translation, "updated timeline" means "delayed timeline."
Layoffs:
Also, Forest City Ratner has begun layoffs, and while the following information can't be confirmed, a commenter on NetsDaily stated, "It may be good that the Nets are going to Brooklyn. But I happen to know they let go of almost ten key internal employees earlier this week and several that were selling for the new arena suites and seating."
I'm also told--secondhand, but from a source I consider reliable--that the fellow occupying the Atlantic Yards Community Liaison Office has departed.
NoLandGrab: Former Forest City employees may be able to send their resumes to the NJ Nets for a shot at free tickets.
Posted by lumi at 6:21 AM
BANK: WE WON'T BAIL OUT ON NETS ARENA
NY Post
By Rich Calder
Barclays bank vowed yesterday not to exercise an out clause and kill its record $400 million naming-rights deal for the venue, the centerpiece of developer Bruce Ratner's $4 billion Atlantic Yards project.
The deal was contingent on Ratner's having financing for his entire project - which also includes 16 towers of residential and office space - set by the end of this month. That is now impossible because of pending litigation to block the project.
But sources told The Post that Barclays agreed to an extension.
The Star-Ledger, Harris ready to help New Jersey Nets
Seeking to dispel doubts about the Atlantic Yards project, the Nets issued a short release yesterday quoting Barclays Chief Administrator Officer for the Americas that reiterated the bank's pledge to carry on. "Barclays is unwavering in its commitment to the Barclays Center, and we are very pleased with our long-term alliance with our great partners," said Gerard LaRocca, whose institution has committed $400 million to the deal.
Posted by lumi at 6:14 AM
PRESS RELEASE: Barclays Affirms Steadfast Commitment to Arena in Brooklyn and 2009 Groundbreaking
Says Support for Atlantic Yards is "Unwavering"
Via, MarketWatch
Barclays, a leading global financial services company and the naming rights partner for the future Barclays Center, today affirmed its commitment to the future arena in Brooklyn and the updated timeline for a 2009 groundbreaking. The Barclays Center, which is designed by Frank Gehry, will be the world-class home of the Nets.
"Barclays is unwavering in its commitment to the Barclays Center and we are very pleased with our long-term alliance with our great partners, the Nets and Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC)," said Gerard LaRocca, Chief Administrative Officer, Americas, at Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays PLC. "We are very excited about being part of the continued renaissance of Brooklyn and we eagerly look forward to opening night at the Barclays Center."
"Since we announced our 20-year naming rights partnership in January 2007, Barclays has offered nothing but resolute and great support," Nets Chief Executive Officer Brett Yormark said. "We deeply appreciate our partnership with such a well-respected and distinguished company, which shares our love for Brooklyn and our strong sense of community." "We are thrilled to have Barclays as a partner," said Bruce Ratner, chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., and the chairman of Nets Sports and Entertainment, LLC, which owns the Nets. "The Barclays Center will be one of the most spectacular sports and entertainment arenas in the world. Even more importantly, it is a centerpiece of a development that will bring thousands of jobs and affordable housing units to Brooklyn." Forest City Enterprises (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) has an equity interest in Nets Sports and Entertainment. In addition to its naming rights commitment, Barclays continues to play a major role as the co-lead in the financing of the Barclays Center. Momentum for the Barclays Center continued recently when the Internal Revenue Service issued a new regulation that confirms that tax exempt bonds may be used to finance the arena. The multifaceted partnership among Barclays, the Nets, and FCRC includes the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance, which invests $1 million per year in local non-profits that work to improve the lives of young people in Brooklyn and surrounding communities through sports and other activities, including education and health care. Last month, the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance unveiled a new playground at Public School 19 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, which marked the first of eight Brooklyn playgrounds that the Alliance will fund with a grant to Out2Play, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to building and refurbishing playgrounds throughout the New York City public school system. Information on the Barclays Center can be found at www.barclayscenter.com . SOURCE Nets Basketball
http://www.barclayscenter.com
Posted by lumi at 4:33 AM
November 13, 2008
Barclays Reaffirms Support Of Atlantic Yards Project
Financial Firm Is OK With 2009 Groundbreaking Date
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Raanan Geberer
Even as observers speculate about the effect of the economic crisis on Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards arena-highrise project, Barclays Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to the arena, to be called the Barclays Arena, the intended home for Bruce Ratner’s Nets basketball team.
The announcement by Forest City Ratner also said Barclays has affirmed its commitment to “the updated timetable for a 2009 groundbreaking.” As recently as May, Ratner had vowed to break ground on the arena in the fall, according to the Daily News.
...Of particular interest in Thursday’s announcement was the statement, “In addition to its naming rights commitment, Barclays continues to play a major role as the co-lead in the financing of the Barclays Center.” A spokesman for Barclays did not answer questions, but Barclays, of course, is heavily involved in the financial industry.
Dan Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, one of the major groups opposing the Atlantic Yards project, commented, “They [Forest City] don’t have the land, they don’t have the money. I’m not sure what Barclays is committing itself to, except for a money pit. Forest City also said they would begin the project in 2006, so we’ll see what happens.”
A spokesman for Forest City Ratner was unavailable for comment Thursday.
NoLandGrab: Let us get this straight — Forest City issued a press release, and then was "unavailable for comment?"
Posted by eric at 9:21 PM
Barclays still committed to Nets' planned new home
Watchdog [Newsday Sports blog]
by Neil Best
Barclays asserts that it still is fully committed to the Nets' planned new arena, The Barclays Center, even given these difficult times for banks and stuff.
The race is on to begin construction before LeBron James signs with the Knicks.
Click below for the assertive news release.
Barclays, a leading global financial services company and the naming rights partner for the future Barclays Center, today affirmed its commitment to the future arena in Brooklyn and the updated timeline for a 2009 groundbreaking. The Barclays Center, which is designed by Frank Gehry, will be the world-class home of the Nets.
"Barclays is unwavering in its commitment to the Barclays Center and we are very pleased with our long-term alliance with our great partners, the Nets and Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC)," said Gerard LaRocca, Chief Administrative Officer, Americas, at Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays PLC. "We are very excited about being part of the continued renaissance of Brooklyn and we eagerly look forward to opening night at the Barclays Center."
Since we announced our 20-year naming rights partnership in January 2007, Barclays has offered nothing but resolute and great support," Nets Chief Executive Officer Brett Yormark said. "We deeply appreciate our partnership with such a well-respected and distinguished company, which shares our love for Brooklyn and our strong sense of community."
NoLandGrab: It's great that Barclays is "unwavering" in its commitment, but the release doesn't make clear that they're remaining contractually committed to the naming-rights deal.
There is news here, though, in the assertion that "Barclays continues to play a major role as the co-lead in the financing of the Barclays Center," a role that seemed to have been the exclusive domain of Goldman Sachs. Divvying up the underwriting doesn't exactly scream "done deal" now, does it?
“We are thrilled to have Barclays as a partner,” said Bruce Ratner, chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., and the chairman of Nets Sports and Entertainment, LLC, which owns the Nets. “The Barclays Center will be one of the most spectacular sports and entertainment arenas in the world. Even more importantly, it is a centerpiece of a development that will bring thousands of jobs and affordable housing units to Brooklyn.” Forest City Enterprises (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) has an equity interest in Nets Sports and Entertainment.
In addition to its naming rights commitment, Barclays continues to play a major role as the co-lead in the financing of the Barclays Center. Momentum for the Barclays Center continued recently when the Internal Revenue Service issued a new regulation that confirms that tax exempt bonds may be used to finance the arena.
The multifaceted partnership among Barclays, the Nets, and FCRC includes the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance, which invests $1 million per year in local non-profits that work to improve the lives of young people in Brooklyn and surrounding communities through sports and other activities, including education and health care. Last month, the Barclays/Nets Community Alliance unveiled a new playground at Public School 19 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, which marked the first of eight Brooklyn playgrounds that the Alliance will fund with a grant to Out2Play, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to building and refurbishing playgrounds throughout the New York City public school system.
Posted by eric at 7:16 PM
October 21, 2008
SCHOOLS' NETS GAIN
NY Post
by Rich Calder
The Nets have yet to start building their long-delayed Brooklyn arena, but team brass are breaking ground on posh playgrounds at public schools.
The first of eight being funded with $150,000 from Nets owner Bruce Ratner and Barclays Bank, which has naming rights to the new arena, is set to be unveiled today at PS 19 in Williamsburg.
Posted by eric at 10:59 AM
How Barclays might renegotiate the Brooklyn arena naming rights deal
Atlantic Yards Report
How a cheeky Dear-Bruce-ole-chap letter to renegotiate the naming-rights deal for the "Barclays Center" might go:
Frankly, we're a bit wound up.
We read those pesky blogs and soon recognized you were talking a fair bit of bollocks. The arena was never going to open in 2009. We put 2010 in our shedules.
Then we read those blogs again and learned that 2011 might be a more accurate date. Now we hear that 2012 is a more likely best-case scenario.
It's time to take another look at our contract.
As you know, the document we signed was contingent on your getting financing sorted out by the end of November.
To put it politely, things are looking a bit dodgy right now, for you and, frankly, for us.
Posted by lumi at 6:32 AM
TODAY: Barclays, Nets and Forest City Ratner unveil new playground
From the Bergen Record reporter Al Iannazzone's blog, "In the 'Zzone":
The Barclays/Nets Community Alliance and Forest City Ratner will unveil a new playground at Public School 19 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn tomorrow at 11 a.m. It's the first of eight Brooklyn playgrounds that will be funded in part by Barclays/Nets Alliance.
Posted by lumi at 6:18 AM
October 14, 2008
Barclays Plans to Raise More Than 6.5 Billion Pounds
Bloomberg.com
By Ambereen Choudhury
Though Barclays Bank was originally on the list of banks to receive assistance from the British central bank, yesterday Barclays announced that it hoped to raise the capital it needs through the private market:
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, the U.K.'s second-biggest bank, plans to sell more than 6.5 billion pounds ($11 billion) of shares to private investors without turning to the government for help, and said it won't pay a final dividend for 2008.
"The board expects that the additional capital will be raised from investors without calling on the government funding which has been offered to U.K. banks,'' the London-based bank said in a statement today.
...
Barclays will issue preference shares to raise 3 billion pounds by Dec. 31, and will sell ordinary stock to raise about 600 million pounds to fund the purchase of some of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s assets. The bank will also issue new ordinary shares to raise a further 3 billion pounds by March 31, 2009.
NoLandGrab: The condition of Barclays Bank has been of interest to Atlantic Yards watchdogs because, in January 2007, the bank signed a $400-million arena-naming-rights deal with Bruce Ratner.
Barclays can still walk away from the deal if Ratner is unable to complete financing by the end of November.
Will balance-sheet triage cause Barclays to bail on the arena deal or will Barclays execs feel that they need the branding boost for the Lehman Brothers acquisitions?
Stay tuned...
Posted by lumi at 4:47 AM
October 10, 2008
BEEP REAPING BIG AS YARDS BACKER
ARENA-PLAN GROUPS BOO$T HIS PROJECTS
NY Post
by Rich Calder and Chuck Bennett
All this time, we thought Marty Markowitz was all-in on Atlantic Yards because he missed the Dodgers so much. Wrong!
Being the biggest booster of Brooklyn's controversial Atlantic Yards project has really paid off for Borough President Marty Markowitz.
Since 2003, Nets owner Bruce Ratner and others involved in the $4 billion plan for an NBA arena and 16 apartment and office towers in the heart of Brooklyn have quietly funneled at least $680,000 to three nonprofit groups set up by Markowitz to run pet projects, a Post investigation found.
The pet projects -- which include promoting tourism and offering free concerts -- have been instrumental in boosting Markowitz's popularity and getting him re-elected, critics charge.
"Affiliated nonprofits should not be used as pseudo campaign accounts," said Dick Dadey, of the government watchdog group Citizens Union. "One could argue that these nonprofits raise the profile of the borough president in a way that certainly aids his possible campaigns."
Posted by eric at 1:06 PM
Barclays Bank on British bailout list
From yesterday's Dallas Morning News:
On Tuesday, Britain started injecting about $88 billion of capital into several large banks in what amounts to a partial nationalization. The British government will get preferred shares for its money in lenders such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HBOS.
NoLandGrab: So if the Brits bail out Barclays Bank and Barclays doesn't walk away from the $400-million arena naming-rights deal it signed with Bruce Ratner, and if Ratner gets the triple-tax-exempt bonds he's looking for, then Atlantic Yards would end up being directly or indirectly subsidized by NY City, NY State, the US Federal Government and the British central bank. Incredible.
Posted by eric at 5:03 AM
September 30, 2008
Bad Economy Could Lead to Naming Rights Changes
Sports Business Radio
Host Brian Berger picks up on the NY Post's coverage today of how the latest delay to Atlantic Yards might affect the Barclays naming-rights deal.
You may recall that the Nets, who are co-owned by hip-hop mogul Jay-Z are hoping to make a serious run at signing LeBron James when he becomes a free agent in the summer of 2010. They were also hoping to open the Barclays Center in the fall of 2010 and unveil their new superstar at the same time.
Now that plan seems to be in serious jeopordy. You can bet that if the $400M naming rights deal from Barclays goes away, the Nets will have to rethink this entire project - and their ability to sign someone like James to a max contract.
Posted by eric at 4:09 PM
March 13, 2008
At the Brooklyn Museum gala, honors for (and $ from) Bruce Ratner
Atlantic Yards Report
If you have $1000 or more to spend, you can attend the Brooklyn Museum's Brooklyn Ball 2008 on April 3, honoring developer Bruce Ratner and celebrating the opening of an exhibition billed as "the most comprehensive retrospective to date of the work of internationally acclaimed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami."
Controversial development company Forest City Ratner (FCR) and the locally loathed Atlantic Yards project has its fingers all over this gala event:
Three of the eight co-chairs have a connection to Ratner, including rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, who owns a piece of the Nets; FCR president Minieri; and Brett Yormark, president of Nets Sports & Entertainment.
Among the vice-chairs are Barclays Capital, which has signed a naming rights deal for the Atlantic Yards arena, Nets Sports and Entertainment, and, of course, Forest City Ratner.
Posted by lumi at 6:14 AM
March 19, 2007
PRESS RELEASE: BARCLAYS BANK BOYCOTT TO PROTEST EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE
Brooklyn, NY 3/19/07 New York Libertarian Party leaders Richard Cooper and Gary Popkin call for a nationwide boycott of Barclays Bank due to its participation in the eminent domain abuse scheme of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards. Barclays, a British bank with branches in America, agreed to pay the developer Forest City Ratner over $305 million for naming rights to the Nets basketball team’s arena over a thirty-year period. Libertarian State Chair Cooper notes that millions of Americans were outraged by last year’s Kelo decision by the Supreme Court upholding eminent domain transfers to private developers. The Libertarians offer an opportunity to demonstrate opposition in a material way.
Brooklyn-Queens Libertarian Party Chair Popkin dubs “…the Barclays participation in eminent domain is an outrage as a private enterprise disrespecting property rights.” Popkin notes that controversy was stirred in Brooklyn because of the sordid past of the British bank in the slave trade. He declares that “The actions of the bankers of centuries past do not taint the arena. It is participation in the eminent domain scheme that taints whoever participates in it.”
Cooper continues, “To Libertarians, corporate sports welfare and eminent domain abuse are legalized theft, stealing from taxpayers and landowners. Barclays chose to become an accomplice of Bruce Ratner. They should both bear the outrage of indignant Americans who favor freedom and justice.”
The Libertarian Party of New York has fought eminent domain that would have dispossessed St. Luke’s Pentecostal Church on Long Island and a neighborhood in New Rochelle to make way for an Ikea Swedish furniture store, besides the NY Times headquarters scheme that Cooper dubbed “Time$cam.” Cooper and Rev. Fred Jenkins of St. Luke’s will speak on the church’s victimization and how the Libertarian Party helped them at the state convention to be held Saturday, April 28th at the Radisson MacArthur in Holtsville, Long Island.
Posted by lumi at 7:06 AM
February 9, 2007
Slavery? Apartheid? Barclays deal is wrong for other reasons
This week, blogger Stuart Schrader headlines The Brooklyn Paper's Letters section with his take on the Barclay's scandal:
A sounder — though less-sensational — argument against the [Barclays Bank naming-rights] deal is this: using the arena to advertise this bank is contrary to the economic reality of most Brooklynites. Ordinary folk simply have no reason to care about Barclays’ boast that in 2006, it was named “Inflation Derivatives house of the year, Commodity Derivatives house of the year, and Currency Derivatives house of the year by Risk magazine.” Say what?
Forest City Ratner garnered support of many low-income African-Americans for its mega-development by promising jobs and housing. Yet by selling the naming rights to a foreign investment bank with nary a U.S. consumer branch, FCR has shown its true colors.
Suddenly, the project is revealed to be less about the poor kids who will grow up in its shadow (literally), and much more about unfathomably rich investors
Schrader goes into more detail about the gobal implications of the controversial deal on his blog, Picketing Henry Ford.
Posted by lumi at 12:00 PM
January 19, 2007
Barclays Center Ad
To tout its "investment" in the "Renaissance of Brooklyn," Barclays Bank "invested" in the Times (p. C5), Post (p. 11), Daily News (p. 21) and The Wall Street Journal (p. A7) with this get-to-know-you full-page ad (click to enlarge).
The headline is all hype: Barclays has purchased naming rights and will not "present" anything but an undisclosed sum, somewhere south of $400 million, to Bruce Ratner.
An advertising-industry expert estimates the total cost of Barclays' single-day ad "investment" at about $500,000, not a penny of which, so far as we can tell, went to "assist Brooklyn's youth."
Posted by lumi at 3:29 PM
Barclays and Nets Announce Partnership to Further Brooklyn Renaissance
Barclays Center Agreement Provides Significant Investment in Brooklyn and Advances Local Community Initiatives
From the Barclays & Forest City Ratner joint press release, via PR Newswire (complete release after the jump):
"We are very proud to be a partner with Barclays, a prestigious company that exemplifies and shares our commitment to excellence, leadership and success," said Bruce Ratner, President and CEO of FCRC and Chairman of the Nets.
NoLandGrab: Not to mention that the deal with Barclays constitutes a big slap in the face to the African-American community.
NEW YORK, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Barclays, a leading global financial services company, and the Nets, of the National Basketball Association, today announced a multi-faceted strategic marketing partnership that includes the 20-year naming rights to the Barclays Center, the planned centerpiece of the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn. This will be the planned new world-class home of the Nets. The Barclays Center will feature a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment arena, designed by Frank Gehry, which will seat up to 20,000 people.
"Barclays is thrilled to partner with the Nets in this exciting endeavor. We are delighted to put our name to a development that will be a visual and economic landmark in the renaissance of Brooklyn," said Robert E. Diamond, Jr., President, Barclays PLC. "This opportunity brings together economic prosperity for Brooklyn and the chance to participate, in a unique way, in the cultural and sporting life of New York."
In addition to the agreement, Barclays has also agreed to partner with the Nets in the Nets-Barclays Sports Alliance, a non-profit organization whose goal is to promote athletics, education and personal development among young people in Brooklyn. The alliance will, as its first objective, repair and renovate basketball courts and other sports facilities throughout the borough, as well as sponsor amateur athletic tournaments and clinics for Brooklyn's youth.
This initiative mirrors the Barclays Spaces for Sports program in the UK, which helps local communities transform neglected land into the sporting facilities they want -- from skateboard parks to soccer fields or multi-use game areas. So far Barclays has opened more than 100 community sports sites across the UK.
"We are very proud to be a partner with Barclays, a prestigious company that exemplifies and shares our commitment to excellence, leadership and success," said Bruce Ratner, President and CEO of FCRC and Chairman of the Nets. "We believe this partnership marks an important moment in Brooklyn's history and its place on the international stage. With this essential investment in Atlantic Yards and the borough, we are now one step closer to our goal of bringing thousands of jobs, mixed-income housing, and, of course, a world-class arena and franchise to Brooklyn."
"We are excited that one of the most respected global financial services companies has chosen to partner with an NBA team to demonstrate its commitment to the United States market as well as its desire to make a difference in the communities where it operates," said NBA Commissioner David Stern.
"This partnership is a defining moment for the Nets business and brand," said Brett Yormark, President & CEO of Nets Sports and Entertainment. "It truly strengthens our position as a leading sports and entertainment franchise. We could not be more pleased than to have a partner as distinguished and well-respected as Barclays."
Brooklyn is the most populous borough of NYC and the Barclays Center will provide retail establishments and commercial offices in the area. It will also serve as a venue for arts and other athletic events. The Barclays Center is expected to include an 850,000 square foot world-class arena, which is scheduled to open for the 2009-2010 NBA Season. The arena expects to host more than 200 events annually, many of them family-oriented. The new partnership covers 20 years from the Nets' first season in their new arena, slated for 2009.
Barclays has been in the US for more than a century. Barclays Capital is one of the world's fastest-growing investment banks, focused on risk management and financing and has US headquarters in New York City. Barclays Global Investors, the world's largest asset management business, has its global headquarters in San Francisco, and Barclaycard, the credit card business, has its US headquarters in Wilmington, DE.
Sports are a significant part of the Barclays worldwide sponsorship portfolio, which includes The Barclays, the PGA TOUR event at the Westchester Country Club scheduled for August 20-26 this year. In addition, Barclays sponsors The Barclays Scottish Open golf tournament at Loch Lomond, the Barclays Singapore Open golf tournament and the Barclays Premiership, the world's leading soccer league.
About Barclays PLC
Barclays PLC is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. We are one of the largest financial services companies in the world by market capitalisation. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 60 countries and employs around 120,000 people. We move, lend, invest and protect money for over 25 million customers and clients worldwide.
About Barclays Capital
Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC which has an AA long-term credit rating and a balance sheet of over US$1.8 trillion. With a distinctive business model, Barclays Capital provides large corporate, government and institutional clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs. Barclays Capital has the global reach and distribution power to meet the needs of issuers and investors worldwide. Barclays Capital Inc. is a member of the NASD and SIPC.
About Barclays Global Investors
Barclays Global Investors is one of the world's largest asset managers and a leading global provider of investment management products and services. It has over 2,800 institutional clients and over $1.6 trillion of assets under management. It transformed the investment industry by creating the first index strategy in 1971 and the first quantitative active strategy in 1978. BGI is the global product leader in Exchange Traded Funds (iShares) with over 180 funds for institutions and individuals trading in 13 markets. Globally, it has $222 billion of iShares assets under management.
About Barclaycard
Barclaycard has more than 15 million retail customers world wide including more than 3.2 million in the U.S. through affinity programs. Barclaycard US is one of the fastest growing credit card issuers in the U.S. with more than 40 existing card partnerships with some of the most successful companies in the U.S.
For further information please visit: http://www.barclayscenter.com/ http://www.barclays.com/ http://www.barcap.com/ http://www.barclaysglobal.com/ http://www.barclaycardus.com/
Barclays, Barclays Center, Barclays Capital, Barclays Global Investors, iShares and Barclaycard are trademarks of Barclays Bank PLC.
About Forest City Ratner Companies
FCRC is a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., an $8.5 billion NYSE-listed (ticker: FCEA & FCEB) national real estate company. Forest City Enterprises is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate and land throughout the United States.
About the Nets
The Nets are a member of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team reached the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 and has advanced to the playoffs for five consecutive seasons. The Nets currently play at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ.
Forward-looking statements (Barclays)
This document contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended, with respect to certain of Barclays plans and its current goals and expectations relating to its future financial condition and performance. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate only to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements sometimes use words such as 'aim', 'anticipate', 'target', 'expect', 'estimate', 'intend', 'plan', 'goal', 'believe', or other words of similar meaning. Examples of forward- looking statements include, among others, statements regarding Barclays future financial position, income growth, impairment charges, business strategy, projected levels of growth in the banking and financial markets, projected costs, estimates of capital expenditures, and plans and objectives for future operations.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances, including, but not limited to, global as well as US economic and business conditions, market related risks such as changes in interest rates and exchange rates, the policies and actions of governmental and regulatory authorities, changes in legislation, and the impact of competition -- a number of which factors are beyond Barclays control. As a result, Barclays actual future results may differ materially from the plans, goals, and expectations set forth in Barclays forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of Barclays speak only as of the date they are made. Barclays does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect any changes in Barclays expectations with regard thereto or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. The reader should, however, consult any additional disclosures that Barclays has made or may make in documents it has filed or may file with the SEC.
Safe Harbor Language (FCRC)
Statements made in this news release that state the Company or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. It is important to note that the Company's actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward- looking statements include, but are not limited to, real estate development and investment risks, economic conditions in the Company's core markets, reliance on major tenants, the impact of terrorist acts, the Company's substantial leverage and the ability to service debt, guarantees under the Company's credit facility, changes in interest rates, continued availability of tax-exempt government financing, the sustainability of substantial operations at the subsidiary level, significant geographic concentration, illiquidity of real estate investments, dependence on rental income from real property, conflicts of interest, competition, potential liability from syndicated properties, effects of uninsured loss, environmental liabilities, partnership risks, litigation risks, risks associated with an investment in a professional sports franchise, and other risk factors as disclosed from time to time in the Company's SEC filings, including, but not limited to, the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2006. Website: http://www.barcap.com/ Website: http://www.barclayscenter.com/ Website: http://www.barclays.com/ Website: http://www.barclaysglobal.com/ Website: http://www.barclaycardus.com/
Posted by lumi at 7:43 AM