No Land Grab

August 7, 2008

The Nets arena: A timeline

The Brooklyn Paper

Readers of The Brooklyn Paper are well aware that Bruce Ratner has broken promises over the years. Here’s Ratner’s ever-changing timetable for the arena.

Promise made in
December, 2003	The arena will be done by 2006 and the arena would cost $435 million.
December, 2006	The arena will open in time for the opening of the 2009-10 NBA season.
January, 2008	Arena will be completed in calendar year 2010.
Now	Ratner said the arena, with its $950-million pricetag, will be done in time for the start of the 2011-12 season.

Posted by lumi at 6:30 AM

August 6, 2008

Nets in ’11?

The Brooklyn Paper
by Mike McLaughlin

Bruce Ratner has pushed back the New Jersey Nets’ move to Brooklyn again — now saying that the basketball team he owns might not play its first game in an Atlantic Yards arena until the 2011–2012 season.

If that turns out to be true, it means the Nets would relocate five years later than originally promised by the developer when Atlantic Yards was unveiled in 2003.

Ratner told investors at the annual Forest City Ratner Companies meeting in Cleveland in June that construction on the Barclays Center, at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, would begin in January 2009, according to the Atlantic Yards Report, an invaluable Web site.

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Posted by eric at 12:08 PM

Bender Backbends to Backtrack on Atlantic Yards Timeline

From Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (dddb.net):

The Observer has Forest City Ratner veep Bruce Bender twisting himself in knots trying to tamp down the reality of what FCR president Bruce Ratner told investors at a June annual meeting, as reported today on the Atlantic Yards Report: ground on the the Barclays Boondoggle Arena won't be broken until January and then it will take 2.5 years to construct, so it won't open until mid-2011 at the earliest. (Oder also explains how 2011 is also unrealistic.)

Presumably the developer is more honest with investors than the general public, what with that SEC thing and all.

But that doesn't stop Bender from telling the NY Observer this:

"It is not a new schedule. I think Bruce was just stating that the schedule in place is in fact very aggressive. We plan to break ground this fall and are working to open in calendar year 2010. While that's the goal, if it is not met then it would end up being calendar year 2011."
...
How does Bender et al. plan on breaking ground for the arena in the fall, or January for that matter, if Forest City Ratner will not own the property it needs for the arena by those dates?

NoLandGrab: Right... if last month's slip up to investors "is not a new schedule," what's the new schedule gonna look like?

Posted by lumi at 4:15 AM

August 5, 2008

Nets Arena May Not Be Finished Until 2011, Ratner Says

The Daily Newarker

Seriously, Nets? Newark can get this done for you by next season. The arena is here and ready for you. Do New Jersey proud and stay here, do something good for a city that will welcome you here, and maintain your current fans.

Newark is a win-win for everyone except Forest City Ratner, who is just totally screwing with you guys.

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More Coverage:

Newsday.com, Nets move to Brooklyn delayed again?

This doesn't surprise me much, as the project has been delayed several times. As recently as January, the Nets acknowledged that their original plan to move into the new Brooklyn arena for the start of the 2009-10 season was unrealistic, saying their hope was to complete the move during the calendar year 2010.

NoLandGrab: Actually, their original original plan was to move into a new Brooklyn arena in 2006, but who's counting?

The Knicks Blog, Nets To Brooklyn Hits Another Snag

The Real Deal, Atlantic Yards' Nets arena faces more delays

NBA Fan House, Brooklyn Will Have to Wait for LeBron Nets

HoopsVibe.com, Arena for Brooklyn Nets Delayed Again

Does it count as news if everyone already knew it was going to happen? Let’s assume that it does and treat this story as if it’s a surprise. The folks at the not-so-attractively-named Forest City Ratner company have come out and admitted that the schedule which would have seen the new arena for the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets completed in "calendar year 2010" is "very aggressive".

For those of you not fluent in business-speak, that means that there’s about as much chance it’ll be ready by 2010 as there is of Bruce Ratner suiting up and playing small forward on opening night.

While [2010 is] the goal, if it is not met, then it would end up being calendar year 2011.

In related news, eleven is one larger than ten.

Posted by eric at 11:58 AM

New Net arena delayed yet again

NY Daily News
By Julian Garcia

If the Nets do manage to sign potential free agent LeBron James before the start of the 2010-11 season, it's possible their fans in New Jersey could get the first look at him, as opposed to those in Brooklyn.

The company that plans to build the team's new home in Brooklyn acknowledged Monday that the arena may not be open until the 2010-11 season is well underway.

While saying the plan remains to move the team to Brooklyn in "calendar year 2010," a representative of Forest City Ratner - Nets owner Bruce Ratner's company - admitted that schedule "is in fact very aggressive."

"While that's the goal, if it is not met, then it would end up being calendar year 2011," said Bruce Bender, the company's executive vice president.

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NoLandGrab: "...is in fact very aggressive" — translation, "don't bet on it."

It is unlikely that "the new Nets arena in Brooklyn will likely look like" anything in this photo, given that the Daily Snooze ran a photo of the arena model from the unveiling of the project back in 2003. Bruce Ratner has already announced that the arena will no longer feature a "green roof" and the current design is radically different.

Posted by lumi at 3:47 AM

August 4, 2008

Nets Arena May Not Be Finished Until 2011, Ratner Says

The Real Estate [NY Observer]
by Eliot Brown

The news was first spotted by Norman Oder at his encyclopedic watchdog blog Atlantic Yards Report, where he put up part of a transcript from a Forest City conference in June [corrected]. In the conference, Forest City chairman Bruce Ratner said the company hoped to start construction on the arena by the end of this year, and would take two and a half years to finish.

We put the question over to Forest City this morning, and here's their response, via a statement from vice president Bruce Bender:

"It is not a new schedule. I think Bruce was just stating that the schedule in place is in fact very aggressive. We plan to break ground this fall and are working to open in calendar year 2010. While that's the goal, if it is not met then it would end up being calendar year 2011."

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NoLandGrab: How's that? It's not a new schedule? It's just the same schedule with new dates? Right, and the arena actually opened in 2006, the date announced initially by Forest City Ratner when they first presented Atlantic Yards to the public in 2003.

As we pointed out this morning, Bruce Ratner had to hew to truthiness in talking to shareholders about the arena's opening. But since Bruce Bender was only responding to a press inquiry, he could, as is his wont, be a little more creative.

Once again, we extend our challenge to Forest City Ratner to tell it straight to anyone not carrying the big enforcement stick of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Posted by eric at 4:47 PM

It came from the Blogosphere...

The Real Estate [NY Observer], Landowners Bring Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Battle to State Court

If anything else, the lawsuits thus far seem to have delayed the start of the more than $4 billion planned project, which calls for a new basketball arena for the Nets, and over 6,000 apartments. Now, more than a year and a half since the Atlantic Yards project received state approval, a host of clouds circle over developer Forest City Ratner, which once anticipated building the entire first phase (which includes the arena, an office tower and at least 1,000 units of housing) by 2010. The once-lush climate for financing has turned to an arid desert, tax-free housing bonds are in short supply given soaring demand, and the financing mechanism by which the company was to get tax-free bonds for the arena is under fire by the I.R.S., threatening to drive up costs by more than $100 million.

But if the landowners had an uphill climb challenging eminent domain in federal court, the ascent in New York state court is generally regarded as a particularly daunting one, given the relatively generous treatment to the state by New York's eminent domain law.

We're waiting on a statement from Forest City, but if history is any guide, the company will point out (correctly) that the courts have tossed all the lawsuits challenging the project to date.

The Campaign for Community-Based Planning, Checking in With Atlantic Yards: A Messy Footprint, a New Timetable, and a Lawsuit in State Supreme Court

It’s been a while since we’ve looked in on the Atlantic Yards project. Luckily, Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report has been keeping vigilant watch over the goings-on at the site. Here’s a quick update...

Gowanus Lounge, Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Case Filed in State Court

Brownstoner, Nets Coming Late to Atlantic Yards and Suit Coming Soon

Two new developments in the Atlantic Yards saga. Atlantic Yards Report reveals that the Nets have three more years at the Meadowlands' Izod Center, not two, meaning the 2010 opening date Bruce Ratner has been promoting may be nothing more than a pipe dream; we might be looking at 2012 for the team's debut. Besides the team's schedule, there's the issue of construction. Ratner tells some outlets that groundbreaking won't begin until January; to others, he says November.

As construction remains stalled at the site, a lawsuit goes forward. Nine property owners and tenants filed a petition against the Empire State Development Corporation in the Appellate Division Second Department of New York State Supreme Court.

Nets Daily, Has Ratner Pushed Barclays Center Opening to 2011?

brooklyn bob says:

And btw, a JULY OF 2011 barclays center opening is a BEST CASE SCENARIO that assumes no further legal delays, no financing/loan delays and no construction delays. Yeah, right. That’ll happen.

3 more 20-win seasons in the swamp, at least. With 4 more being a very real possibility. While at the same time, newark’s brand new state-of-the-art arena awaits an nba franchise with open arms.

What a bleeping disgrace!!! Way to go ratner. Way to go stern. You two sure know how to screw things up. No wonder the nba’s popularity is going to hell in a hand basket.

Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Case Filed on Friday

Yonkers Tribune, Nine Property Owners and Tenants File Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Challenge in New York State Court

RotoWorld, Nets may not move until 2011

Posted by eric at 12:46 PM

Bruce Ratner makes it official: AY arena would open in mid-2011 (best-case scenario)

Atlantic Yards Report

Longtime NoLandGrab readers who have repeatedly watched the arena's opening date slip over the years have known for some time that Bruce Ratner's claims that the arena would be ready for the 2010-2011 basketball season amounted to a tall tale — now it's official.

Despite public statements to the contrary, as on the Barclays Center web site, the New Jersey Nets have three, not two, more years at the Izod Center in the Meadowlands--and that's in a best-case scenario.

The word comes directly from Forest City Ratner president (and Nets majority owner) Bruce Ratner, who indicated to shareholders in June that construction would start in January and take two-and-a-half years--a timetable far different from the developer's and team's public statements, including to season ticket-holders.

[A]t the June 19 annual meeting in Cleveland of Forest City Enterprises, parent of Forest City Ratner, Bruce Ratner revised his prediction by one year, to mid-2011, which means the arena would open for the 2011-2012 season, three seasons from now.

From the lips of Bruce:

[W]e're doing very well on the Atlantic Yards project. Our hope is that we can close our loans and close the transaction by the end of the year. And then it will be about two and a half years to build our arena, and then the Nets will move from New Jersey to Brooklyn. So, we're working hard at it, and I think we're finally close to a closing.

Norman Oder explains:

If it takes 2.5 years to build the arena, and construction starts in January 2009, the arena would open in July 2011. Still, keep in mind that the Nets have extended their lease in their current facility to 2012-13, just in case.

Also keep in mind that there's no certainty that groundbreaking for the arena would occur in January--legal cases, including the just-filed state eminent domain lawsuit, may still be pending.

Read the rest of the article for the litany of public statements made by Forest City and Nets executives, meant to convince the media and public to the contrary.

NoLandGrab: Federal regulations and laws governing statements to shareholders force corporate executives to be more candid than when they make statements to the press, only proving that Bruce C. Ratner can squeeze out something that resembles the truth when his ass is on the line.

Posted by lumi at 3:53 AM

July 31, 2008

The Yankees deal gets some more scrutiny, AY gets a mention

Atlantic Yards Report

Coverage is given to yesterday's Democracy Now! broadcast which included a segment on public subsidies for sports complexes. Congressional scrutiny into funding for the new Yankee Stadium might effect how the proposed Nets arena could be financed.

The program was hosted by Juan Gonzalez and included Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Good Jobs New York's Bettina Damani and Field of Schemes author Neil deMause.

The Atlantic Yards mention is included in this quote from Kucinich:

I can say that my subcommittee staff… is in contact with officials from both the city of New York and the New York Yankees to discuss their potential appearance in front of our Congressional subcommittee. I think that it’s very important to understand that we’re looking at a public policy matter here that relates not only to New York and not only to the Nets and the Atlantic Yard project, but it also relates to the whole country… because it’s quite possible that there are billions of dollars in tax benefits that should be going to municipalities for the purposes of repairing their infrastructure and for schools and other things and that are instead being diverted for these private sports complexes…
(Emphasis added)

Damiani points out how representatives from outside of New York City are picking up the slack to see if there will really be any benefits from subsidizing sports complexes:

The city has really washed their hands of making sure there’s any accountability on jobs and clear benefits for New Yorkers on the other side of this project, which is very unfortunate. I mean, we’re grateful for Congressman Kucinich and Assembly Member [Richard] Brodsky to get involved in this issue. Neither represent New York City, by the way. New York City elected officials—they’re filling a void, because local elected officials in New York City have refused to get involved in this project. And we need them. We need them to make sure that the promises in the press releases actually turn out to be something that we can hold them accountable for.

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NoLandGrab: Many thanks to Rep. Kucinich for running with this issue. Also, thanks to Democracy Now! for examining public subsidies for Yankee Stadium. We're looking forward to more in-depth coverage that will include the proposed Nets arena.

Posted by steve at 6:37 AM

July 25, 2008

On further review, O'Malley got bum rap

Case can be made that Dodgers owner was pushed

Albany Times-Union
by Brian Ettkin

In a lengthy and interesting piece on Walter O'Malley on the cusp of the former Brooklyn (and L.A.) Dodgers' owner's enshrinement in baseball's Hall of Fame, reporter Brian Ettkin repeats the too-often repeated error about the precise location of the Ebbets Field successor that never came to be, with a twist.

O'Malley continued asking for help to acquire the Atlantic and Flatbush site (where Bruce Ratner would build Atlantic Yards five decades later).

Ettkin is actually right about the location for Atlantic Yards, but he's wrong about O'Malley, who actually wanted to build on the spot that's now home to Ratner's Atlantic Center mall. He's also off on his phraseology — "would build" is different than "wants to build."

The article does offer up a number of good tidbits, including:

O'Malley offered to build a 100-percent privately financed Major League Baseball stadium, the first since Yankee Stadium had been constructed in 1923, and the land once the city acquired it.

While O'Malley's willingness to privately finance the ballpark was much different than Ratner's dependence on subsidies, O'Malley's plan, like Ratner's, relied on the use of eminent domain.

Moses considered big-league sports of minimal value to a city.

In that respect, Moses and many economists would agree.

[T]he Chavez Ravine stadium deal wasn't valid until a vote of the people narrowly passed it on June 3, 1958, and even then O'Malley had to win several court appeals filed by stadium opponents.

Unlike residents of New York City, Angelenos actually got to vote on the Dodgers' stadium plan.

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Posted by eric at 12:30 PM

MAAC Madness in Albany

Th Full-Court Press

As promised, The Press is diving into the future of the MAAC tournament. Here’s how we’ll do it: Each day, we’ll take a look at one of the sites that is likely to be in the running to host the tournament from 2012-14.
...

Since no decisions have been made and no official negotiations have taken place, none of the sites we’re going to look into are guaranteed to be hosts at any times. By the same token, just because we don’t examine a particular city doesn’t mean that city has no shot at being a host. But eight sites appear to be on the MAAC’s radar, and those are the ones The Press will delve into: Albany; Bridgeport; Buffalo; Mohegan Sun; the Atlantic Yards arena in Brooklyn; the Prudential Center and Meadowlands in Newark and East Rutherford; Atlantic City; and the Baltimore Inner Harbor.

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NoLandGrab: Good thing the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference didn't book its conference basketball tournament in Brooklyn for the arena's originally projected opening season of 2006-2007. We have to think that the Barclays Center is not the favorite to host the tourney, since, unlike the other contenders, it doesn't actually exist.

We'll post The Full-Court Press's report on Brooklyn's chances when it's published.

Posted by eric at 12:01 PM

July 20, 2008

Citigroup Puts Its Money Where Its Name Will Be

NY Times
RICHARD SANDOMIR

What will happen to naming rights deals as the economy suffers? The NY Times looks at Citi Field, which Citibank promises to follow through with, even if it doesn't make much sense for business. Barclays also sticks to its promises, while the Times sticks to its claims that an arena would be open in 2010:

Another bank, Barclays, followed Citigroup by a few months with its 20-year, $400 million naming-rights deal for the Nets’ arena near downtown Brooklyn.

Barclays, based in Britain, lacked Citigroup’s substantial presence in the United States and viewed the arena — whenever the Barclays Center’s long-delayed construction starts — as part of an aggressive domestic brand-building plan. But like Citigroup, it has had problems in the credit market, with $6.5 billion in write-downs on its banking scorecard. To shore up its capital position, Barclays recently sold $8.9 billion in new stock.

The bank, which sponsors the Premier League and a PGA Tour event in the FedEx Cup playoffs, is still linked with the Nets, who are seeking a 2010 arena opening if construction starts soon. On Friday, Brett Yormark, the president of Nets Sports and Entertainment, called Barclays a “stable and dynamic institution that is thriving in a very challenging marketplace.”

Brandon Ashcraft, a bank spokesman, said, “Barclays is fully committed to its relationship with the Nets.”

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Posted by amy at 4:00 PM

July 16, 2008

I.R.S. Could Crimp Bloomberg's Big Plans

NY Observer
by Eliot Brown

The Observer's lead real estate reporter takes an in-depth look at New York City's furious efforts to preserve tax-exempt financing for its favorite son, Bruce Ratner.

As the Bloomberg administration scrambles to get its development projects in the ground amid a slowing economy and a waning political term, two major planned initiatives the city has championed face a formidable hurdle: the Internal Revenue Service.

For the financing plan for the Atlantic Yards housing and sports arena complex in Brooklyn, and for one being considered for the planned middle-income-housing mega-complex at Hunter’s Point South in Queens, the city would need a favorable ruling from the I.R.S. or face substantially higher costs for both projects. Negative rulings from the federal agency could result in tens of millions of dollars in added costs, putting up new obstacles to major developments that have already seen ambitions scaled back.

For both projects, the city wants to use tax-exempt financing, a method that lowers costs substantially—perhaps more than 15 percent—with the bulk of the savings coming out of federal tax revenues.

And, at least in the case of Atlantic Yards, the I.R.S. is rather wary, as it has called the financing method a “loophole” that it has ordered closed.

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NoLandGrab: We haven't rooted this hard for the IRS since "The Untouchables."

Posted by eric at 11:18 AM

July 15, 2008

Actually, it's 18.6% About Basketball...

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn

DDDB ran Bruce Ratner's "it's 100% about basketball" claim through the bee-ess-o-meter, and arrived at a different tabulation.

Which leads one to ponder the fact that actually, according to the KPMG report on the economics of Atlantic Yards back in December, 2006, the Arena will only be used 41 times a year for the Nets, with another 179 "non-NBA activities." What might those activities be? Well, looking at this summer's fare in another 20,000 seat arena, the Verizon Center in DC, that could include: WWE presents Monday Night RAW LIVE ("featuring Batista, John Cena, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, Triple H, Edge and More"); Pop Tarts Presents American Idols Live – 2008 Tour; Women of Faith; and George Michael's first North American tour in 17 years.

That means in actuality, the Nets Arena is approximately 18% about basketball, and 82% about....other stuff. But when you're asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies, it's probably not quite so effective to say that most of the time you'll be featuring Pop Tarts, George Michaels and really big guys in tights....

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NoLandGrab: NLG's 10-year-old nephew would actually be okay with it being "100% about the wrestling."

Posted by eric at 9:52 AM

July 14, 2008

Newark watching the finances as arena finishes its emergency system

The Newark Star-Ledger
by Maura McDermott

Next month, the Newark Downtown Core Redevelopment Corp. will launch a national search for a firm specializing in financial performance and maintenance of arenas, said William Crawley, the agency's chief operating officer. The agency oversaw construction of the arena and now must make sure it lives up to its promises.

The goal is to make sure the Devils pay the city what they owe, maintain the arena properly and stay competitive, Crawley said.
...

Hiring an expert to analyze the arena's performance is a wise decision, said Howard Bloom, publisher of SportsBusinessNews.com.

"It's the responsible thing to do to make sure the taxpayers get as much of a return on their investment," Bloom said. "It's a matter of checks and balances."

The agency also aims to have the management firm measure how the venue stacks up against its competitors, Crawley said.
...

The trouble would come if the Nets build their planned arena in Brooklyn, adding to the competition from the Izod Center in the Meadowlands and other nearby venues, Bloom said.

New Jersey officials have sought to attract the Nets to Newark, but owner Bruce Ratner insists he will break ground on a Brooklyn arena by the end of the year.

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NoLandGrab: Should Bruce Ratner actually succeed in building Atlantic Yards, close monitoring of the revenue due taxpayers would certainly be wise. But if history is any guide, his elected and appointed enablers in City government would likely just take his word for it.

Posted by eric at 10:50 AM

July 13, 2008

Nets face lean years, Brooklyn or no Brooklyn

NewsOK.com
by Ian O'Connor

Let us get this straight. Bruce Ratner says it's "100% about basketball" at the same time that he's scuttling Nets' salaries faster than he's knocking down buildings in Prospect Heights. All so the team can position itself to sign Jay-Z protege LeBron James in 2010 (wink-wink, we're not tampering, David Stern). In the meantime, James's Cleveland Cavaliers, a legitimate NBA contender, are nearing the point where they will have enough salary cap room to sign another legit star to help LeBron bring a championship to Cleveland — while the Nets are riding an express elevator to the NBA's cellar.

The Bergen Record's Ian O'Connor lays out the hazards of wishing upon a star in the NBA.

The Nets have been busy clearing salary cap space, office space, locker room space, a parking space, all kinds of space for James. They weren't just getting rid of Richard Jefferson when they made the trade with Milwaukee for Yi and Bobby Simmons; they were getting rid of Richard Jefferson's wage.

But way back when, before he spent a summer acquiring Allan Houston, Chris Childs and Larry Johnson for the Knicks, Ernie Grunfeld told me the most frightening scenario for an NBA executive is clearing out money under the salary cap and then finding nobody worthwhile to take it.

"That happened to Chicago, after Michael Jordan,” Rod Thorn said. "They had significant cap room and they tried to give it to Tracy McGrady, and they tried to give it to (Kevin) Garnett at different times and it didn't work.

"That's the misnomer about having cap space … . If you have a team that's just not very good, to think that you are going to get a top quality free agent is kind of pie in the sky.”
...

Sure, the Nets have Jay-Z and their pending palace, which probably won't be ready until the start of the 2011-12 season. With Ratner losing an estimated $40 million a year in the Meadowlands, and with the purchase of the team setting him back $300 million, the Nets are expected to have cost their owner nearly $600 million by the time he lands in Brooklyn.

At those prices, Ratner will want to make a splash in the new digs. And nobody splashes quite like LeBron.

But will the Nets be good enough to even make James' Fave Five?

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NoLandGrab: You'd think Bruce Ratner would have learned his lesson about coveting things that aren't his when he started eyeing Daniel Goldstein's apartment.

Posted by eric at 1:43 PM

July 11, 2008

Nets Slather on the Reassurances

From Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (dddb.net):

This has become the week of the Great Reassurance, as Nets spokespeople ramp up a vigorous campaign to convince the world that the Nets are really coming to Brooklyn. Both No Land Grab and Atlantic Yards Report have excellent rundowns on the action, ranging from wooing 40 fans at the Barclays Center showroom in the The New York Times building, to a press conference in which Bruce Ratner seemed to slide the actual opening date a bit further out into the next decade.

And what about Bruce Ratner's attempt to reassure New Jersey fans that getting to the game will be a cinch?

DDDB listens in on the Nets Daily comments, where "Trenton" has bad news for Bruce Ratner:

Personally, I would not drive up to the Meadowlands, hop on a bus, then ride to the game, hop on the bus again and drive home.

link

Posted by lumi at 4:11 AM

July 10, 2008

With Yi Jianlian, the Nets Hope to Go Global

The New York Times
by Harvey Araton

Thinking expansively, going global, the Nets invited a billion Chinese to stream a news conference Wednesday on njnets.com and to communicate with the newly acquired forward, Yi Jianlian. Alas, the linking of the Far East to East Rutherford was apparently no instant triumph of digital interaction.

At least Jeff from Hackensack was poised to post a query for Bobby Simmons, another new Net who hails from the less exotic basketball hotbed of Chicago.

New ventures take time, require patience, not unlike the building of an arena in densely populated Brooklyn and the development of a 20-year-old 7-footer, who in a tailored suit looks like a devotee of the Slim-Fast Diet.
...

Bruce C. Ratner, their principal owner, said that long-range planning was part of the process after the in-season trade of Jason Kidd, but he bristled when asked if the Yi deal was more of a marketing ploy.

“It’s 100 percent about basketball,” he said.

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NoLandGrab: Sure, Bruce, like Atlantic Yards is 100% about "Jobs, Housing & Hoops."

Posted by eric at 12:13 PM

Nets definitely coming to Brooklyn in... (um) 2010-ish, during the season, we think

Bruce Ratner's Nets organization has been doing an elaborate dance for years, trying to keep fans stoked for a move to Brooklyn, though the big day keeps getting pushed back.

NY Daily News, Yi helps Nets matter again

Yesterday, in a fit of honesty, Bruce Ratner placed the date during 2010-2011 season, perhaps close to the end, as NY Daily News reporter Julian Garcia reports on the paper's blog:

Owner Bruce Ratner revealed that the team is still scheduled to move to Brooklyn after two more full seasons in New Jersey but that the move may not occur until the middle of the 2010-2011 season, perhaps even toward the end of it. He said groundbreaking on the new Brooklyn arena is to begin in November.

NY Daily News, Nets' move to Brooklyn may not happen until 2010-2011

In Garcia's follow-up report for today's paper, Ratner's PR henchman Barry Baum tries his best to explain what his boss meant to say (perhaps for the benefit of investors?):

The Nets are still scheduled to move to Brooklyn. But as for exactly when that will happen, not even owner Bruce Ratner can say.

At the press conference to introduce new players Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons Wednesday, Ratner acknowledged that the move, which in recent months had been pushed back to the start of the 2010-2011 season, may not occur until that season is already underway. Ratner said that the move could occur late in the year.

Ratner's spokesperson, Barry Baum, clarified the remarks, saying that the team has acknowledged for awhile that the move may not occur until the 2010 "calendar year" as opposed to before that season.

"When (Ratner) says late in the year, he means late in 2010," Baum said.

Atlantic Yards Report, "Brooklyn is happening"? Nets brass now promise 2010-11 season
Back in mid-May, Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report had already predicted that 2010 probably meant December 31, 2010. In the wake of Ratner's fumble, Baum's recovery attempt, and an increasingly tight construction timeline, Norman Oder thinks that 2011 makes more sense:

Less than two months ago, Forest City Ratner promised an opening during the 2010 calendar year. So team officials continue to hedge. Given the three-year bridge reconstruction schedule, 2011 still looks to me like a reasonable best-case scenario.

Posted by lumi at 7:10 AM

Nets to Ticket Holders: “Brooklyn is Happening”

Nets Daily covers a special reception meant to remind Nets fans "'Brooklyn is happening' in spite of various reports."

Officials added that the team still “anticipates” playing in the Barclays Center during the 2010-11 season and expects to have an official ground-breaking at the site later this year.

In other news from the reception, Nets Daily reports that the team plans to build a new practice facility somewhere in Brooklyn, adopt a new logo (we suggest our logo redesign), launch a local Chinese in-language campaign, provide a shuttle bus to service the 35% of New Jersey season-ticket holders that they anticipate will follow the team to Brooklyn, and offer season tickets at comparable prices to those of the Knicks.

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Posted by lumi at 5:50 AM

July 6, 2008

Hot dog clause in financing of new stadium gives taxpayers heartburn

NY Daily News
by Juan Gonzalez

This was an excellent preview of some of the issues covered this past Wednesday in State hearings presided over by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. It was not included in this past week's NoLandGrab coverage, but it is now.

Questionable promises of jobs in exchange for public funding, efforts to use an IRS loophole for financing a sports facility and requests for additional public financial support are all things that the Yankees and Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner have in common.

Call it the secret Hot Dog Giveaway.

The Yankees could be allowed to operate up to 25 vendor pushcarts outside the new stadium as part of a secret provision the team negotiated with the city and state for parking garages being built with public financing.

The "hot dog" clause - never made public until now - would kick in if the Yankees don't get 600 free year-round parking spaces.

That little goodie is just one ofseveral revelations buried in thousands of pages of documents and e-mails about the stadium project that city officials recently gave Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester).

Brodsky, who heads the assembly committee that oversees public authorities, demanded the documents after learning last month that the city's Industrial Development Agency was backing a Yankee request for $366 million in additional tax-exempt financing to complete the Bronx project.

The new request comes on top of the $942 million in taxexempt bonds the Yankees have received.

Brodsky has scheduled a public hearing today on the entire project. It islikely to be the toughest public review the $1.3 billion stadium has received.

"The more you see of authorities like the IDA, the more you realize they act like old-style Soviet commissars," Brodsky said. "No one has elected them, they're not accountable to anyone, and they operate in secrecy."

article

Posted by steve at 6:15 AM

July 2, 2008

Does the Future of Atlantic Yards Really Hinge on LeBron?

Gotham Gazette [The Wonkster], Can Lebron James Save Bruce Ratner?

A little background for the non-SLAM Magazine-reading set: The James here is Lebron, who is buddies with rap mogul and Nets minority owner Jay-Z. The Nets’ principal owner is Forest City Ratner, which wants to move them to an as-yet unbuilt, 18,000-seat, Forest City-developed, Frank Ghery-designed arena in Atlantic Yards by 2010. James, arguably the world’s most marketable athlete, becomes a free agent in 2010. He currently plays in Cleveland, which we’re told is a much less interesting and exciting place than New York.

Could James’ apparent interest in Brooklyn have any impact on Atlantic Yards?

Bleacher Report, Please No More LeBron to New York Talk

Is anybody else as sick as me with the oversaturated coverage of LeBron’s supposedly inevitable move to one of the New York teams come 2010? It’s good to dream, but can someone please tell me when this became fact?
...

Yi brings China with him, which, in turn brings a lot of money. Keep in mind New York has the biggest Chinese population in the U.S. There is plenty of money to be made overseas in China. Naming rights money, shoe deal money, endorsement deals, suite money for the new arena.

Because of Yi, Nets games will now be seen on 50 plus stations in China. Three hundred million Chinese play basketball and one billion watch NBA games. Some months the NBA brings in more revenue from China than it does in North America.

This move had to be done. The Nets were losing $40 million a year, the heaviest debt-to-assets load of any professional sports team, according to Forbes magazine.

NoLandGrab: With the Nets, real estate comes first, with marketing a close second. Putting a winning team on the floor, well....

NY Daily News, With inexperienced roster, Nets front office looks to add veterans

However, Thorn, Vandeweghe and owner Bruce Ratner have admitted they are not willing to sacrifice the future just to give the Nets a better chance in the upcoming season. Although no executives have said so, speculation is that the Jefferson trade, which brought 20-year-old 7-footer Yi Jianlian and veteran forward Bobby Simmons to New Jersey, was all about setting up a possible run at future free agent LeBron James.

NLG: No Nets' executives have said so because saying so would be tampering.

Posted by eric at 10:37 AM

June 30, 2008

So, would Brooklyn be 2010 or 2011?

Atlantic Yards Report

In articles this weekend, The NY Times "offered that not-so-credible 2010 date for the Nets' assumed Brooklyn move," while the Boston Globe had it, "probably in 2011."

Norman Oder bets on the Globe:

I think 2011 is a more likely best-case scenario. Remember, the Nets are promising only "calendar year 2010," which might just be New Year's Eve.

article

NoLandGrab: The New York Times Company owns both The Times and The Globe, so someone in Boston apparently didn't get the memo.

Posted by lumi at 4:15 AM

June 29, 2008

July 2 Showdown Over Yankees (and Nets) Tax-exempt Financing

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn

Presumably the discussion at the hearing below will include the $800 million (at least) in tax-exempt financing Forest City Ratner seeks for its proposed $950 million, and counting, Barclays Center Arena...

Assembly Standing Committee On Corporations, Authorities And Commissions Assembly Standing Committee On Local Governments Assembly Standing Committee On Cities Assembly Standing Committee On Ways And Means

Notice Of Public Hearing

SUBJECT: The request for increased public financing for construction of a new Yankee Stadium in New York City.

PURPOSE: This hearing will examine the recent requests by the New York Yankees for additional funding in the form of tax-exempt bonds from the New York City Industrial Development Agency (NYC IDA), a subsidiary of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC), for construction of a new Yankee Stadium in New York City.

NEW YORK CITY
Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 10:00 am
Assembly Hearing Room, Room 1923, 19th Floor
250 Broadway
New York, New York

ORAL TESTIMONY WILL BE BY INVITATION ONLY

The NYC IDA is the financing branch of the NYC EDC that provides assistance to businesses and companies operating in the five boroughs of New York City through tax-exempt bond financing. In 2006, the NYC IDA approved the issuance of $920 million in tax-exempt bonds to the New York Yankees for the construction of a new Yankee Stadium in the borough of the Bronx. The issuance of these bonds was made possible when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) waived regulations which prohibit the use of public financing for sports facilities. Shortly after the waiver was granted, the IRS instituted stricter enforcement of its regulations prohibiting such use of tax-exempt bonds.

Reports in the news media have indicated that the New York Yankees are seeking an additional $350 million in tax-exempt bonds from the NYC IDA to complete construction of the stadium despite IRS regulations prohibiting such use of public financing, and efforts are underway to have a waiver granted once again so that the sports team can acquire the funding. This hearing will allow the Committees to obtain information on the status of the financing plans for the construction of the Stadium, and to investigate the requests for additional funding.

Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky Chair. Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions

Assemblyman Sam Hoyt Chair, Committee on Local Governments

Assemblyman James F. Brennan Chair, Committee on Cities

Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell, Jr. Chair, Committee on Ways and Means

link

Posted by steve at 11:00 AM

June 24, 2008

Big-time spin: Ratner claims Supreme Court pass ushers in arena construction

Atlantic Yards Report

Norman Oder bets against the hyperbolic headline on Forest City Ratner's Dear-Norman email.

link

Posted by lumi at 4:48 AM

June 20, 2008

Atlantic Yards Opposition Seeks Further Approval

GlobeSt.com
by Natalie Dolce

The proposed $4-billion Atlantic Yards project has had many hurdles presented in a number of court challenges over the past year, and opposition to the project has continuously called for a "time out," as GlobeSt.com previously reported. On Thursday, one such opposition group, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, and its attorney Jeffrey Baker of Young, Sommer, Ward, Ritzenberg, Baker & Moore LLC, sent a letter to the Public Authorities Control Board regarding the "increase in cost" of Forest City Ratner Cos.' Atlantic Yards Barclay's arena and the development project as a whole.

The letter demands that the PACB--comprised of Gov. David Paterson, Speaker Sheldon Silver and Majority Leader Joseph Bruno--exercise its "statutory obligation to approve the financing and construction of the project." When asked about financials surrounding the project, a Forest City Ratner spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that they have "no comment at this time," and also says that they have no comment regarding the DDDB letter.

article

NoLandGrab: Hmmm, a double no-comment from Forest City Ratner. Guess they forgot that "when it comes to sharing information with the public and governmental bodies, there’s no such thing as too much, as far as we are concerned."

And we wonder if the members of the PACB declined comment, too, or if GlobeSt. just forgot to seek it.

Posted by eric at 10:09 AM

Given 50% arena cost increase, DDDB asks PACB to reconsider AY approval

Atlantic Yards Report

Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) yesterday asked the three-member Public Authorities Control Board (PACB)—comprised of Governor David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno—to revisit its approval of the Atlantic Yards project, given “the dramatic increase in cost of Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards arena and the development project as a whole.” The effort relies on an untested area of state law.

The PACB, which in 2006 derailed the planned West Side Stadium, is not supposed to evaluate the overall merits of a project, just whether the state’s investment is a sound one. DDDB contends that the nearly 50% increase in the price tag for the arena over 15 months—$637.2 million as approved in December 2006, but $950 million in March 2008—means the PACB should take another look. (The state has pledged $100 million of the project’s cost, estimated at $4 billion at time of approval but certainly significantly higher at this point.)
...

I asked DDDB attorney Jeffrey Baker if anyone has successfully made this challenge and, if so, what was the increase in the cost of the project at issue. “As far as I know there is no case law directly on point on this issue with PACB,” he responded.
...

Baker noted that the “source of the nearly $320 Million of additional construction costs has not been identified, and it is utterly unclear how the arena PILOT can be paid towards the bond based on assessed property taxes.”

The latter is a reference to a rule that says PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) cannot exceed the maximum amount of foregone property taxes. In terms of Atlantic Yards, those taxes may be significantly dwarfed by the potential arena bond.

What if PILOTs curtailed?

Indeed, the PACB’s approval, as with the KPMG study that led to the ESDC’s approval, was predicated on the use of PILOTs to pay off the arena bonds. Should the Internal Revenue Service be successful in curtailing the use of such PILOTs, that would strain the financial model significantly. The cost increase adds another strain.

article

Posted by eric at 8:28 AM

June 16, 2008

Just wondering I: Nets target '10-11 opening

amNY

Columnist Neil Best gets the Yormark treatment, but doesn't realize he might have a scoop:

What with the news the Yankees are seeking more dough to finish their new palace, it was time to check in with the Nets' efforts to move to Brooklyn, within walking distance of an LIRR stop.

How's it going? "We'll be there for the '10-11 season," CEO Brett Yormark said of an effort slowed by legal challenges.

The plan is to break ground this fall, which would go a long way toward quieting skeptics and selling suites.

Yormark gave me a tour of a sweet-looking model suite in a Manhattan showroom, 500 square feet with room for a small pool table. If I had $300,000 a season to spare, I would rent one and invite readers to hang with me.

article

ANOTHER SOFT RELEASE?
It looks like slick Yormark is hedging again. Instead of vowing that the Nets will play in their new arena "in calendar year 2010," which is all but impossible, he's now betting on the "2010-2011 season," which you can bet means more like 2011.

The previous admission that the arena opening would be delayed was handled in an orchestrated "soft release." This looks like the beginning of another one.

Posted by lumi at 5:38 AM

June 13, 2008

New IRS Rule May Delay Development Of Atlantic Yards Project

NY1

Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner downplayed today’s reports that a proposed Internal Revenue Service rule might stall the vast construction project.
...

"We don't see really a problem,” said Ratner. “You know if the regulations don't change, do change, whatever the regulations will do, we'll be able to finance this. We've been assured of that. We've been working on it over the last two months, and it will take another three or four months to finish the documentation, but there's not a problem.”

article/video [dialup/broadband]

NoLandGrab: "We've been assured of that?" Assured by whom?

Bruce was apparently tracked down by NY1 while taking part in Forest City Ratner's "Community Day" clean-up of Prospect Park — which is not to be confused with "Brooklyn Day."

Posted by eric at 7:58 PM

Arena site in the Times? Nah

Atlantic Yards Report

Norman Oder does some free photo editing for The Times.

Is this the Atlantic Yards arena site, as today's New York Times suggests?

Nah. Rather than stretch solely along the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard, as in the picture, the arena site would end at the Sixth Avenue Bridge in the upper left quadrant of the photo and stretch south below the Pacific Street boundary, at the far left of the photo.

Below is the arena site outlined, more or less, in a photo by Jonathan Barkey.

Posted by eric at 12:28 PM

May 20, 2008

Forget LeBron and rebuild Knicks pick by brick

amNY
By Shaun Powell

Powell handicaps Bruce Ratner's new Nets arena in Brooklyn in today's column about the possible future of Cleveland Cavalier forward LeBron James and the New York Knicks:

Let's all conveniently forget that LeBron is super-tight with Jay-Z, the rap maestro who has a small piece of the Nets, and if that new arena ever gets built in Brooklyn (my hunch says no), LeBron will be coming to New York, all right.

article

Posted by lumi at 4:43 AM

May 19, 2008

JAY-Z CAUGHT USING SECRET HANDSHAKE

TheBoomBox.com

This whole Atlantic Yards thing is finally starting to make sense...

On May 16th, Jay-Z came through to the Barclay's Center showroom opening in Brooklyn, New York to support his big homey Bruce Ratner. The music mogul and Ratner have been in business together ever since the rap star bought a piece of the entrepreneur's New Jersey Nets. The pair's currently working on a deal to transport the basketball team from Newark to Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards near Jay's old stomping grounds.

CORRECTION: The Barclays Center Showroom is located in Manhattan, at the NY Times building, not in Brooklyn. And the Nets would be relocating from East Rutherford, though Z and B-Rat might secretly be working on a plan to move the team to Newark.

They had some laughs and popped some bottles, but it was their oddly-gripped handshake (seen here) that sparked yet another round of Jay-related conspiracy theory.

Hova has long been rumored to be a member of the Freemasons, the fraternal organization known for their deep political ties and use of signs (gestures) and grips (handshakes). Past members allegedly include thirteen signors of the Constitution, fourteen U.S. Presidents and many of the nation's most powerful families such as the Rockefellers (ROC, mane) and Rothschilds.

link

NoLandGrab: We always thought the "conspiracy" involved secret backroom deals between powerful real estate interests and their enablers in government, not the Freemasons. But now we learn that the ranks of the Masonic Temple include, or have included, David Paterson, Chuck Schumer, Charlie Ebbets and Branch Rickey. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe not. The "deep political ties" certainly sound familiar.

We also see that both former Montana Senator Conrad Burns and Scottish poet Robert Burns were Freemasons. No word, however, if C. Montgomery Burns is a Mason, though this video proves his membership in the Stonecutters.

Posted by eric at 8:41 PM

Launch of Nets' suite sales met with partial shrug

Atlantic Yards Report

While the New Jersey Nets and Forest City Ratner put a lot of effort (Tiffany key chain!) into launching the sale of suites in the yet-unbuilt (heck, ground has not been broken) Barclays Center last Thursday, the media responded with what must be considered a partial shrug. The Barclays Center web site (right) touts articles from the Bergen Record, the Newark Star-Ledger, and the New York Times, but that Times article--as I failed to point out in commentary last week--appeared only online.

The media roundup includes several blog posts and coverage on WNYC radio, but the tabloids--which previewed the announcement in March--didn't cover the event. I think that's a recognition that the story, for now, didn't deserve more attention.

article

NoLandGrab: Interestingly, the dearth of fawning articles forced the folks at barclayscenter.com to post articles from the two big New Jersey dailies that were not altogether flattering.

Posted by eric at 8:36 AM

May 17, 2008

EXTRA: First "bunker suite" SOLD to Jay-Z!

Like much of the hype surrounding the Nets arena, this week's launch of luxury suite sales was impeccably choreographed and staged.

For instance, on Thursday morning, The Newark Star-Ledger reported:

Tonight, the Nets will host a party for more than 120 people, including dozens of corporate chief executives and the hip hop impresario Jay-Z, who is considering buying a suite, according to the team's spokesman, Barry Baum.

So, Jay-Z is "considering" buying a bunker suite? Ooh, wonder what he's going to decide.

On Friday, ESPN The Magazine followed up:

Jay-Z was announced to be the first owner of a "bunker suite," one of 12 "event level" spaces that actually has no direct view of the courts, but is tucked between the home and visting teams locker rooms.

Wow, who woulda guessed!

Are we really supposed to believe that sometime Thursday, just in time for Bruce Ratner's luxury suites rollout party, NJ Nets minority owner Jay-Z finally made up his mind to purchase one of those "bunker suites?"

Is Ratner selling suites or snake oil? The sales tactics are pretty much the same.

Posted by lumi at 7:12 AM

May 16, 2008

"Street to seat brand domination" absent from AY renderings

Atlantic Yards Report

The Sports Business Journal article published Monday on six founding partners for the planned Barclays Center arena said the Nets promise “street to seat brand domination.”
“We’ll have very little static signage,” [Nets CEO Brett] Yormark said. “From the street or subway to the marquee and inside the bowl, only one brand will be visible at a time. The marketers we are talking to want fewer relationships that are more dominant. [Building architect] Frank Gehry did not want to overcommercialize this building, but he wanted to provide ownership for those brands that want to get involved.”

Also, there will be a “construction activation platform” with signage, countdown clocks and other media in which partners will be identified.

However, the new renderings produced by Gehry show no commercial signage (nor "construction activitation platform"), even though signs could be 150 feet high and 75 feet wide. Also, Gehry once wanted to make sure that arena signage had a social function, used for art and community purposes, but that has fallen by the wayside. And the developer has pledged that signage would be relegated to games, a promise that deserves further scrutiny.

article

Posted by eric at 7:02 PM

A SUITE GROWS IN, UM, MANHATTAN

ESPN The Magazine
by Otto Strong

The New Jersey Nets took one step closer to Brooklyn Thursday, even if the stopover came in the form of a showroom high above midtown. Team brass rolled out a living, breathing life-size version of what the suite experience will look and feel like in a new sales center on the 38th floor of The New York Times building.

The Celtics may have this season's Big Three, but the the Big Three who served as MCs for Thursday night's event—Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Nets owners Bruce Ratner and Jay-Z—brought the one liners with them.
...

Jay-Z was announced to be the first owner of a "bunker suite," one of 12 "event level" spaces that actually has no direct view of the courts, but is tucked between the home and visting teams locker rooms. At 500-square feet, these suites are larger than many Manhattan apartments. And at $540,000, they're just about as expensive, too. Aside from having a sophisticated décor that rivals trendier dwellings in the city, these suites include private bathrooms, multiple flat panel HD-LCD TVs and even a regulation pool table. Also included are eight courtside seats per suite, ya know, just in case you feel like checking out LeBron in person.

article

NoLandGrab: We're pretty certain that Forest City Ratner misses the irony of selling "bunker suites" in an arena that they swore was completely secure — before they re-designed it to eliminate most of the not-so-safe-looking glass façade.

Posted by eric at 2:09 PM

No More Chafing Dishes!

DDDB.net

While the Nets did their best to lay on the hype yesterday while kicking of sales of non-existent luxury suites, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn homed in on the most impressive of all the promised bells and whistles:

Atlantic Yards started out in December 2003 with this slogan: "Jobs, Housing and Hoops." Now?

"NO MORE CHAFING DISHES!"

From WNYC-radio's preview of tonight's Barclays Center luxury skybox party:

...Nets President Brett Yormark says the amenities [of the arena's luxury skyboxes) are [to] be a big draw.

YORMARK: Cork floors, induction burners. No more chafing dishes with fire underneath. So a little bit of technology there. Frank Gehry designed lighting fixtures...

link

More DDDB reaction to the Barclays Center luxury-suite-a-thon sales event:

Poor Attendance Modeled for Atlantic Yards

Auto-oriented Atlantic Yards

Posted by eric at 1:00 PM

By the numbers

Bergen Record

The Nets kicked off sales Thursday of a portion of their luxury suites for the proposed Barclays Center, which they hope to open in Brooklyn by the end of 2010. Some seating facts:

64 "Level A" luxury suites, priced at $190,000 to $450,000

54 "Level B" luxury suites, priced at $155,000 to $400,000

12 Court-level "bunker" suites, priced at $540,000

3,200 Premium "club" seats, price not set but probably more than $150 per game

2,000 Upper-level seats for $15

link

NoLandGrab: Interesting that the Nets also remembered to promote the promised 2,000 $15 seats. Those, of course, won't be on sale for a very long time. Most likely, though, they'll be available much, much sooner than any of the units listed below.

Posted by eric at 12:22 PM

Nets are selling the luxury side of their dream arena

Bergen Record
by John Brennan

The New Jersey Nets, who vow to move to Brooklyn in two years, kicked off a critical phase of that effort Thursday with the opening of a sales center in midtown Manhattan.

"We've been saying that Brooklyn has been real for years, and it is real, but this truly is another validation for us," Chief Executive Officer Brett Yormark said during a media tour of the sales office, which includes a 500-square-foot replica of one of the 130 luxury suites at the proposed $950 million Barclays Center.

NoLandGrab: Pinch me! Brooklyn is real!

"We've got hot prospects that we'll be talking to over the next 30 to 60 days, who have been waiting to be able to come in and walk through a suite," said Yormark, who returned to the Nets after gaining a national reputation for his sponsorship and marketing success at NASCAR. "We've got people what I call 'teed up and ready to go,' and [Thursday's events for corporate leaders] could be a closer for them."

Given the current economy, Nets owners may need every bit of Yormark's sales talents to entice major corporations to shell out an average of $300,000 a year for the suites for terms of five to 10 years. Those sales would serve as part of the collateral for the considerable construction loans the Nets will need to break ground by the end of the year.

The Nets, who expect to obtain one-third or more of the building costs from New York City and New York State subsidies, also announced "founding partner" sponsorships worth $100 million this week. Foxwoods Resort Casino, Anheuser-Busch, and Cushman and Wakefield are among those core partners.

NLG: Foxwoods and Anheuser, two more "Brooklyn" companies?

The Nets lose an estimated $40 million annually at the Izod Center, whose design does not feature modern suites or lucrative "club seats" that can fetch hundreds of dollars per ticket for each game. But Yormark reiterated the franchise's insistence that a move to the Prudential Center is not in the cards, either short-term or long-term.

"We're at the Izod Center and committed to the Izod Center, and from the Izod Center we go to the Barclays Center," Yormark said. "There are no other options for us, and we will consider no other options."

article

NLG: Alas, poor Yormark. He and his Nets and Forest City Ratner cronies doth protest too much, we thinks, when it comes to the unrelenting efforts to dispel the inconvenient Nets-to-Newark rumors.

Posted by eric at 9:31 AM

Nets Spin Launch of Suite Sales as Proof of Brooklyn Move

The multi-pronged media effort to repair the damage from Bruce Ratner's shockingly candid March 21st interview with The New York Times continued yesterday with the launch of luxury suite sales for the planned Atlantic Yards arena.

Newark Star-Ledger, Nets say showroom is proof of move

The Nets yesterday showed off a full-size replica of the luxury suites they expect to feature in their $950 million Brooklyn arena, in yet another push to demonstrate they are serious about leaving New Jersey in 2010.
...

"The Barclays Center showroom is one more validation that we're alive and well and we're going to Brooklyn," Yormark said. "The next step is opening day."

NoLandGrab: Actually, the next step is to prove that the arena, let alone any of the rest of the project, can actually be built. Some of the land needed to build the arena is still in the hands of private owners and tenants, who are fighting the use of eminent domain in court. And Ratner has yet to demonstrate that he can actually secure financing for Atlantic Yards.

The marketing push comes as New Jersey officials and Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek are seeking to assemble a group of investors to buy the Nets and move the team to the Prudential Center in Newark instead.
...

Yormark dismissed that as a possibility, saying sharing the Prudential Center with the Devils "is of no interest to us."

Newark Star-Ledger, Nets show off luxury suites in New York

The team has already sold one-fifth of the suites, at prices up to $540,000, according to Yormark.

NoLandGrab: While Yormark has repeated frequently the claim that 20% of the suites have already been sold to "friends and family," he has yet to publicly identify any of those who allegedly ponied up.

Bergen Record, Nets show off luxury suites

Chief Executive Brett Yormark led more than a dozen media members on a tour of the site in the morning, with a luncheon and then a celebrity-studded party rounding out the day.
...

Pricing for the 3,200 premium "club seats," which would have access to high-end lounges, has not been completed, Yormark said. The price is likely to be higher than the $150 per game that the Devils charge for such seats at the Prudential Center in Newark, given the New York City location.

WNYC Radio, Execs get Peek at Nets Arena Luxury Boxes

Nets President Brett Yormark says the amenities are be a big draw.

YORMARK: Cork floors, induction burners. No more chafing dishes with fire underneath. So a little bit of technology there. Frank Gehry designed lighting fixtures.

REPORTER: The Nets are guaranteeing that the arena will open in the fall of 2010, even though their parent company does not yet own all of the property in the arena footprint. Forest City Ratner Companies says it will begin construction later this year.

Nets Daily, Nets Begin Marketing Suites with Press Tour, New York Gala

Brownstoner, Barclays Center Luxury Suites Hit the Market

Curbed, Gehry Arena Luxe Suites Go on Sale, Rendering Porn Included

Curbed appears to have gotten its mitts on the exclusive sales brochure.

Gothamist.com, Troubled Nets Arena in Brooklyn Selling Luxury Suites

Posted by eric at 7:37 AM

No Nets Arena Yet, but Suites Are on Sale

NYTimes.com
by Richard Sandomir

Construction of the Nets’ proposed arena near downtown Brooklyn is long delayed and financing has not been completed. But the effort to sell the Barclays Center’s luxury suites began Thursday with the opening of a showroom in Manhattan.

The 130 suites arranged on three levels are renting for an average of $300,000 (for 5-, 7- and 10-year rentals). But the 12 elite ones are going for $540,000; they are actually under the stands (making them luxurious party bunkers), with no views of the court, but they come with eight seats at plum locations near courtside. The first of 12 was taken Thursday night by Jay-Z, the hip-hop impresario and a Nets investor.

For those seeking a suite, it will be a relief to hear that only 5 percent is due on the first year’s lease at signing, with the rest due in three installments ending in July 2010.

article

NoLandGrab: It's no biggie for Mr. Z, as The Times might refer to him, to plunk down north of half a million bucks for a Nets' suite, what with his new $150 million deal with Live Nation. But that same $540,000 would house more than 60 families for a year in Atlantic Yards' affordable housing units — if they ever get built.

Posted by eric at 7:36 AM

May 15, 2008

DDDB PRESS RELEASE: Tonight: Ratner to Show Off Atlantic Yards Arena Luxury Suites

Back in Reality:
Atlantic Yards and Barclays Center Are On Precipice of Failure

BROOKLYN, NY— Tonight, as reported last week in Crain’s, Bruce Ratner’s New Jersey Nets will “debut a prototype of their Frank Gehry-designed, $300,000-a-year Barclays Center corporate suites at a splashy party in their New York Times Building showroom.”

Meanwhile, back in reality, Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development proposal—including the arena for which Barclays Bank has purchased naming rights for $400 million—is on the precipice of failure and currently cannot be built.

“Bruce Ratner once promised ‘affordable’ housing. Now, all he is promising are luxury arena skyboxes, and he’s in no position to build even those,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “Tonight’s luxury skybox party vividly represents the Atlantic Yards bait and switch. The proposed ‘affordable’ housing was the bait to enlist the support of many elected officials backing the project, as well as ACORN; the switch is that those in need of an affordable home are left hanging while the ridiculously expensive luxury skyboxes will be given full priority over everything else Ratner once promised.”

Developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) does not own all of the properties it needs to build its proposed arena. Some of that property is in the hands of other private owners or tenants. New York State’s intention to seize those properties by eminent domain, and hand them over to Forest City, is currently being challenged in the courts. Back on March 31, 11 property owners and tenants filed a petition to the US Supreme Court in their case alleging that New York State’s use of eminent domain violates the US Constitution. If the Court takes their case, it would be heard by the end of the year, and a decision would be rendered roughly one year from now. If the Court does not take their case, the plaintiffs intend to file their challenge to eminent domain in New York State court.

In addition to this ownership problem, Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards proposal faces other substantial obstacles, including:

• FCR needs at least $1.4 billion in tax-free housing bonds, but they are not available.

• FCR does not have the bond it needs for its $950 million arena—more than double the price tag of the most expensive arena every built.

• The credit market is in crisis.

• Construction costs have increased astronomically, and continue to rise.

• New York City’s real estate boom is over, and Brooklyn has a large oversupply of condos.

• Political opinion has substantially shifted against the project. (See: May 3rd protest rally)

• A coming appeal of the community lawsuit challenging the project’s environmental review and overall approval.

• Other outstanding litigation and the possibility of new litigation beyond that.

Posted by eric at 3:40 PM

May 13, 2008

Nets partnership announcements, suites showroom are four months late

Atlantic Yards Report

Norman Oder offers his take on today's Sports Business Journal story, and highlights the latest in Netspeak.

Meanwhile, we apparently get a new term to add to the Atlantic Yards Lexicon: "construction activation platform."

The newspaper reports:
Incremental to the founding partnership fees, many of the new sponsors will support what the Nets are calling a “construction activation platform” with signage, countdown clocks and other media in which partners will be identified.

“We’ll be marketing the heck out of the building even before it is being built,” Yormark said.

Indeed, that's the subject of the article.

article

Posted by eric at 7:24 AM

Nets add 6 founding partners for Barclays

Sports Business Journal
By Terry Lefton

As part of the marketing campaign in advance of the May 15 rollout and pre-sale of "Barclays Center" luxury suites, Nets CEO Brett Yormark is announcing six new arena sponsors, who just happen to already be sponsors in New Jersey. [Eyes rolling.]

A couple of photos offer a sneak-peak of the May 15 rollout:

While the organization’s Barclays Center project is mired in legal delays and reports surfaced recently that New Jersey officials were making a run to have the team move to the Prudential Center in Newark, Nets Sports & Entertainment President and CEO Brett Yormark said last week that he expects to break ground in the fourth quarter of this year and open the building in time for the 2010-11 season.

And as evidence, Yormark said the team has signed six new founding partners that join previously announced Jones Soda, representing more than $100 million in sponsorship commitments in the new building. The founding-partner deals are all five to 10 years in length and range from $1.5 million to $5 million a year, Yormark said.

Most are existing Nets sponsors: Anheuser-Busch, Cushman & Wakefield, MGM Grand/Foxwoods, ADT, Emblem Health and Izod, which has naming rights to the Nets’ current home court at the Meadowlands. Barclays is the naming-rights sponsor for the planned $950 million arena, which is supposed to host more than 200 events a year.

Yormark said that many of the partners are architecturally integrated within the building, plazas or clubs.

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Posted by lumi at 5:25 AM

May 12, 2008

Why luxury suite sales this week are needed to market arena bonds

Atlantic Yards Report

Forest City Ratner's ability to recruit buyers for luxury suites — which it begins marketing this Thursday — may be critical to its ability to secure funding for the arena.

A counter-protest in response to the "Time Out" rally. An Bruce Ratner op-ed in the New York Daily News. The release of new renderings of the Atlantic Yards arena, office tower, and first residential building.

Let me try to put Forest City Ratner's recent efforts in some perspective. The office tower rendering is aimed to help attract an anchor tenant and get the building started. The rendering of a residential rental tower, with half the units subsidized, is aimed to maintain public support for the project.

But, more than anything else, the developer's efforts are about getting the arena built. That means the public must be convinced it's viable and, crucially, buyers of luxury suites must be recruited. The guarantee of certain suite revenues, I believe, will back bonds for the now-$950 million arena.

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NoLandGrab: With Madison Square Garden embarking on a top-to-bottom renovation, new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees opening next year, and a new home for the Giants and Jets underway, it'll be interesting to see what demand there might be for suites in an arena that's still in rendering stage.

Posted by eric at 9:36 AM

What would an interim arena without titanium look like?

Atlantic Yards Report

Current plans for Phase 1 construction of the proposed Atlantic Yards development leaves out the "Urban Room" that was originally designed to connect with the arena, at least until later in the construction. If only the arena and one tower are built for now, what would the arena look like? Norman Oder takes a look.

We can't be sure. But we can be sure that the new renderings, as New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff recently wrote in another context, produce a "distorted picture of reality."

That's why it's important for Forest City Ratner to produce more accurate renderings, including descriptions of the publicly accessible open space that (its spokesman told the Post) would occupy what the MAS portrays as vacant lots.

Oder also questions whether the new arena design would conform to the Design Guidelines in the General Project Plan.

I asked ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston if the arena, with a truncated amount of glass, would conform to the Design Guidelines. He said it did.

Because my initial email did not cite the precise dimensions of 125 feet and 7500 square feet, I asked for confirmation. I didn't get a response.

...

And it is notable that the current renderings don't tell us whether the arena would meet the current guidelines, nor when exactly in the development process the current renderings might be realized. So we could have some vacant lots instead.

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Posted by steve at 9:24 AM

May 8, 2008

What Might You Eat at a Brooklyn Nets Game?

Grub Street [New York Magazine]

When the basketball arena opens on the Atlantic Yards site in 2010(ish), Nets fans can expect a mythic Brooklyn foodscape. "There will be counters and stands with knishes, pizza, hot dogs, egg creams, cheesecake — the goal is really to provide a distinct Brooklyn flavor," promises arena spokesman Barry Baum. Never mind that Levy Restaurants, a Chicago-based subsidiary of a British company that plies the USTA Center in Queens, is running the concessions. (Tennis fans now enjoy such traditional Flushing dishes as “Blistered Corn Soup” and “Pan-Seared Amish Chicken.”) An on-site kitchen (and separate kosher kitchen) will maintain local flavor, promises Baum.

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NoLandGrab: Does Barry Baum mean "local flavor" like that of the "exclusive carbonated soft drink and bottled water provider" to the Barclays Center, locally Seattle-based Jones Soda Company?

Posted by eric at 5:29 PM

Closing Bell: Gehry's Arena Turns Blue

Brownstoner

The arena has been altered as well, and now it's blue! Per a press release from developer Forest City Ratner's people: "The Barclays Center, the future home of the NBA Nets franchise, has also received an updated design. Frank Gehry’s swooping blue metallic exterior surrounds the Center and is in keeping with his world-renown distinctive style."

We've posted some of those other world-renowned buildings. Notice that Brooklyn's metal is the least bend-y.

link-y

Posted by lumi at 6:36 AM

May 5, 2008

Nets hold court on luxury suites

Crain's New York Business [subscription required]

Next week, the Nets will debut a prototype of their Frank Gehry-designed, $300,000-a-year Barclays Center corporate suites at a splashy party in their New York Times Building showroom.

To entice 185 of New York’s top CEOs to attend—and buy—the organization delivered a series of gifts over the past month, including a Tiffany key chain with a key, one of which will open a door to a free suite for the team’s inaugural season. The arena is set to open in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards in 2010, if developer Bruce Ratner can clear all the legal hurdles in its path.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and rap star Jay-Z, a part-owner of the team, will be on hand for the May 15 event.

Already, 20% of the 130 luxury boxes have been sold to “friends and family,” says Nets Sports Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark.

So, why the full-court press? Mr.Yormark says corporate suites in the area will balloon to 950 from 350 as all the new stadiums come online, including ones for the Yankees, the Mets, and the Giants and Jets. “I can’t take anything for granted,” says the marketer, who will soon announce the advertisers buying rights to brand bars, corridors and other parts, of the arena.

NoLandGrab: "20% of the 130 luxury boxes have been sold to 'friends and family'?" Does that mean owners of the team and related corporate interests? The real test will be in selling suites in an arena for which ground has yet to be broken to unaffiliated companies, with new stadiums opening in the Bronx and Queens and Madison Square Garden embarking on a top-to-bottom renovation.

Posted by eric at 11:45 AM

Nets to Newark could be a blessing

MetroNY
by Neil deMause

This commentary marks the notable lack of excitement in Brooklyn over the prospect of the Nets making a home in our borough, and how there's little economic benefit to having them here. DeMause goes on to note how Brooklynites are much more interested in affordable housing, which Atlantic Yards will not deliver for a very long time, if ever. The logical conclusion is that now is a good time to rethink the entire project.

So what would the city, and the borough, really lose if the Nets never arrive? Nets fans’ spending money would go to Newark instead of New York, but then Newark would get the game-night traffic jams as well. It’s questionable how many Jerseyites would make the two-river-crossing commute to see the team that bolted their state. And if it’s only Brooklynites spending money on overpriced Thai food instead of Vince Carter jerseys, that’s no difference to the city economy.

Meanwhile, the city would regain something that’s not often talked about: The opportunity to develop a large swath of land at the edge of super-hot brownstone Brooklyn. Without an arena, you would not need superblocks, which means no need for seizing property by eminent domain — which would allow for a plan that provided housing and jobs without unduly disrupting existing neighborhoods. The Nets might be how Atlantic Yards got started, but getting them out of the way might just be how to make it work.

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Posted by steve at 4:57 AM

May 4, 2008

Wilpon hopes Citi Field will revive Ebbets memory

Newsday
STEVEN MARCUS

There are differing accounts of what actually occurred leading up to the Dodgers' move. Some say O'Malley's first choice was to build a domed stadium in the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, which now is the projected site for the NBA Nets. Reports from that time said Moses wanted O'Malley to build on the present site of Shea Stadium. O'Malley, perhaps bent on leaving for Los Angeles, refused, and the chain of events unfolded.

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NoLandGrab: Since Atlantic Yards Report did the heavy lifting myth-busting today's Daily News, we'll point out the errors in this sentence from Newsday. 1. Atlantic Yards is not a place now, and it wasn't even a glimmer in Bruce Ratner's eye yet in O'Malley's time. 2. Perhaps the writer means Vanderbilt Yards, over which part of the proposed Atlantic Yards would be built, but unfortunately that would still be incorrect, as O'Malley was eying a parcel across the street.

Posted by amy at 11:24 AM

April 27, 2008

Newark wants Ratner to ditch Brooklyn and stay in NJ

The Real Deal

Developer Bruce Ratner has been approached by several New Jersey investors and public officials on a plan to relocate the Nets to the Prudential Center in downtown Newark, according to sources familiar with the talks.

The investors would like Ratner to have the Nets partner with the New Jersey Devils and move into the Prudential Center in Newark, where the hockey team has just finished its first full season.

"They're being wooed politically as well as by the private sector," said Ken Baris, a New Jersey realtor, who is familiar with some of the investors who have approached Ratner. "There's a lot of people that kind of want to keep it quiet, but [at the same time] are looking forward to a lot more leaks."

A move to Newark would effectively end Ratner's efforts to move the Nets to a $950 million Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn, which was to serve as the centerpiece of his controversial $4 billion Atlantic Yards complex and would be the most expensive basketball arena in the country. Nets officials denied there have been any plans to move to Newark and have insisted they are moving forward with the Brooklyn arena.

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Posted by amy at 10:02 AM

April 21, 2008

Barclay Center Blood Sport

Ultimate fighting has its proponents in Brooklyn

Courier Life Publications
By Stephen Witt

The new Barclay's Center, the home of NBA's Brooklyn Nets* that is expected to open sometime in 2010**, may also feature Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts.***

The UFC is the trademarked league that promotes and produces mixed martial arts fights that are growing nationally.†

While currently not legal in New York, the State Senate and Assembly are moving bills to officially sanction the sport. ††

I have talked with someone [from Forest City Ratner Companies — the Nets owners and Atlantic Yards developer] unofficially, but it's our understanding that the arena won't be built for another two or three years," said Marc Ratner, UFC vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs. †††
...
FCRC spokesperson Joe DePlasco refused to comment on discussions involving the sport.

Click image to read the rest.

* Note: The team is still called the "New Jersey Nets."

** Everyone knows that there's no way the arena will be ready in 2010, despite the public protestations of developer Forest City Ratner.

*** Hence the "blood sport" headline, which Barclays Bank is probably not too thrilled about.

† Does this sentence scream "I come from a press release," or what?

†† Because the State Legislature has nothing better to do?

††† So, Marc Ratner has a good idea that the arena won't be ready by 2010, but reporter Stephen Witt doesn't?

Posted by lumi at 7:43 PM

April 16, 2008

Nets Are Moving, but Their Direction Remains Unclear

The New York Times
by Howard Beck

More wishful thinking — and lack of credulity — on the timing of a new arena in Brooklyn.

In the renamed arena next to the construction zone near the turnpike, the Nets played their final home game — a nondescript team in a nondescript parking lot, in search of a new identity and a new home.

They are no longer the Nets of Jason Kidd and are only nominally, temporarily, the team of New Jersey. They are not going to the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Like the half-built entertainment complex next to the Izod Center, the Nets are in a messy state of transition.

In two years, they hope to be playing in a sparkling new building near downtown Brooklyn. By then, they also hope to be back among the elite teams in the Eastern Conference.

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NoLandGrab: In two years, it will be 2010, and the only sparkling new building in which the Nets might be playing will be in Newark.

Posted by eric at 12:00 PM

Councilman wants Atlantic Yards demolition halted - for now

NY Daily News
by Jotham Sederstrom

The News follows up on comments made to bloggers Monday evening by Brooklyn Beep candidate Bill de Blasio.

Point:

A Brooklyn councilman who has been supportive of the controversial Atlantic Yards project has called for a moratorium on the struggling basketball arena plan.

Councilman Bill de Blasio bashed developer Forest City Ratner for keeping government subsidies hidden and not telling residents about construction delays.

"I've been frustrated in general by the lack of communication by Forest City Ratner for years, and it seems to me it's only gotten worse, not better," said de Blasio, who is running for borough president.

Counterpoint:

Forest City Ratner Executive Vice President Bruce Bender argued in a statement that the project has been transparent but did not address the developer's refusal to publicly reveal aspects of public funding and security concerns involving the plan.

"Atlantic Yards has been reviewed and debated extensively for over five years, including two public hearings before the City Council, multiple other state public hearings and hundreds of public meetings," Bender said in the statement.

"As the Council member knows, all of Atlantic Yards, including all of the affordable housing, will be built, and any delays in the construction phase will result in delays in delivering the thousands of units of affordable housing and thousands of jobs that Atlantic Yards will create."

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NoLandGrab: Bruce, you ignorant.... But we digress. Why is Bill de Blasio the last to know that Forest City Ratner couldn't be trusted? If politicians of his ilk had been more skeptical about Atlantic Yards from the outset, we wouldn't be in this mess now. Still, we're glad that de Blasio is speaking up.

As for Bruce Bender: "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Is it possible that he's been faxing out the same statement for the past three years?

Posted by eric at 10:35 AM

April 15, 2008

De Blasio blasts Ratner, Calls for Moratorium on Demolitions

Bill de Blasio is mad as hell, and he wants to know why the rug has been pulled out from under Atlantic Yards' promised affordable housing. The Gowanus Lounge and Brownstoner share the scoop from last night's blogger meet-up with the Council Member.

The Gowanus Lounge, De Blasio Calls for Moratorium on Atlantic Yards Demolition

City Council Member and Brooklyn Borough President candidate Bill de Blasio is calling for a moratorium on demolition in the Atlantic Yards footprint. Mr. de Blasio made comments deeply critical of possible changes in the huge project as part of a wideranging discussion last night that covered everything from construction safety as developers race to beat changes in the 421a tax break program to zoning issues in Gowanus and Carroll Gardens.
...

On Atlantic Yards, Mr. de Blasio said, "I am livid at the New York Times interview with Ratner" in which the developer announced that the project would be scaled back and that massive amounts of affordable housing would be seriously delayed or eliminated. "There was no discussion with the community before he went on record," Mr. de Blasio said, adding that the changes put "the entire community benefits agreement up for question."

Brownstoner, De Blasio Blasts Ratner on AY Obfuscation

The Councilman also said that he thinks the entire development should be reviewed again by the state if Forest City Ratner is now conceiving of a vastly different project, particularly one that reneges on its promised affordable housing. "I held out hope for the project because of the amount of affordable housing it would create, as well as the number of jobs it would bring," he said. "But I have been constantly disappointed in the lack of community involvement...I've never seen anything that's been mismanaged so fundamentally in terms of community involvement."

NoLandGrab: What Council Member de Blasio is overlooking is that there really hasn't been any discussion with the community ever, and that early support for the toothless and barely enforceable Community Benefits Agreement by him and other politicians has now come home to roost.

Additional coverage:

Curbed, Atlantic Yards Stall: Another Call for a Demolition Moratorium

Posted by eric at 11:58 AM

April 10, 2008

Road trip

NY Post
by Richard Wilner

Nets' CEO Brett Yormark is traveling the globe in search of sponsors.

Brett Yormark, the sports-marketing wizard who became the first NBA team executive to sell corporate sponsorships to summer BBQs and the entire off season, is at it again.

The CEO of Nets Sports & Entertainment is scheduled to take off tomorrow for London and Torino on a hunt for corporate sponsors for the team's planned Barclays Center arena.

If successful - and Yormark has 10 meetings set up - the Nets will become the first NBA team to have as corporate sponsors non-US-based companies.

"It's all about doing the unexpected," said Yormark....

article [scroll down]

NoLandGrab: "Unexpected," or desperate? Is Yormark's far-flung marketing strategy another stroke of genius, or is it being driven by a lack of interest closer to home — a la the absence of an anchor tenant for "Miss Brooklyn."

Posted by eric at 2:34 PM

April 7, 2008

DDDB PRESS RELEASE: Forest City Ratner Says They "Still Need More" Subsidy for Heavily Subsidized Atlantic Yards Proposal

NEW YORK, NY— “We still need more” subsidies for the Atlantic Yards project, Forest City Enterprises president Chuck Ratner said during an investment analysts conference call last Wednesday. Forest City Enterprises (FCE) is the publicly traded parent of Bruce Ratner’s Forest City Ratner (FCR). (Journalist Norman Oder broke the news of Ratner’s “need” for more cash subsidies on his Atlantic Yards Report today).

From the conference call transcript it is clear that the Ratner team will seek more public subsidies; it is not clear if they will seek more city and state subsidies or just city subsidies. FCR’s Atlantic Yards $4-plus billion proposal already has been granted $305 million in direct cash from New York City and State. In total, the developer’s project would be the recipient of at least $2 billion in government-backed financing and tax breaks. The city’s direct cash contribution went from $100 million to $205 almost immediately after the project received political approval in December 2006.

During the conference call, FCE president Chuck Ratner said, “Just in these past six or eight months, we got the various governmental agencies, state, city, bureau in New York to increase their commitments to Atlantic Yards by $105 million on top of the $200 they had committed. We still need more.”

(It was actually the city that increased its direct subsidy to Ratner.)

How will local elected officials respond to an impending visit by Ratner back to the public subsidy trough? It doesn’t appear that they will welcome more Atlantic Yards subsidy:

Councilman, and Brooklyn Borough Presidential candidate, Bill de Blasio warned against additional public subsidies for Ratner’s Atlantic Yards in The Brooklyn Paper. “There has already been very generous public investment,” de Blasio told The Brooklyn Paper on March 29th. “I don’t see how we can go any farther.”

“The Atlantic Yards proposal is already subsidized to the hilt. Ratner’s highly profitable development plan should not be bailed out by the taxpayer, especially with budgetary tightening including education cuts,” Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein said. “If Ratner can’t build his project--with over $300 million in direct cash subsidy, over $2 billion in government-backed financing, a blank city check for ‘extraordinary infrastructure costs,’ free land from the city, a below market rail yard purchase price, and the windfall benefits of eminent domain condemnation--he should not be rewarded with yet more taxpayer funds.

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Posted by eric at 2:30 PM

April 5, 2008

Carbon Neutral Nets Can’t Offset Fan Skepticism

greenbuildingsNYC

A New Jersey resident and long-time follower of the Nets assesses the efforts of the Nets to become the first carbon neutral team in the NBA. He is impressed by the team's effort to play the first carbon neutral game on April the 1st, but is much less impressed by their overall green strategy.

... The initiative worked for the Nets – they got a nice mention in the New York Times, which essentially wrote a Yormark press release in writing, “In a league known more for sideline celebrities and fancy cars, the Nets are standing out with their commitment to going green.” And it’s hard to knock a carbon-neutral professional sports event. But the broader point of my earlier post still stands: sustainability is about more than just branding, and the Atlantic Yards development – pigheaded, wasteful and, to reiterate, mind-bendingly grandiose – remains emblematic of a mindset more concerned with greenbacks than green building. So credit where it’s due on the carbon neutral game…but at the risk of sounding sour, let’s remember that there’s very little sustainable about throwing up 16 new buildings (LEED Silver or no) in a neighborhood that doesn’t much want them.

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Posted by steve at 6:16 AM

March 28, 2008

Yard Work

The Brian Lehrer Show
WNYC Radio

A 17-minute segment from yesterday's Brian Lehrer Show, featuring Crain's New York editor Greg David and WNYC's Matthew Schuerman comparing and contrasting the Yards Atlantic and Hudson.

Download MP3

link

Posted by eric at 10:51 AM

Is arena facing all new review?

The Brooklyn Paper
By Gersh Kuntzman

Might the proposed Nets arena have to go back to the Public Authorities Control Board for approval because the cost of the arena has grown from $637.2 million to $950 million since is was approved just 15 months ago?

“The reason the PACB exists is to look at the entirety of the financing package for this project,” said Lawrence Schillinger, a lawyer for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.

“A 50-percent increase in the cost of the arena substantially changes the financials of the project.”

Another DDDB lawyer, Jeff Baker, agreed, saying that the PACB’s approval of the project in December, 2006 assumed a 7.6-percent profit for the developer.

If his costs have skyrocketed, that profit will be smaller — making it less likely that the project is economically viable and will not require additional government subsidies to make it work.

“As such,” Baker said, “the PACB needs to review it again.”

Both lawyers said they were willing to take the matter to court, but, for now, were more interested in making their argument in “the court of public opinion,” Schillinger said.

“People need to look at how government spends money,” he said.

“This kind of bonding scheme is exactly what the state did 30 years ago. We don’t want to repeat those mistakes.”

Link

Posted by steve at 5:30 AM

March 27, 2008

Subprime Crisis Sends Ripples Through Sports World

The Business of Sport
The NY Sun
by Evan Weiner

The financial crisis has definitely had an affect on Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. He still plans to build an arena for his New Jersey Nets franchise, but the scale of the project has been cut down because of financing —or, more specifically, the lack of widely available money for an office tower and three residential buildings on the 22-acre parcel at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.

Ratner’s project started in 2004 and gained state approval in 2006. The arena was scheduled to