Just go to Newark already! Huge hit for the Rat.... Atlantic Yards Grounbreaking on Pause for 6 Months Eminent domain lawsuit allowed to go forward by Matthew Schuerman NEW YORK, NY September 29, 2008 —The Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court decided to allow buisness owners and residetns to sue the massive real estate project in central Brooklyn. WNYC's Mathew Schuerman has more. While the plaintiffs lost a similar case in federal court, the state proceedings will delay the project right as a recession is threatening. The project's developer, Forest City Ratner, had announced that a groundbreaking on the Barclays Center basketball arena would take place by the end of this year. But a ground can't be broken before the project secures financing, and the financing won't come before all litigation is resolved. In an official statement today, the developer, Forest City Ratner, says it is confident it will build the arena. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--atlanticyards-law0930sep30,0,7677076.story
sorry - on the netsdaily front page with a few more articles http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/110940
A crap... another delay in moving to Brooklyn. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--atlanticyards-law0930sep30,0,7677076.story Wonder how the economy will effect his project. -Petey
Re: A crap... another delay in moving to Brooklyn. N_e_w_a_r_k...............now! N_e_w_a_r_k...............now! N_e_w_a_r_k...............now! N_e_w_a_r_k...............now! N_e_w_a_r_k...............now! N_e_w_a_r_k...............now! N_e_w_a_r_k...............now!
Welcome to S2 BabaBooey! Sure you'll love it here. Don't forget to invite your pals regardless of what team or sport they root for! -Petey
Re: A crap... another delay in moving to Brooklyn. Yes, thanks, it was posted in the AM. I'm slowest then. -Petey
More good news for Newark! http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2008/09/wall_street_crisis_puts_nets_f.html Wall Street crisis puts Nets' future Brooklyn home in jeopardy by Ian T. Shearn and George E. Jordan/The Star-Ledger Tuesday September 30, 2008, 7:10 PM Four months ago, Goldman Sachs assured all financing would be in place for a $950 million professional basketball arena in Brooklyn by today. Bruce Ratner, owner of the New Jersey Nets and developer of the ambitious, $4 billion Atlantic Yards project, said he was "inches away from completing the deal." That was before prestigious investment firms started to fall and credit markets went into full-scale panic, triggering a financial crisis on Wall Street unseen since the Great Depression. Tuesday, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs offered only a "no comment" when asked about the financing for the nearly $950 million arena, fueling persistent doubts about the viability of Ratner's plan, which has been systematically downscaled and delayed since it was first rolled out more than four years ago. The latest setback came Monday, when Ratner said that ongoing legal disputes had again pushed back ground breaking for the arena, Originally slated to open in 2006, and most recently in 2010, it will now not be ready before 2011. For his part, Ratner remains resolute. "Atlantic Yards will be built and it will create thousands of needed jobs and affordable homes," Ratner said in a prepared statement. "This is all the more important as our city and country confront one of the most difficult economic downturns in history." Atlantic Yards -- 16 skyscrapers, an 18,000-seat basketball arena for the Nets, and thousands of apartments at a site at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues -- has been delayed by a string of legal challenges and questions about financing. That leaves the Nets playing at the aging Izod Center in the Meadowlands for at least the next three years, which will perpetuate competition with the Prudential Center hockey arena in Newark. The latest delay may complicate the $400 million naming-rights deal with Barclays Bank, which is expected to help offset the cost of the arena, according to published reports. The deal with Barclays was contingent on Ratner's financing for the project to be in place by the end of November. Neither Barclays nor the Nets responded to email requests for interviews. A New York appellate court last week refused to dismiss a lawsuit by nine property owners in the footprint of the project challenging the use of eminent domain. The court rejected a motion to throw out the case by the Empire State Development Corp., whose spokesman, Warner Johnston, declined comment. Opponents in Brooklyn object to both its size and the use of eminent domain by the state to make way for the project. Candace Carponter, legal director of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, said the Wall Street crisis, pending court case and questions about tax-exempt bonds mean the project may never be built. "The plan is now in doubt," she said in a statement. Lawrence Swift, a partner at Troutman Sanders, a Manhattan law firm that specializes in sports facility financing and other large transactions, said the use of tax-exempt bonds could make or break Atlantic Yards arena. The meltdown on Wall Street, he said, has prompted major banks to high fees that dramatically raise the cost of conventional loans. However, tax-exempt bonds backed by the city and state would be attractive to wealthy investors looking to exit the volatile stock market. "It could go ahead, the financing could be there," Swift said. "You also have people buying into it for PR reasons to support the city or concept." Ratner is also awaiting a critical Internal Revenue Service ruling on whether the arena in Atlantic Yards is eligible for $800 million in tax-exempt bonds to finance construction of the arena, according to Atlantic Yards officials.
I've said this before. There's just as good a chance they will move to Seattle or Kansas City or wherever as Newark, if not more chance. Ratner will sell the second the deal dies and he doesn't care where the team winds up at all. The Nets are just a means to an end for him. The NBA does not want the team in NJ and will encourage him to sell to interests elsewhere.
I agree, but I don't think Stern would be too excited about Seattle considering the bad blood between the NBA and the city right now.
I disagree - there is a beautiful arena in Newark that is state of he art and easy to get to - the NEts would draw huge is they were in Newark. Also Newark is willing to give the Rat some sweetheart land deals to entice him to come that othr venues will not - I predict the Nets will be in Newark by 2010. Pru Center will not survive with just the Devils - its a perfect match.
It's a reach. It's brooklyn or bust with these guys, but if they stay in Jersey, it would be moronical to stay at the IZOD Center
