Oral arguments began at the New York Court of Appeals yesterday, over whether it’s constitutional for the state to seize private homes and businesses to make way for the Atlantic Yards project. According to the New York Daily News, the Court of Appeals judges appeared skeptical of the project opponents’ argument. Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman noted that the state may be within its rights to take the land because the language used in defining eminent domain laws has evolved over time. “Doesn’t public use have a pretty broad standard today?” Lippman said. “It’s not where it was 50, 60 years ago.” Developer Bruce Ratner has faced community opposition at nearly every phase of the project, as he races to make the Dec. 31 deadline for tax-exempt financing.

The richest man in Russia has expressed interest in buying the New Jersey Nets, offering to fund the basketball team’s proposed new arena at Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development. Under the current proposal, metal tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov said that his holding company, Onexim, would provide $200 million in financing for the construction of the new Nets arena and that, in exchange, he would become the controlling shareholder for the Nets team, according to the Associated Press and the New York Times. However, the ultimate goal of providing construction financing, according to Prokhorov, extends far beyond dollars and cents. Through access to the team “Russia would achieve a position of equality among the elites in the world of basketball,” Prokhorov said.
Prokhorov wrote on his blog yesterday that he wants to become involved with the project hoping “that NBA technology can be used for the systematic development of basketball in Russia,” according to the English translation by a Russian-speaking volunteer with Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, a non-profit organization that has been outspoken in its criticism of the Atlantic Yards project. See the full translation after the jump. [more]

Yesterday the office of Bruce Ratner, Atlantic Yards developer and Forest City Ratner Companies CEO, released renderings of a new design for the stadium he hopes to develop at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. As so often in New York, it represents an odd, even cynical, compromise. You may recall that the original stadium, a shimmering and iconic titanium mirage, was designed by Frank Gehry. Immediately controversial and expensive, it divided New York between those who opposed it in the name of preserving Brooklyn’s small-town spirit and those who loudly endorsed it in the name of progressive architecture. All of that was rendered moot, however, when Gehry was unceremoniously fired from the development back in June. Whatever one thought of his design — and some of us thought very little of it — at least it had guts and personality to spare. (See rendering of the new space after the jump.) [more]

The New Jersey Nets plan to
break ground for an arena at the Atlantic Yards site this year, and say
the team will be able to play there starting in the 2011-2012 basketball
season, according to Bruce Ratner, Nets owner and chairman and CEO of Forest City
Ratner. Ratner said the state appeals court ruling cleared the way for
construction of the complex that includes the $800 million arena.
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the opposing group, plans to appeal the
decision.