While basketball fans will be greeted by some of the best site lines of any American arena, from the looks of interior renderings of the forthcoming Barclays Center released yesterday by Nets officials, those who aren’t keen on the game will enjoy some impressive sites of their own, the New York Post reported.
The arena, set to open at the Atlantic Yards in September 2012, will feature a grand atrium, wide concourses with views of a practice court and several unique lounges and bars. [more]
The plan that initially called for a new basketball arena, 16 residential and office buildings, affordable housing and parkland in Atlantic Yards, could be down to just a basketball arena. And that’s just one of the challenges facing Forest City Ratner, according to the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. The Post reported that the developer filed documents with the SEC that said due to rising construction costs and financing rates, and the arena’s inability to find a sponsor, non-arena aspects of the 22-acre project could experience further delays and may be abandoned altogether. Forest City Ratner reported being at risk of losing $525 million on the project. [more]
Newark’s first new hotel in close to four decades — a Courtyard by Marriott adjacent to the Prudential Center — broke ground yesterday and is slated for completion by the summer of 2012. Mayor Cory Booker was on hand to celebrate, alongside the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils, who call the Prudential Center home, and Tucker Development, which is heading up the project. The Prudential Center, affectionately known as “the Rock,” opened in 2007 and hosts some 200 events per year. It’s also temporarily home to the Nets basketball team as they await the completion of their Barclays Center arena in Atlantic Yards. TRD Comments
Prime 6, a bar set to open in May at the corner of Flatbush and Sixth avenues, one block from the Nets’ forthcoming Atlantic Yards arena in Brooklyn, caught flack from Community Board 6 yesterday for a 46-seat outdoor patio it intends to keep open, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Owner Akiva Ofshtein secured a liquor license, which permits alcohol service until 4 a.m., but neighbors fear a rowdy post-Nets game scene and want the patio closed by midnight on weekends. [more]
Bruce Ratner wants to construct the world’s tallest prefabricated structure at the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn, according to the New York Times. The 34-story proposed tower would include 400 affordable apartment units, fulfilling a promise Ratner made when he took over the site. [more]
While Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner has said it hopes to break ground this year on a long-delayed 400-unit residential tower slated for the Downtown Brooklyn project, a company spokesperson says that goal may be a ways off, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Forest City Ratner currently doesn’t have the funding lined up to start the project, the spokesperson said, and that may distort the developer’s timeline for the project. “We hope to release designs in late spring or early summer and still hope to break ground this year,” the spokesperson said. As previously reported, the developer has, however, picked an architect for the residential structure: SHoP Architects, the same company that designed the Barclays Center arena at the Atlantic Yards development. [Brooklyn Paper]
The New Jersey Nets basketball team may have had the worst record in the league last year, but new owner and Atlantic Yards benefactor Mikhail Prokhorov said he’s determined to reverse the failing team’s course, according to Bloomberg News. The Russian oligarch, who paid Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner $200 million in exchange for an 80 percent sake in the team, flew the Nets out to Moscow and met with them yesterday. The billionaire businessman has already proved to be a hit among the team members, with point guard Devin Harris eager to glean information from Prokhorov. “It’s not just that he’s Russian,” Harris said. “He’s proven to be the bet in pretty much anything that he’s touched and he has a feel for the game.” [Bloomberg]
While Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian oligarch who’s heavily invested in the Atlantic Yards development, is hailed by many local NBA enthusiasts, Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi thinks New York City fans might want to rethink their support. In this video from Fox Business News, Taibbi says it’s “unbelievable” to him that Prokhorov is “being celebrated as this great guy,” noting his widely reported, sketchy business dealings in the past.
Xanadu, the $2 billion stalled retail and entertainment project in East Rutherford, N.J. is expected to land back in the hands of its creditors after an Aug. 9 financing deadline, according to the Wall Street Journal. Behind the nearly-complete project, which stalled in early 2009 not long after the collapse of its original lender, Lehman Brothers Holdings, is a group of developers led by Colony Capital. The group had been negotiating with Stephen Ross’s the Related Companies, among other potential partners, to help finish the complex, which is adjacent to the New Jersey Nets’ current home at the IZOD Center. Now that creditors are poised to take over, sources say that Related is in direct talks with the project’s lenders. A state commission also recently recommended state financing to help complete construction. [WSJ]
From left: the Barclays Center construction site in May and in June (source: Brownstoner)While ground broke on the new Barclays Arena at the Atlantic Yards development in Downtown Brooklyn three months ago, little progress has been made on the construction site, according to Brownstoner. The Brooklyn blog is tracking the development’s progress month-to-month — both photos from the soon-to-be-home of the Nets show little change. The 18,000-seat arena is slated to open for the 2012 basketball season. [Brownstoner]
