NEW YORK | Pacific Park Brooklyn (Atlantic Yards) | 15+ Towers

[NYC4Life]

Such a sellout, perhaps he only held up to receive that large sum of money. His next stop: Willets Point.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Scruffy

I honestly thought the holdouts were going to win for a while.

They were never going to win this. It was only a matter of how much damage they could do to Ratner and the redevelopment (some admitted as much), and to some extent they were successful. Time is money, and Goldstein managed to hold the project up long enough. Since the arena needs to be ready in a couple of years and he was the last holdout, he got paid nicely.

Originally Posted by NYC4Life

His next stop: Willets Point.

Really, that should be his next "crusade". I'm not sure they would want his help though.

[NYguy]

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/nets/...6PTGpkFCJKQGSI

NBA: Expect Prokhorov to take Nets reins in May

By FRED KERBER
April 23, 2010

Soon ... not as soon as some suspect ... but soon.

Like less than three weeks soon.

That's when Russian billionaire Mikhail is expected to take over ownership of the Nets, an NBA spokesman said yesterday.

With the vacant possession issue resolved and all pertinent tenants and businesses due out of the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards site by May, the league expects Prokhorov to be approved "by the middle of the month [of May],'' the league said.

Prokhorov needs the approval of the Board of Governors, a foregone conclusion. The board does not need to gather to vote and could do so by teleconference. Approval might lead to Prokhorov sitting on the dais at the May 18 lottery.

______________________________________________


http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/...g_sellout.html

A great big sellout: Atlantic Yards opponent made out like a bandit

Editorials
April 24th 2010

The community activist who led the long, doomed and destructive fight against Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards project has made out like a bandit. Daniel Goldstein settled with the project's developer for a whopping $3 million.

After all of Goldstein's costly obstructionism, it is a wonder builder Bruce Ratner agreed to give him a penny more than Goldstein would be legally due on eviction from the condo he bought in 2003 for $595,000.

Instead, Goldstein walked away with five times his purchase price while portraying himself as a noble victim of evil forces who would never be silenced and blah, blah, blah. "Thank you, kind sir" did not enter the picture.

Ratner's payoff to Goldstein illustrates one of the little-told stories about the Atlantic Yards project. While some residents and owners, such as Goldstein, were railing that they were losing homes and businesses to eminent domain, Ratner was quietly reaching very generous accommodations with hundreds of others.

And now Ratner has done so with Goldstein - the lead plaintiff on a blizzard of junk lawsuits, all of which failed.

Goldstein and his band did not change New York's eminent domain laws or substantiate lurid claims of corruption in state government.

All he managed to do was to slow Ratner from bringing the basketball Nets to Brooklyn in a new arena, stave off groundbreaking for thousands of units of affordable housing and kill thousands of construction jobs.

And, oh, yeah, self-righteous to the end, Goldstein also hit a personal jackpot that should give pause to all his followers.

[NYguy]

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownston...lays_watch.php

Barclay's Watch: Deep Dig



April 26, 2010

The ink's barely dry on the Goldstein buyout agreement but the foundation dig is already well underway at the site of the future Barclays Center. The question is now whether this deep hole they're digging is a metaphor for the entire project. (You sure could fit a lot of taxpayer dollars in a pit that size!) As you may recall, the official groundbreaking was back on March 11th. We'll be documenting this one closely

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/sp...27nets.html?hp

Russian Billionaire Is White Knight for the Nets


Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who is expected to take control of the Nets, in his Moscow office.

By HOWARD BECK
April 26, 2010

Mikhail D. Prokhorov has a net worth of $17.8 billion, enough to buy every team in the National Basketball Association, stock them with All-Stars and take them on a world tour aboard his 200-foot yacht.

...The 44-year-old Prokhorov, the second-richest man in Russia, is expected to assume control of the woebegone Nets within the next few weeks. It may be the most anticipated ownership change in N.B.A. history.

His arrival is inspiring hope and wonder, a timely distraction from the Nets’ catastrophic 70-loss season.

Creating interest may prove to be the easy part. Prokhorov must rebuild an atrophied roster and revive a dispirited fan base, even as the Nets awkwardly straddle two cities. They will move to Newark in the fall and, eventually, to a $1 billion arena in Brooklyn, where Prokhorov’s team will directly compete with the Knicks — and their maladroit owner, James L. Dolan — for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers.

...“If Mikhail’s personality matches his wallet and he is available to Nets fans, they will love him and come to the games in droves,” the Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said in an e-mail message.

If there is an owner’s guide for fusing passion and prosperity, Cuban wrote it.

...In a YouTube video that was professionally shot and put to music, Prokhorov performs aerial stunts on a Jet Ski. When a “60 Minutes” interview veered into sensitive areas, like his 2007 run-in with the French police over suspected prostitution, Prokhorov defused the tension with humor and an impish smile.

All of this sets Prokhorov apart from his new rival in New York. Dolan, the chairman of Madison Square Garden, which owns the Knicks, is older, shorter and unathletic, with a gravelly voice and a gruff demeanor. While Prokhorov rides a Jet Ski, Dolan sings lead for J.D. and the Straight Shot — “a barely O.K. blues-rock cover band,” according to a Boston Herald review.

Where Prokhorov is light-hearted and self-effacing, Dolan is defensive and inarticulate in interviews, when he chooses to do them at all. He has not taken questions from reporters since March 2007.

At Knicks games, Dolan slouches in a baseline seat, arms crossed, looking uninterested. Prokhorov was generally out of public view at CSKA’s home games. But during the Euroleague final four, he would sit courtside, wearing a CSKA jersey, hopping and cheering with the rest of the club’s fans.

...It remains to be seen what kind of owner Prokhorov will be in the N.B.A. He has said he will attend a significant number of Nets games and spend some time in New York. How often and how much he will engage with players, fans and reporters is unknown.

But on the N.B.A. spectrum, where Cuban anchors one extreme (engaged, outspoken, accessible) and Denver’s Stan Kroenke anchors the other (reclusive, distant), Prokhorov figures to be somewhere in the middle, but leaning toward Cuban.

New York’s basketball loyalties are surely up for grabs. The Knicks have not had a winning record in nine years and have no definable personality. The Nets have been slightly better, the past season notwithstanding.

In the battle to resurrect the Nets, establish basketball in Brooklyn and realign the city’s basketball loyalties, Prokhorov will surely need to flex his financial muscle. He also may need every ounce of his exotic charm and his passion for the sport.

[NYguy]

http://brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/..._04_30_bk.html

Ratner exec: Goldstein was in it for the money!

By Stephen Brown
April 28, 2010

Forest City Ratner officials abandoned their diplomatic talk on Tuesday to explicitly portray Daniel Goldstein, who ended his long holdout in the Atlantic Yards footprint for $3 million last week, as an opportunist looking to make as much money as possible.

Countering Goldstein’s own statements that the sticking point over last week’s negotiations was his refusal to sign away his right to criticize the project in the future, Forest City Ratner Executive Vice President MaryAnne Gilmartin told us that last week’s final negotiations did not bog down due to Goldstein’s refusal to sign a “gag order,” but simply over how much money he could get out of developer Bruce Ratner.

“The sticking point was how much money he wanted,” Gilmartin said.

A source close to negotiations reinforced that claim by saying that Goldstein had actually pushed for $5 million at one point during negotiations.

Goldstein and his lawyer, Michael Rikon, said that both claims were patently false.

...Goldstein is hastily stowing away his belongings so he can move out of his Pacific Street condo by the May 7 deadline imposed by the settlement.

While taking a break from packing, Goldstein said he was looking forward to some time away from the spotlight.

“I’ll be moving on from this fight without losing sight of it,” Goldstein said, adding, “Though the spotlight will move away from this project, the next phase will last longer than the fight against it.”

But Goldstein hinted that he would not be vanishing from public life. He said he remained committed to advocating for reform of New York’s eminent domain laws, and said that he had casually considered running for elected office someday.

“I’ve thought about it,” Goldstein said. “But this was a six- or seven-year political campaign.”

[BrandonJXN]

Why does Barclays Center look like one of those old See and Say toys?

[ardecila]

+

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by NYguy

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-es...dout-no-longer

Freddy’s Bar an Atlantic Yards Holdout No Longer

By Eliot Brown
April 19, 2010

Photos of the last night, from threecee

April 30, 2010 was the last night of Freddy's Bar at their current location inside the Atlantic Yards footprint. This bar, and every other building on this block, will be demolished for the Barclays Center Arena.

[NYguy]

hunter.gatherer

[NYguy]

You can't make this stuff up... (well, you can, but its more fun this way)

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/b...EGEgh5zBOHkQ7L
Raze the stakes
New 'last' holdouts vs. Nets arena



SURPRISE! These people, who would not identify themselves, are still living at 481 Dean St., on the site of the Atlantic Yards development.

By JEANE MacINTOSH and RICH CALDER
May 4, 2010

And everyone thought Daniel Goldstein was the last holdout.

Developers of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project were thrown for a loop after a family emerged from a worn-down Brooklyn building last week -- and demanded more money to get out of the way of bulldozers ready to raze the block, several sources close to the project said.

The holdouts, who lease apartments at 481 Dean St. in Prospect Heights, are asking for at least $170,000 more to move out of the footprint of the Nets' new basketball arena.

"They saw that man got all that money last week and thought, why should they leave?" said a relative of Aisha Ahmed, whose ex-husband bought the building in 1988.

Goldstein made headlines last month after he took a $3 million buyout to leave his Pacific Street condo after a six-year battle with developer Forest City Ratner.

Neither the developers nor officials from the Empire State Development Corp. were aware anyone was still living in the Dean Street home, according to two people close to the deal. "These people were elusive -- we didn't even know about them until last week," a source said.

Aisha Ahmed had previously agreed to a move-out deal with Ratner, according to sources. But now her two children have stepped forward to claim that they, too, should be considered leaseholders -- who have been getting $85,000 to relocate.

And the developers were under the impression that the building owner, Naseer Ahmed, had sold the property months ago.

But there is no record of a final sale on file with the city Finance Department. That's because, sources said, the state never got access to appraise the property.

None of the Ahmeds returned calls yesterday. A rep for the ESDC declined comment. A Ratner spokesperson said it had worked with the Dean Street tenants to provide relocation payouts.

Late yesterday, it appeared that some sort of agreement had been reached.

"There's no more problem," a teen bringing a pizza back to the house told a reporter. "We're leaving on May 7th."

[NYguy]

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/brookl...647i3N2hVjndFL

It's game over for Nets Arena holdout Goldstein

May 5, 2010
By RICH CALDER

__

Here’s Brooklyn’s new $3 million man packing up his belongings and fleeing his longtime hood to pave way for Nets basketball.

Daniel Goldstein, the longtime Atlantic Yards project holdout who last month accepted a $3 million settlement from developer Bruce Ratner that allows an NBA arena to be built, freaked out today outside his now-former Prospect Heights home after the Post photographed him watching movers pack his belongings into two large vans.

Goldstein, while holding his young daughter Sita in a baby carrier, got so furious that he yelled, "It’s a private street! Get off, or I’ll call the cops," said photographer Benny Stumbo. However, Stumbo said he had already gotten permission to shoot in front of the soon-to-be demolished condo complex at 636 Pacific Street from a security guard watching the fenced-up block for Ratner.

Goldstein later declined to comment.

Goldstein settled with Ratner to turn over his three-bedroom apartment by Friday after his block was officially seized through eminent domain by the state, making it only a matter of time before he was evicted. He paid $590,000 for the condo in 2003, and, along the way, married another project opponent, Shabnam Merchant.

The couple has said they plan to remain in Brooklyn and continue to be part of the fight against the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project, although Goldstein has agreed through the settlement to give up his title as spokesman of the opposition group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. His payout was nearly $2 million more than what he could have taken six years ago to get out. The blog Atlantic Yards Report has reported that more than $600,000 of Goldstein’s profits will have to go towards paying off legal fees.

Meanwhile, Ratner may have a new main nemisis.

As the Post web site first reported yesterday, real estate mogul Peter Williams says he owns air rights above part of the site of the planned Nets arena and that the project can’t be completed until the issue is settled.

He filed a suit accusing the state of failing to address his air rights when condemning property for the project, but says he’s ready to sell to Ratner or anyone for the right price.

Williams told the Post he was contacted by project opponents who are in the process of raising money to buy the air rights before Ratner can. He declined to give his asking price but said he’d "prefer" to sell to the opponents because he considers Ratner a "bully."

The opponents, he said, could then take over the court challege. If the court sides with Williams or the opponents, it could take up to two years for the state to be able to condemn the air rights and clear the way for the project -- time that Ratner doesn’t have.

The project nearly fell apart over earlier legal delays, and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s anticipated purchase of the Nets from Ratner is contingent on all the property being free and clear of any hurdles. Ratner declined comment, but the Empire State Development Corp. said it’s not concerned.

"This lawsuit is entirely without merit; rather, it is a poorly veiled attempt to obtain further compensation from the state and from Forest City Ratner Companies," an agency statement said. "We will vigorously defend this lawsuit, we will have it dismissed, and we will consider seeking sanctions against Mr. Williams and his attorney. We do not anticipate that this lawsuit will delay the Atlantic Yards project in any respect."

[BStyles]

God, I hate this arena design so much. Please redesign it before it's too late!

The last time the NYPD stepped in, we got a beautiful tapered skyscraper being built in lower manhattan...maybe they'll find something wrong with this one.

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-es...tner-prokhorov

NBA Approves Nets Sale From Ratner to Prokhorov

By Eliot Brown
May 11, 2010

Bruce Ratner's tenure at the top of an NBA team is over.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was just approved as the Nets' new owner by the NBA's board of commissioners, according to a statement sent out by the NBA.

This ends a more than six-year stretch for Mr. Ratner, the Brooklyn-based developer whose Nets sunk to nearly the worst record in NBA history this season as he struggled to begin the project that attracted him to the Nets in the first place: Atlantic Yards, the planned $4.9 billion Brooklyn mixed-use development that holds a new Nets arena as a centerpiece.

Construction has finally begun on the arena, and last week, the holdout who had led so much of the fervent opposition to the project for years, Daniel Goldstein, moved out after the state claimed his land and he settled with Mr. Ratner for $3 million.

It's indeed a new era for Brooklyn, as the chapter of fighting and opposition has come to a close, clearing the way for a less dynamic narrative of construction.

Here's the statement sent out by the NBA:

"We are pleased that the NBA's Board of Governors approved Mikhail Prokhorov's purchase of majority ownership of the Nets, welcoming into the NBA ownership ranks the league's first majority investor from outside of North America," said NBA Commissioner David Stern. "We anticipate that his passion for the game and business acumen will be of considerable value not only to the Nets franchise but to the entire NBA."

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-es...seal-deal-nets

Prokhorov, Ratner Seal Deal for Nets

By Eliot Brown
May 12, 2010

Per the announcement, the deal for the $900 million arena is now fully financed (Mr. Ratner apparently raised new financing needed to complete the deal), and the $510 million in tax-free bonds have been released from escrow.

Mr. Prokhorov's statement is below:

"This much-anticipated day has finally come and now the real fun begins of building a championship team with a state-of-the-art home in the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards. It's a wonderful opportunity to combine great sports and good business, and I look forward to working with Bruce Ratner and Forest City and with the Nets organization as we move ahead. To the fans, whether in New Jersey, Brooklyn, or Moscow, I will do everything I can to give you a winning team. See you at the Draft Lottery."

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...erg_jay_z.html

New Jersey Nets' Mikhail Prokhorov dines with Mayor Bloomberg and Jay-Z, talks of renaming team



BY Erin Durkin and Julian Garcia
May 19th 2010

Mikhail Prokhorov is a man with tsar power.

The new Russian owner of the Nets made a Steinbrenner-esque splash in his New York debut Wednesday, publicly dumping GM Kiki Vandeweghe without sentiment, sorrow or a heads-up to Vandeweghe.

"His agreement expires in the summer, and I wish him well," Prokhorov said abruptly of Vandeweghe, who was in Chicago to evaluate players for the upcoming NBA draft.

Prokhorov, with a net worth of $13.4 billion, immersed himself in the city with stops in Manhattan, the Bronx and his team's future home in Brooklyn.

The Nets are due there in a new downtown arena for the 2012 season opener.

The 6-foot-8 owner shared a Gracie Mansion breakfast with Mayor Bloomberg and Nets minority owner Jay-Z.

"We are soul mates," he said of the hip-hop mogul. "I'm looking forward to hanging out with him."

He visited the new Yankee Stadium, followed Vandeweghe with his own WFAN-AM interview later in the day and dined at the River Cafe.

Prokhorov even showed a decent sense of humor, doing his best Rodney Dangerfield impersonation for reporters at the Four Seasons Hotel.

"For me, it's a great pleasure to be here as the new owner of the Nets, the team with the best record in the whole NBA," he deadpanned. "Was I misinformed?"

The bachelor oligarch, who officially took control of the team last week, jokingly asked Bloomberg if he'd like to take over as new coach of the NBA's worst team.

Prokhorov even kidded that he might rechristen the team after his ever-evolving roster of girlfriends.

"Every time I change [girlfriends], I change the name [of the team]," the 45-year-old Russian quipped.

TOURING NETS' FUTURE HOME

From there, Prokhorov headed to the Bronx for a tour of Yankee Stadium and an interview with WFAN's Mike Francesa.

Because of his tight schedule and plans to fly back to Russia Wednesday night, Prokhorov didn't stick around for the Bombers' game against Tampa Bay - not that he had any interest.

"I don't understand much of baseball," he said.

Prokhorov toured the site of the Nets' future home in Brooklyn with Bruce Ratner, the Atlantic Yards developer who sold him 80% of the team for $200 million.

The two then headed to the River Cafe for dinner beneath the Brooklyn Bridge with Nets CEO Brett Yormark and other business executives.

Prokhorov promised to turn the Nets into a global brand and said moving the team to Brooklyn will help him achieve that dream.

"Brooklyn is home for everyone from everywhere," he said - except, apparently, for Vandeweghe.

Prokhorov does intend to make the borough a destination for the NBA's top players, including free agents LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

How, exactly?

"I have my own secret," he said confidently.

__________________________


http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/...nyet_nyet.html
N-E-T-S, nyet nyet nyet: A great basketball team needs a great new name

Editorials
May 20th 2010

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who last week bought the Brooklyn-bound NBA Nets, made his first important pronouncement yesterday: He is contemplating a name change.

No, not from "Prokhorov" - that suits him just fine. From "Nets," which, let's be honest, doesn't suit a New York City basketball team. The word has as much bounce and energy as a dead ball.

You don't call a baseball team the "bats."

You don't call a football team the "goalposts."

Especially not when the team is going to be anchored somewhere as tough, invigorating and full of life as is Brooklyn, New York, a go-getter place that does not idly wait for things to drop in while others play the game.

Especially when the current name is attached to a franchise that has wallowed in ignominy - yes, ignominy (get out your thesaurus, if you must) - for lo these many years.

After a 12-70 season in which you don't even manage to win the draft lottery, despite having the most ping pong balls, it's time to cleanse the palate. Start from scratch.

There's a new owner, who is something of a world beater. There's a new arena on the rise. Let it not be haunted by ghosts of seasons past.

Let there be new uniforms, new colors, new stars (Constellation LeBron, perhaps) - and a new name.

Definitely a new name.

Cut down the Nets.

And be reborn.

The best minds in any sports bar could figure out something better.

You can be sure the result will outdo the lame contest that yielded the Wizards in Washington. What were they thinking? That was only a half-step more inspiring than naming the team "The Washington Lobbyists."

Imagine the debates. Would it be sacrilege to hear an announcer cry, "Now returning to Brooklyn after more than a half-century, the Dodgers"? Or would that provoke pure joy?

Let's see what bubbles to the top of the lager.

[nycdagreatest]

they definetely need a name change once their arena opens, maybe they could go with the brooklyn finest or brooklyn barons

[nycdagreatest]

I prefer that they have "New York" in their team name it makes them sound big time,big city, bright lights "Brooklyn" makes them sound small and dingy

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by nycdagreatest

I prefer that they have "New York" in their team name it makes them sound big time,big city, bright lights "Brooklyn" makes them sound small and dingy

Not really. Everyone knows Brooklyn is the big time. For years Brooklyn had the Brooklyn Dodgers (now obviously the LA Dodgers). It was suggested in the Post that Brooklyn take the Dodgers name back, in renaming the Nets. Also, lets not forget if you broke up the boroughs, Brooklyn would be the third largest city in the country.

[Seat24inNJ]

Originally Posted by nycdagreatest

I prefer that they have "New York" in their team name it makes them sound big time,big city, bright lights "Brooklyn" makes them sound small and dingy

You know what. You are right. Brooklyn does make them seem small and somewhat insignifigant if you go with that name. New York is the better choice. ....... But knowing Jay-Z having a stake in the team, he'll throw is 10% share of his idea in and it'll be Brooklyn probably