Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

The Brooklyn Paper plays catch-up and cheerleader

The Brooklyn Paper plays catch-up and cheerleader, in a July 10 article headlined Even without Lebron, Nets have a foundation in Brooklyn:
The first concrete sign of the Barclays Center is now in place — builders have begun to lay the foundation of the arena at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.

The construction milestone came on the eve of the New Jersey Nets’ failure to land Lebron James — but is still seen as a major step forward for the Brooklyn-bound team.
(Emphasis added)

Is still seen? By the issuer of the press release, at least. Most other commentators are pointing out that the Nets lost big this past week.

Timing issues

That announcement came June 29--well before the NBA free-agent merry-go-round--and so did the court hearing also cited in the article:
Lawyers for the opposition reargued their claim last week that a longer construction timetable for the project was withheld from a judge to get a favorable ruling.
The Brooklyn Paper didn't bother to send a reporter to the hearing, but linked to my coverage.

It wasn't simply that the Development Agreement was withheld in the court case; it was that the deadlines in the document, had they been seriously considered by the Empire State Development Corporation board, would have triggered another look at the projected ten-year buildout.

Comments