Commercial Observer interviewees: the arena has kinda helped some but not too many nearby businesses

Barclays Center Set to Allow Limited Attendance for Brooklyn Nets Games, the Commercial Observer offered 2/22/21, saying it "renews focus on whether the arena has sparked economic benefits for Brooklyn eight and a half years since its debut."

The answer was mixed, even though the interviewees came from the real estate world.

Timothy King of SVN CPEX Real Estate said the arena has helped some food-and-beverage purveyors nearby--sure--while others farther away lost out. 

Ofer Cohen of TerraCRG said the new housing has helped restaurants whether or not there's a game. OK, but does that make up for the increased rent? (Also, News 12 quoted various nearby restaurant owners, also hoping for foot traffic.)

About Triangle Sports

Cohen's company sold the former Triangle Sports Building at 182 Flatbush for $4.1 million in 2012 and then $7 million in 2019 "despite no improvements being made" but also--I'd add--no use other than for exterior advertising. 

That may not have been much of a profit, depending on the interest rate, as I wrote. More importantly, what does it say when a retail building that close to the arena goes unused?

Food helps, doesn't

The article cites the arena's Brooklyn Taste program, which Jamar White of Buffalo Boss Organic Wings & Things said helped him expand.

Longtime local landlord Michael Pintchik said two tenants, the fast-food chains Shake Shack and Chick-fil-A, are doing well on Flatbush Avenue across from the arena. Still, he cited the arena's initial "relatively unfriendly"--if understandable--tactic in which Nets season ticket holders early on got unlimited food options, thus tamping down resteaurant business.

New construction coming

“We’re bullish enough on the area that we are starting some new construction projects on Flatbush Avenue that are within a few blocks of the arena,” Pintchik said. 

Keep in mind that his company has a far lower base cost for property, so it would make more sense for them to start than for others that have entered in the last few years. Around Brooklyn and the city, we see some overleveraged landlords and developers in danger of losing their properties to lenders.

No official word

Reporter Andrew Coen tried:

The Empire State Development Corporation owns the Barclays Center through its public entity called the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation. The ESDC press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on economic benefits the arena has brought to Brooklyn.
...The Barclays Center press office did not respond to requests for comment on the economic impact of the arena on the local community.

That, I suspect, is because they don't have a good canned answer. Also: what's the boundary of the "community" at issue?