Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

I missed this predictable but fatuous quote from the 2/19/16 edition of Stephen Witt's Kings County Politics , upon the opening of the Brooklyn Nets' new practice and training facility at Industry City in Sunset Park: “I’m looking forward to watching the Brooklyn Nets rock it, both, on-the-court and off-the-court with our local Sunset Park community youth and families,” said [local Council Member Carlos] Menchaca. “I have a bet that as they rise as national champions, it will be a reflection of their sustained commitment to our local youth, inspiring them to not only be future players but one day owners of teams like the Brooklyn Nets. #SiSePuede” It will be "a reflection of this sustained commitment to our local youth"? Success on the court has to do with savvy leadership, including coaching and recruitment, not the window-dressing of spinoff charity.

On Thursday, 6/26/14, the Brooklyn Nets formally announced plans to renovate a Sunset Park warehouse on Industry City on 39th Street into a rooftop practice facility, the awkwardly named (because they have to sell naming rights) Hospital for Special Surgery Training Center. It's supposed to open in the fall of 2015. The price tag is estimated at $45-$50 million. The move should make the team's connection to Brooklyn much more firm, and is likely to induce some players, who now live in Manhattan to manage practice in New Jersey (at the PYN Center in East Rutherford) and games in Brooklyn, to move to Brooklyn. (Downtown towers? Bay Ridge? DUMBO? Atlantic Yards itself?) (One irony: talking up the practice facility on Thursday was Coach Jason Kidd, who, after losing an apparent power play to gain more control of basketball operations, is  likely leaving  for the Milwaukee Bucks. According to  Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, the move--given the Nets' mixed record a...

The Brooklyn Nets are planning to build a new practice court, and training facility in Sunset Park, at 148 39th Street, just west of Second Avenue (and near Costco) along the waterfront in Industry City, reports the New York Times in  Nets Look to Get Both Feet in Brooklyn . The article builds on a 10/30/13  report  in NetsDaily, which estimated the investment at $50 million. Assuming the deal goes through, the Nets by fall 2015 also will move their front offices to Brooklyn, thus changing their off-court center of gravity from New Jersey to Brooklyn, and leading to the probability some players, seeking convenience, would finally move to Brooklyn rather than live in Manhattan or New Jersey. The location is a straight shot down Fourth Avenue from the Barclays Center, a little more than three miles. The impact on Sunset Park The Times, I think, goes a little far in predicting the impact on the area: The neighborhood is in an intriguing state ...