Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

From LPC Casa Tua's Cucina, a high-end food court, bar, and market pioneered in Miami, will occupy the base of One Hanson, the commercial condo in the landmark Williamsburgh Savings Bank purchased by Barclays Center operator Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment.  As reported in November 2024, the space was bought for $10.3 million in a foreclosure auction. The office space in the building, which for 80 years (1929-2009) was Brooklyn's tallest, was converted to condos after a 2005 sale, with the vaulted banking space used for events like the Brooklyn Flea, but with no permanent tenant. Set to open in 2027, Cucina by Casa Tua part of the Brooklyn "ecosystem" of events, media, and hospitality pursued by Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, owned mainly by Joe and Clara Wu Tsai (plus the Koch family). A hotel may emerge, as well, perhaps at the Site 5 parcel across Flatbush Avenue from the arena. From the press release: Cucina will serve as a cornerstone of One Hanson Plac...

Screenshot from arena  website "Experience Barclays Center Like Never Before" ( link ), the arena website now proclaims. "Join us for a guided tour of Brooklyn’s leading sports and entertainment venue, home of the 2024 WNBA Champion New York Liberty, Brooklyn Nets, legendary concerts and more." "Barclays Center Tours offer fans the opportunity to discover behind-the-scenes spaces, learn about iconic moments and explore the history of Brooklyn," it states. Arena tours lasting 75 minutes ($35), not coupled with an NBA/WNBA basketball game, offer "access to exclusive spaces" and "behind-the-scenes stories." Pre-game tours lasting 60 minutes ($75) require visitors to also have a game ticket and offer courtside access for player warmups. Both tour options offer discounts at the Brooklyn Fanatics team store. I clicked through to Ticketmaster and saw that, despite several possible slots--perhaps in the future--only one was live for the several...

Three sports team owners, including Clara Wu Tsai of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, spoke at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit June 5 in Manhattan, with Wu Tsai suggesting that the WNBA offers a "huge investment opportunity" and Marc Lasry, former co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, saying "it's never a good time to sell" a sports team, given steadily rising valuations. (See coverage in Forbes and NetsDaily .) Nobody, of course, mentioned that the leagues are monopolies, that team ownership offers great tax breaks, and that team owners leverage subsidies, tax breaks, and other benefits from their host cities and states. To Forbes' Randall Lane, Wu Tsai confirmed that, yes, the Liberty just got a minority investment that valued the team at $450 million. (Previously, it was just "reportedly." ) He congratulated her on the path to the professed $1 billion valuation: "So that number is good." "Number's great," said Wu T...

Planet Brooklyn is Coming , Brooklyn Magazine told us May 29, promising a new music festival: "Three venues across two glorious days, celebrating one big and beautifully dynamic borough." It's perhaps the most concrete example of the emerging "ecosystem" of experiences, retail, media, and hospitality fueled by new investment --by the Koch family! --in Joe Tsai's BSE Global, which owns the Barclays Center operating company, the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty. That "ecosystem" includes purchase (and rental ) of the retail condo in the base of the Williamsburgh Bank tower, plans for a hotel and restaurants (at Site 5 ?), arena tours , the purchase and relaunch of Brooklyn Magazine (aka BKMAG), and a new media project  called Type.Set.Brooklyn  (I'll have more on that soon). What's coming Planet Brooklyn involves the Barclays Center, Brooklyn Paramount (partly owned by arena parent company BSE Global), and the nearby Brooklyn Academy of...

Last week Bloomberg published a predictably reverential article, With the New York Liberty, Clara Wu Tsai Aims for the First $1 Billion Women’s Sports Franchise , which repeats the lore about the Tsais' (Clara and husband Joe Tsai, the Alibaba billionaire) savvy willingness to spend big, beyond the WNBA's salary cap, to make it a magnet for stars, and rebuild the fan base. The article also states, "They also bought the Nets’ home arena, the Barclays Center." Not quite. They own the operating company. The fig leaf of public ownership allows for a tax-exempt site and tax-exempt financing. Hotels and restaurants to help Brooklyn? From the article: Through the Liberty and Nets’ parent company, BSE Global , meanwhile, the Tsais are planning a major development initiative in the traffic-clogged area around Barclays. Adding hotels and restaurants, Wu Tsai says, will help draw more fans for the Liberty and Nets while also benefiting Brooklyn more broadly: Only a fraction of ...

Photos: Norman Oder You gotta respect the hustle--the mutual hustle.  Located on leafy Carlton Avenue an eight-minute walk--but a conceptual distance--from the Barclays Center,  Gertrude' s is a "neighborhood bar & restaurant, inspired by our shared love for iconic New York restaurants, Jew-ish cuisine and the vibrant atmosphere found in European bistros." It's relatively small, and it sure isn't a sports bar. Gertrude's uses the kind of gentrification signage and typeface that some find charming and others find precious. A collaboration But it was in the mutual interest of the Brooklyn Nets and Gertrude's social media savvy management to have two Nets, Jalen Wilson and Noah Clowney, "create," with the help of more experienced kitchen hands, "a classic American smash burger, and a fried chicken sandwich" for a one-night only promotion on Monday, April 7. Curiously enough, as shown in the sign at right, Gertrude's Monday night ...

Recently added to the BSE Global roster of brands is "One Hanson Place," ( link ) which is what they're calling the retail/events condo space in the base of the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower just north of the Atlantic Terminal mall, a short walk from the Barclays Center. For now, they're renting it out for events--it's a stunning space--while they "develop an exciting concept for the space." (Maybe a market?) It had previously been rented to the Brooklyn Flea, among other event producers. While one owner paid $18 million for the space--the equivalent of two floors--in 2018, BSE Global paid almost $10.3 million, as reported in November. Naming rights Screenshot from BSE Global Note: it's the Williamsburgh Savings Bank , not Williamsburg, despite what's stated on the new web site, because the bank retained the old spelling . And while BSE Global says it's acquired "One Hanson Place," that name has long been claimed by the c...

So, the Brooklyn "ecosystem" being built by BSE Global--media, events, etc.--continues to expand.  Note the synergy between Brooklyn Magazine, aka BKMAG, and the Barclays Center. A March 27 article on the New York Liberty's new Greenpoint practice facility did, appropriately, credit the announcement to "BSE Global, the owner of the team (and, full disclosure, BKMAG)." It's the first time, as far as I can tell, that there's been any such disclosure.   Below the radar   Some other synergy is more below the radar. Posted under  Arts & Entertainment , rather than "Sponsored," BKMAG on March 14 offered  Win Two Tickets to See Katt Williams Live at Barclays Center , pointing readers to follow the publication on Instagram, comment, and sign up for the publication's weekly newsletter. (It didn't disclose that they all share the same owner.) Below is a screenshot of the Instagram post .  Similarly, on March 24 BKMAG offered Win Two Tickets ...

The Brooklyn "ecosystem"--media, entertainment, culture--pursued by Barclays Center parent BSE Global continues to expand, as the arena is now recruiting tour guides to "deliver an immersive, 60-minute tour that brings to life the history, culture, and behind-the-scenes magic of this iconic venue." Advertisements in Backstage  and  Playbill  recruit underemployed actors with "the ability to captivate audiences of 20-35 people." (Also see the  listing  from venue operating company ASM Global.) As stated in Playbill : This is a public-facing, live performance role requiring strong memorization, audience engagement, and professional presentation skills. Actors will be responsible for delivering a structured, scripted 60-minute tour to a variety of audiences, providing an exciting and informative experience while maintaining factual accuracy. The hiring starts with a submitted self-tape audition, then a Zoom interview, then an in-person mock tour. Backstage a...

A breathless "exclusive" Business Insider article published Dec. 11,  The billionaire owners of the Nets and Liberty plan to launch a media brand around the 'zeitgeist of Brooklyn' in 2025 , relies on five (!) unnamed sources all buffing the same vague but ambitious project. BSE Global's new media brand will focus on "capturing and sharing the zeitgeist of Brooklyn," spokesperson Sheerin Salimi told Business Insider. They're calling it "Brand X" and even considered "Boom," but it's no longer on the table. Much of this isn't new--it started with the purchase (and transformation) of once-indie Brooklyn Magazine (whose editor is gone) and has been amplified in other coverage, including plans for retail and events. Screenshot from Complex The Complex complex What's new is the influence of the youth culture brand Complex , which mixes content, including video, and direct marketing.  They've hired five former Complex st...

BSE Global's pursuit of an "ecosystem" of assets in Brooklyn ( link ) continues, with the surprising-but-maybe-not acquisition of the landmarked retail space in the base of the historic Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower at One Hanson Place. It's barely five minutes by foot--though with busy Flatbush Avenue and the Atlantic Terminal shopping mall as barriers--from the Barclays Center. As the Real Deal reported , based on the scoop from PincusCo, BSE Global--which owns the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty, the Barclays Center operating company, and more--paid "$10.3 million" for that gorgeous vaulted space in a foreclosure auction. (The price, according to city records, was $10,265,275.)  The tower, for some 80 years the tallest building in Brooklyn at 512 feet but since eclipsed by many new towers, was an office building, with a bank at the base until 2006, after which the office space was converted to condos.  The cost, via ACRIS (Here's Brownstoner's...

In a friendly article likely goosed by a press release, Adweek reported yesterday,  Brooklyn Magazine Relaunches As BKMag After BSE Global Acquisition , confirming I reported in July,  So, once-indie Brooklyn Magazine is now part of Nets owner Tsai's BSE Global, which plans a larger media enterprise to champion/amplify Brooklyn.   (H/t to Brownstoner for noticing the Adweek article.) From Adweek: The relaunch is the first step in a broader bid from BSE Global to build a global media brand, called Brooklyn Media, early next year, according to global chief products and experiences officer DeJuan Wilson. “We want to put Brooklyn at the center of the BSE ecosystem and connect people to Brooklyn through all the things they love,” Wilson said. “The relaunch is about positioning BKMag as the ultimate guide to Brooklyn.” That means, according to the article, "BKMag will more heavily emphasize guides, such as lists of the best restaurants in the borough and short-form video conte...

Leaning into Brooklyn, BSE Global CEO Sam Zussman sounds a little like (first Nets/arena CEO) Brett Yormark 2.0, but rather than simply cascading the buzz, he has real plans for an "ecosystem" of assets, including a hotel, conference center, and--as I reported in July--a new media venture. How the Nets Plan to Build a Legit Fanbase: Business of Sports , Bloomberg reported yesterday. Because the Nets are are the only major league team with Brooklyn in their name--remember, it's the New York Liberty--“enhancing the value, enhancing the credibility, enhancing the attraction is good for us,” Zussman said. In acquiring the digital property Brooklyn Magazine--this was the first acknowledgement--BSE will build "a venture called Brooklyn Media to promote the borough’s arts and culture scene,"according to Zussman. That invariably will include cross-promotion of BSE Global properties. A hotel across the street? While Zussman likened plans to LA Live, the entertainment d...