Legends Hospitality has withdrawn as an equity partner of Forest City Ratner in the $229M redevelopment of Nassau Coliseum, according to Legends officials. The split comes as the result of an apparent disagreement over whether Legends would take over the food service at Barclays Center. The Islanders are moving to the Brooklyn venue from Nassau Coliseum for the '15-16 season. Legends Chair & CEO Dave Checketts said his company’s decision to withdraw from the Nassau project was due in part to what company officials claim has been a lack of communication on the part of Forest City Ratner on the progress of the Nassau project, which caused Legends to have doubts on the viability of the redevelopment.
Nets and Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark confirmed that there were discussions over Legends potentially taking over at Barclays Center but there was no written contract regarding a potential switch in food vendors in Brooklyn. He added that the decision to retain Levy Restaurants and insert the same vendor at Nassau starting in '16 was driven by Forest City’s need to maintain continuity and create synergies between the two arenas. Yormark: "We felt Levy has done a great job at Barclays Center and there was no reason to make a change. Having the same food provider in both buildings made sense."
See tomorrow’s issue of THE DAILY for more.
