The Brooklyn Nets are opening a second team store at Barclays Center and have signed a long-term deal with a yogurt shop to fill the arena’s final retail space.
In addition, Forest City Ratner Cos., the arena’s developer, is investing more than $1 million in aesthetic improvements to the premium clubs, and concessionaire Levy Restaurants is expanding its Taste of Brooklyn food program, Nets CEO Brett Yormark said.
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Yogurt shop Let’s Yo! is filling the final retail spot along the outside of Barclays Center.
Photo by: ALANNA SCRIVANO
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Those tweaks are being made as the arena enters its second year of operation this week. It opened Sept. 28, 2012.
New Jersey-based Let’s Yo!, a frozen yogurt company with about three dozen stores in the Northeast and a couple in Florida, grabbed the final retail spot along Flatbush Avenue, Yormark said.
Two storefronts down from the Nets Shop by Adidas, a second team store will focus on selling Nets-branded lifestyle apparel by Mitchell & Ness and other sports clothiers that speak to a broader audience than the hard-core NBA fan, he said.
Retail therapy
Eight retail tenants make up
The Shops at Barclays Center:
■ Elbow Room
■ Let’s Yo!
■ MetroPCS
■ Nets Shop By Adidas
■ Second team store
(to open by Nov. 1)
■ Rocawear
■ Starbucks
■ Sugar Factory
Source: Barclays Center
Adidas operates the main team store and will do the same for the smaller, 2,000-square-foot store, which has yet to be named. It will open by Nov. 1, the Nets’ regular-season home opener against Miami, Yormark said. The original team store has 3,350 square feet.
Sugar Factory, a candy store, is opening this season after signing a deal in 2012.
The arena’s retail stores, all tied to agreements extending more than five years, have streetside entrances and are open seven days a week.
Elsewhere inside the arena, floors in the north and south clubs and the Calvin Klein Courtside Club have been upgraded from carpeting to wood, Yormark said. New tile was installed at the High Point Solutions Lounge on the facility’s east side.
Levy expanded Taste of Brooklyn by adding more food items and increasing the number of vendors tied to that initiative from 37 to 55, Yormark said. Barclays Center was No. 1 in per caps for NBA arenas last season, according to industry sources.
