Ratner Plans To Break Ground For Barclays Center In December
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Ratner Says He Plans To Break Ground
On Atlantic Yards Project In December |
Nets Owner and Forest City Ratner CEO Bruce Ratner has told New York state and N.Y. city officials that he "plans to break ground in December on his long-delayed" $4B Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, which will include the Nets' Barclays Center, according to Charles Bagli of the N.Y. TIMES. However, it is unclear if Ratner "will be able to meet his own deadline ... given the softening economy, the crisis in the debt markets, rising costs and a persistent group of opponents who have filed one lawsuit after another." Ratner, NBA Commissioner David Stern and Ratner's bankers at Goldman Sachs last week met with "bond-rating agencies to discuss the proposed financing" for the $950M Barclays Center. The arena financing plan is "dependent on a favorable ruling by the Treasury Department in the coming weeks that would allow Mr. Ratner to use tax-exempt bonds and a final victory over court challenges." Ratner has asked government officials "for as much as $100[M] in additional cash for the project." If Ratner is "barred from using tax-exempt bonds, his costs will increase substantially for what would already be the most expensive arena in the world." Either way, bankers and real estate execs indicated that it "will be difficult to sell bonds for an arena at a time when New York’s real estate boom has quieted and investors and lenders are wary of backing large-scale projects." Bagli notes one reason Ratner "may be forging ahead is his deal with Barclays Bank, which officials say provides him with $20[M] a year for naming the arena." The naming-rights contract "requires Forest City to close on the land and the financing by the end of November" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/10).
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