Wednesday, September 23, 2009
News
In An Effort to Save Atlantic Yards, Bruce Ratner Plans to Sell the Nets, and Several Acres of Brooklyn, to a Russian Oligarch
Posted
by Mark Asch
on Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 6:12 PM
Meet Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia's richest man. He's now set to
buy 80% of the New Jersey Nets and 45% of their planned arena on the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic, with an option to buy as much as 20% of the surrounding Atlantic Yards project. Which had previously been
floundering, with no plan in place for the neighborhood-obliterating development, because of the departure of original architect Frank Gehry and the drying-up of funding. The above-linked
Observer article does a good job of summarizing the implications here; meanwhile, we're going to hope that virulent nationalism and vague subliminal ethnic prejudice works to sway public sentiment against the project, if that's what it takes.
Tags: Atlantic Yards, Bruce Ratner, Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov, Russian Oligarchs
