March 03, 2010

Nets arena groundbreaking set for next week after court ruling

It's not quite all over but the shouting, but just about: A New York state judge dismissed a court challenge to the state using approved a court petition by the state (over landholder objections) to use eminent domain to seize land for the Nets' planned Brooklyn arena on Monday, clearing the way for construction to begin. Street closings are set to begin next Monday, with a ceremonial groundbreaking on March 11; as for evicting the remaining residents and businesses occupying buildings marked for demolition, the state Empire State Development Corporation says it "anticipates an orderly relocation taking place over the course of the next few months."

Barring a surprise injunction in one of the other remaining lawsuits, then, it looks like the Atlantic Yards project, or at least the Barclays Center piece of it, will be opening in Fall 2012 as planned — not as planned originally, mind you, but if you keep making enough predictions, one of them will be right.

Whether the rest of the project, including the affordable housing component, gets built anytime soon is another story, but Bertha Lewis, who brokered the housing deal in return for her support of the arena, has bigger fish to fry these days anyway.