NEW YORK — Officials broke ground Thursday on a much-delayed 9-hectare development project that will bring the NBA's New Jersey Nets, owned by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, to Brooklyn.
As protesters chanted and staged a mock funeral for the "soul" of Brooklyn, supporters enjoyed a lavish spread catered by developer Bruce Ratner.
"Today is a great day for Brooklyn and for the soul of Brooklyn, which is very much alive," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the biggest cheerleader of the Atlantic Yards project since it was announced in 2003.
Markowitz joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Governor David Paterson and hundreds of others at a ceremonial groundbreaking for the $4.9 billion Barclays Center, which has been delayed by lawsuits filed by residents fighting the use of eminent domain, which allows authorities to seize private property under special conditions.
In December, Ratner's Forest City Ratner finalized a deal to sell 80 percent of the basketball team and 45 percent of its new arena to Prokhorov. While the new owner did not attend the groundbreaking, entertainer Jay-Z, also an investor in the team, said, "We did it again, Brooklyn."
The 18,000-seat arena is to open in 2012, and construction will begin on the first of 16 residential and office buildings in 2011.
When Ratner proposed Atlantic Yards before the economic downturn, celebrity architect Frank Gehry was going to transform downtown Brooklyn with apartment buildings bearing his trademark undulating shapes.
But Gehry was fired because his designs were too expensive, and no new architect has been announced for the residential buildings. The latest renderings of the arena show a conventional dome, drawing criticism from opponents.
"As the buildings rise on Atlantic Yards, the joblessness rate will fall right here in Brooklyn," Paterson said, claiming that the project would create 16,000 construction jobs and 5,500 permanent jobs.
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