Updated 07/07/2011 08:37 PM
NY1 Exclusive: Barclays Center On Track To Open Next Summer
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The future home of the Brooklyn Nets, the $1 billion Barclays Center, is making significant strides towards completion. NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.About half of the steel is now in place at the Barclays Center, as NY1 saw on a recent tour with developer Bruce Ratner.
"You see the piece all the way in the back — it's called the truss — that's going to be the beginning of the top of the arena,” said Ratner.
The roof is scheduled to be completed by winter. Many of the stands are already in place. It’s a dream finally becoming reality for Ratner, who has been planning to bring the Nets to Brooklyn since 2006.
"For all of us, it's a big whoosh moment,” said Ratner. “Something that's been long in coming."
Besides basketball, Barclays has a lineup of programming from boxing matches to family entertainment, plus the new addition of up to half a dozen international events with the Brooklyn Academy of Music that Ratner described as "extravaganzas".
"You'll have dancers, singers filling that arena floor, stuff that's never been seen before in New York or this country," said Ratner.
As for the rest of the Atlantic Yards project, Ratner said he'll stick to the original footprint designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry.
"Not the design of the buildings, the master plan, meaning the way the buildings work together, the way the buildings go, the way the streets go, where the open space goes, the height of the buildings," said Ratner.
For that project, there will be 16 residential buildings over 22 acres, with more than 2,000 affordable and middle income housing units. The first tower is scheduled to break ground by January. The timetable for the rest depends on the market.
As for the arena, Ratner said that construction is on schedule for an opening next summer. He said between the cost of the land, the union labor, the environmental regulations and working around the subways lines underneath, the price tag is around $1 billion.
According to Ratner, it’s the first of its kind, and he promises it'll be worth every penny.