Bruce Ratner
Encyclopedia
Bruce Ratner is an American real estate developer and is a current minority owner of the NBA
's New Jersey Nets
. His older brother is prominent New York attorney Michael Ratner
and his sister is Ellen Ratner
, a news analyst for Fox News.
for $300 million. Ratner's group beat out an ownership group led by Charles Kushner
and former New Jersey
governor Jon Corzine
. Since 2005, Ratner has been planning to relocate the Nets to New York City
, specifically to build an arena in the Prospect Heights
neighborhood of Brooklyn
. The Barclays Center is the centerpiece of a proposed $3.5 billion sports arena
, business
and residential complex called Atlantic Yards
. This project is being built by Ratner's real estate development company, Forest City Ratner Enterprises. The site of the proposed arena is adjacent to the site that Walter O'Malley
wanted to use for a new stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers
in the early 1950s. (O'Malley's plan was rejected by the city, resulting in the Dodgers relocating to Los Angeles
in 1958.) On September 23, 2009, Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov
reached a deal with Ratner to purchase an 80% stake of the Nets for $200 million, subject to Ratner acquiring financing for the arena project and control of the land by the end of the year in addition to the approval of 3/4 of the NBA board of governors. Prokhorov would also provide a $700 million loan to the construction of the arena as well as attracting additional funds in Western banks. According to Ratner, accepting Prokhorov as majority owner "gives us a partner who adds to the financial strength of the venture. Mikhail will have primary responsibility for the basketball part and we will have primary responsibility for the arena and the real estate." On May 11, 2010, the sale of the Nets to Prokhorov was approved by the NBA.
for the beginning of the 2009-10 NBA season. However, he has had to revise his goal and now plans to move the franchise to Brooklyn for the start of the 2011-12 season. Although the arena was scheduled to open in 2011, along with the rest of the complex, controversies involving local residents and the use of eminent domain
, coupled with the lack of funding in a struggling economy, have caused the project to be delayed. On May 16, 2009, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
struck down an opponents' lawsuit that sought to prevent the state of New York
from using eminent domain to seize the property where the 22 acres (89,030.9 m²) Atlantic Yards project is slated to be built. The opponents appealed the New York Supreme Court's ruling, but lost when the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, upheld the right of the state to use eminent domain for this project. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on the site on March 11, 2010. After all the delays, the Nets are now slated to commence playing in Brooklyn in time for the 2012-2013 NBA season.
on East 62nd Street in Manhattan
and also reportedly has a 194 acre (0.78509084 km²) estate in Ulster County. He recently sold his third home in Montauk
for a reported $10 million to art dealer David Zwirner
and has recently acquired a new home in Quogue
, closer to Manhattan
and with a view.
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
's New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
. His older brother is prominent New York attorney Michael Ratner
Michael Ratner
Michael Ratner is an attorney, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights , a non-profit human rights litigation organization based in New York, New York and president of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights based in Berlin.Ratner is known for his human rights...
and his sister is Ellen Ratner
Ellen Ratner
Ellen Ratner is a news analyst on the Fox News Channel and appears on The Strategy Room and The Long and Short of It. She is also White House Correspondent and Bureau Chief for the Talk Radio News Service, covering the White House and is heard on over 400 radio stations across the US...
, a news analyst for Fox News.
Ownership of the Nets
Ratner first became owner of the Nets when he headed an ownership group that purchased the franchise from YankeeNetsYankee Global Enterprises LLC
Yankee Global Enterprises LLC was formed in 1999, and is the owner of the New York Yankees baseball club and the YES Network cable channel. It was originally created through a merger between the Yankees and the New Jersey Nets basketball team, known at the time as YankeeNets...
for $300 million. Ratner's group beat out an ownership group led by Charles Kushner
Charles Kushner
Charles Kushner is an American real estate developer, philanthropist and political fundraiser.- Family :Kushner's parents were Joseph and Rae Kushner, who had come to America from Belarus by way of Italy in 1949...
and former New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
governor Jon Corzine
Jon Corzine
Jon Stevens Corzine is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and of MF Global, and a one time American politician, who served as the 54th Governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. A Democrat, Corzine served five years of a six-year U.S. Senate term representing New Jersey before being elected Governor...
. Since 2005, Ratner has been planning to relocate the Nets to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, specifically to build an arena in the Prospect Heights
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Prospect Heights is a neighborhood in the northwest of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The traditional boundaries are Flatbush Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Eastern Parkway to the south, and Washington Avenue to the east...
neighborhood of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. The Barclays Center is the centerpiece of a proposed $3.5 billion sports arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
, business
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
and residential complex called Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards
The Atlantic Yards is a mixed-use commercial and residential development project of 16 high-rise buildings, under construction in Prospect Heights, adjacent to Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene in Brooklyn, New York City...
. This project is being built by Ratner's real estate development company, Forest City Ratner Enterprises. The site of the proposed arena is adjacent to the site that Walter O'Malley
Walter O'Malley
Walter Francis O'Malley was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from to . He served as Brooklyn Dodgers chief legal counsel when Jackie Robinson broke the racial color barrier in...
wanted to use for a new stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
in the early 1950s. (O'Malley's plan was rejected by the city, resulting in the Dodgers relocating to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 1958.) On September 23, 2009, Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov
Mikhail Prokhorov
Mikhail Dmitrievitch Prokhorov is a Russian billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the American basketball team, the New Jersey Nets. After graduating from the Moscow Finance Institute he made his name in the financial sector and went on to become one of Russia's leading industrialists in the...
reached a deal with Ratner to purchase an 80% stake of the Nets for $200 million, subject to Ratner acquiring financing for the arena project and control of the land by the end of the year in addition to the approval of 3/4 of the NBA board of governors. Prokhorov would also provide a $700 million loan to the construction of the arena as well as attracting additional funds in Western banks. According to Ratner, accepting Prokhorov as majority owner "gives us a partner who adds to the financial strength of the venture. Mikhail will have primary responsibility for the basketball part and we will have primary responsibility for the arena and the real estate." On May 11, 2010, the sale of the Nets to Prokhorov was approved by the NBA.
Nets' relocation delayed
Ratner originally planned to move the Nets across the Hudson RiverHudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
for the beginning of the 2009-10 NBA season. However, he has had to revise his goal and now plans to move the franchise to Brooklyn for the start of the 2011-12 season. Although the arena was scheduled to open in 2011, along with the rest of the complex, controversies involving local residents and the use of eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
, coupled with the lack of funding in a struggling economy, have caused the project to be delayed. On May 16, 2009, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The Appellate Division is composed of four departments .*The First Department covers the Bronx The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate...
struck down an opponents' lawsuit that sought to prevent the state of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
from using eminent domain to seize the property where the 22 acres (89,030.9 m²) Atlantic Yards project is slated to be built. The opponents appealed the New York Supreme Court's ruling, but lost when the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, upheld the right of the state to use eminent domain for this project. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on the site on March 11, 2010. After all the delays, the Nets are now slated to commence playing in Brooklyn in time for the 2012-2013 NBA season.
Personal life
Ratner is married to his second wife, Park Avenue plastic surgeon Pamela Lipkin. He has two daughters from his first marriage, Lizzy and Rebecca. He lives in a $7 million brownstoneBrownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
on East 62nd Street in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and also reportedly has a 194 acre (0.78509084 km²) estate in Ulster County. He recently sold his third home in Montauk
Montauk, New York
Montauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
for a reported $10 million to art dealer David Zwirner
David Zwirner
David Zwirner is a gallerist and art dealer and owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City. In 2010 Zwirner was listed at number four in the ArtReview annual "Power 100" list.-Early Life:...
and has recently acquired a new home in Quogue
Quogue, New York
Quogue is an incorporated village in Southampton, Suffolk County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population was 1,018.-Geography:Quogue is located at ....
, closer to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and with a view.