Ceremonial Groundbreaking for Barclays Center
at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn
Forest City Ratner Chairman Bruce Ratner, Barclays PLC President Robert E. Diamond, Jr., And
NETS Investor and Cultural Icon Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter to Celebrate The Next Phase of Construction
--Major Sports and Entertainment to Come to Brooklyn--
March 11, 2010 02:12 PM Eastern Time
BROOKLYN, N.Y.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Governor David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz today joined Forest City Ratner Companies Chairman and CEO
Bruce Ratner, Barclays PLC President Robert E. Diamond, Jr., and NETS investor and cultural icon Shawn “JAY-
Z” Carter at the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards.
The 18,000-seat world-class sports and entertainment arena is being developed by Forest City Ratner Companies
(FCRC), which will operate the arena in partnership with Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Sports & Entertainment. The
Barclays Center will host more than 200 events annually, including professional and collegiate sports, concerts,
family shows, and NETS Basketball.
While construction has been ongoing since last fall, today’s ceremony marks the next phase of construction of the
arena, which is expected to open in 2012.
It is anticipated that Atlantic Yards will generate over $5 billion in new tax revenues for the State and the City over
the next 30 years and will create upwards of 17,000 union construction jobs and up to 8,000 permanent jobs when
the entire project is completed.
Bruce Ratner explained that he expected the project to generate a significant amount of jobs in the coming months as
construction activity picks up.
“When we announced Atlantic Yards in December 2003, we anticipated that this project would create buzz and
excitement for the borough and the City as well as needed jobs and affordable housing,” said Mr. Ratner. “We did
not at the time appreciate that Atlantic Yards would be such an important economic engine. The fact th