Dropping Red Hook, Nets Continue to Cruise for City Practice Facility
By Daniel Geiger October 8, 2012 3:44 pm
reprintsThe Brooklyn Nets, which will kick off their first season at the newly opened Barclays Center against cross town rivals the Knicks in November, are looking around for more space to continue to relocate operations from their former home in New Jersey.
The team has hired a brokerage team from the real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield led by executives Bruce Mosler and Glenn Markman to lead a search for a new practice space.
A previous report in Crain’s New York Business broke news the Nets had scoped out a large development parcel in Red Hook owned by investor Joe Sitt as a potential location for a new facility, which would include basketball courts as well as space for a gym, locker room and cafeteria.
A source familiar with the team’s search said it had since decided against the Red Hook site and is now looking at other locations in Brooklyn and also in Manhattan, an area few expected the team to turn to. Sources said the team is looking for about 75,000 square feet.
A spokesman for the team said it continues to keep its options open in the search.
“We made a commitment to build a new practice facility,” the spokesman said. “We’re looking for the right site.”
Mr. Mosler and Mr. Markman have worked with the Nets before, helping the team find a new space in Brooklyn in which to relocate its headquarters from the team’s long time home in East Rutherford. In that deal, done at the beginning of the year, the team took about 35,000 square feet at the Downtown Brooklyn office building 15 Metrotech Center.
Neither Mr. Mosler nor Mr. Markman could be reached for comment.
The Barclays Center officially opened last week with a series of concerts by the rapper Jay-Z, who is a part owner of the Nets, shows that generated buzz about the upcoming season of basketball at the arena.
