Bruce Ratner

Bruce Ratner
Born (1945-01-23) January 23, 1945
Cleveland, Ohio
Residence Manhattan, New York
Nationality American
Occupation Real estate developer and minority owner of the Brooklyn Nets
Spouse(s) Julie Ratner[1]
Pamela Lipkin
Children with Julie
--Lizzy Ratner
--Rebecca Ratner
Parent(s) Harry Ratowczer

Bruce Ratner (born January 23, 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American real estate developer and minority owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets.[2]

Family and education

Ratner was born into a Jewish family in the Cleveland metropolitan area,[3] the son of Harry Ratowczer (later Americanized to Ratner),[4] one of eight children to immigrate to the US from Poland.[2] Four of his paternal uncles founded Forest City Enterprises in 1920; originally a construction materials company it eventually evolved into construction and then into real estate development.[4] Ratner's older brother is New York attorney Michael Ratner and his sister is Ellen Ratner, a news analyst for Fox News.[5] Ratner graduated from Harvard College in 1967, and earned a Juris Doctor from Columbia University[2] in 1970.

Early career

After law school, he worked for the City of New York. Under Mayor Ed Koch he became consumer affairs commissioner where he went after corrupt merchants, repairmen and alarm companies. He then turned to developing real estate.[2]

Forest City Ratner

In 1985, he founded Forest City Ratner of which he is now executive chairman.[6] He developed the $1 billion complex of nine buildings in downtown Brooklyn called MetroTech.[2][7] He supervised the building of a 393,000 square-foot shopping mall at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in the 1990s.[2][8] Forest City Ratner's unsuccessful bid to develop Columbus Circle, included installing a Sears there.[1]

Nets ownership and the Pacific Park Brooklyn (formerly Atlantic Yards) development

The political[8][9] Ratner (he was a former commissioner under Ed Koch and he was among other things one of the biggest spenders in New York state on lobbying politicians according to the New York Times)[2] first became owner of the Nets when he headed an ownership group that purchased the franchise from YankeeNets for $300 million. Ratner's group beat out an ownership group led by Charles Kushner and former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine. Ratner relocated the Nets to New York City, specifically to build an arena in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn even though there was desire to keep them in New Jersey and strong neighborhood protests to keep them out of Brooklyn.[10]

Barclays Center is the centerpiece and the only completed piece of a $3.5 billion sports arena, business and residential complex in development called Pacific Park Brooklyn.[11] This project is being built by Ratner's company, Forest City Ratner. The site of the 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 three-fourths of the NBA board of governors.[12] 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."[12] On May 11, 2010, the sale of the Nets was approved by the NBA.[13]

Ratner originally planned to move the Nets across the Hudson River for the beginning of the 2009–10 NBA season. However, he had to revise his goal and moved the franchise to Brooklyn for the start of the 2012–13 season. Although the arena was scheduled to open in 2011, along with the rest of the complex, controversies involving the project's use of eminent domain and local residents, coupled with the lack of continued funding in a struggling economy, caused the project to be altered and delayed.[14] 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-acre (89,000 m2) Pacific Park Brooklyn project is being built. The opponents appealed the New York Supreme Court's ruling,[10] 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.[15] A groundbreaking ceremony was held on the site on March 11, 2010,[16] but ringed with protests.[17] The Nets began playing in Brooklyn in time for the 2012–13 NBA season.[18]

Board memberships

Ratner serves on a number of boards including the Weill Cornell Medical College, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Museum of Jewish Heritage as chairman-elect of its trustees board.[19] He was chairman of the board[1] and now chairman emeritus of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's board of trustees.[20]

Personal life

Ratner is married to a second wife, plastic surgeon Pamela Lipkin. He has two daughters from his first marriage to Julie Ratner: Lizzy Ratner, a writer and Rebecca Ratner, a filmmaker.[5] He and Lipkin live in a brownstone in the Upper East Side in Manhattan.[21][22] Ratner also has a home estate in Ulster County [5][23] as well as a home in Quogue, closer to Manhattan.

References

  1. 1 2 3 New York Observer: "If Bruce Ratner Can Move the Empire Theater He Can Move Himself" by Carl Swanson March 16, 1998
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bagli, Charles V.; Berger, Joseph (September 26, 2012). "Nets Helped Clear Path for Builder in Brooklyn". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ Jewish Daily Forward: Top 50 Jews of 2012: "Bruce Ratner" retrieved December 25, 2012
  4. 1 2 Forest City Website: "Our History" retrieved April 12, 2013
  5. 1 2 3 Smith, Chris (2006-08-06). "Mr. Ratner's Neighborhood". nymag.com. Retrieved 2009-12-26.
  6. ↑ "Forest City Announces Leadership Transition at New York Subsidiary".
  7. ↑ "Downtown Brooklyn".
  8. 1 2 "Bruce C. Ratner". Gawker.
  9. ↑ Soltis, Andy (Feb 8, 2014). "Ratner cancels real-estate event over protest fears". NYPost.
  10. 1 2 Thompson, Ryan (2009-07-09). "The Court Date is Set for Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
  11. ↑ "N.Y. / REGION: After Decades at a Walk-Up, Tenants Fear Losing a Home". New York Times. Feb 17, 2014.
  12. 1 2 Bagli, Charles V. (2009-09-24). "Richest Russian's Newest Toy: An N.B.A. Team". The New York Times.
  13. ↑ http://www.insidehoops.com/prokhorov-buys-nets-051110.shtml
  14. ↑ Calder, Rich (2008-01-28). "Court Trouble: Ratner admits arena-funding woes". New York Post. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
  15. ↑ Bagli, Charles V. (2009-11-25). "Ruling Lets Atlantic Yards Seize Land". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ Fahim, Kareem (March 11, 2010). "Ground Broken on Atlantic Yards Project". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ "Protesters Hold Mock Funeral at Atlantic Yards Groundbreaking". NBC New York. March 11, 2010.
  18. ↑ "Brooklyn Nets Calendar".
  19. ↑ Aldredge, Betsy; Spilka, Abby. "Bruce Ratner Named Chairman-elect of Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust" (PDF) (Press release).
  20. ↑ "Board of Trustees". bam.org.
  21. ↑ "Bruce Ratner Buys Brownstone But (Surprise!) It's Not in Brooklyn". New York Observer. 2008-02-25. Retrieved 2009-12-26.
  22. ↑ "Pamela Lipkin, MD". nyc-plastic-surgery.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-30.
  23. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-02-05. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
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