The Brooklyn Papers / Tom Callan

Developer Bruce Ratner tries on a fedora and jacket at Junior’s when announcing plans in October to purchase the Nets.

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Goodbye New Jersey. Hello, Brooklyn.

After months of negotiations, developer Bruce Ratner reached a deal this week to purchase the New Jersey Nets for $300 million. He plans to bring the team across two rivers to the Borough of Kings.

Community Youth Organization, which owns the team, agreed to the deal at a meeting Friday morning putting an end to the drawn-out bidding war.

“We’re very excited,” said Ratner spokesman Barry Baum. “We have a few issues to work out, but we think it would be great for New York and great for Brooklyn.”

Borough President Marty Markowitz, who has been dreaming of bringing professional sports back to Brooklyn ever since the Dodgers left for California in 1957, was ecstatic about the prospect of “netting the Nets.”

One of the loudest supporters of the plan, Markowitz remained collected this week, maintaining a wait-and-see attitude until the contracts are signed and final approval given.

The deal must be approved by three-fourths of the NBA team owners. A move of the team to Brooklyn would also the approval of NBA owners.

“I can hardly wait for Brooklyn to realize all of the jobs, housing and other benefits that this project will deliver along with Brooklyn’s return to the national sports stage,” Markowitz said.

Until late last week, the Nets owners were also in negotiations with New Jersey real estate developer Jon Kushner and U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), who had the second-highest bid.

“He fought hard to keep this team in New Jersey,” said Kushner spokesman Michael Turner. “He played by the rules and was told there would be ample time to negotiate a deal. Clearly, there wasn’t.”

Purchasing the team is just the first step of Ratner’s sweeping plan to construct a $2.5 billion arena and office complex at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues stretching into Prospect Heights.

In addition to the Frank Gehry-designed arena, the project would include 17 towers — reaching as tall as 60 stories — with 4,500 units of housing down the line.

If all goes according to plan, a Ratner spokesman said, the team should be playing in Brooklyn by 2007.

During the season the team would play half of its 82 games at the arena and up to an additional 10 games if the team went all the way to the NBA finals. During the off days, a Ratner spokesman said the arena could be used for high school and college sports, concerts, ice shows, conventions and graduations.

This week’s decision caps six month of negotiations to purchase the team, which despite faltering ticket sales has won the Eastern Conference championship the past two seasons.

Over the past few weeks, former Knicks and Nets great Bernard King, a Fort Greene native who attended Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge toured the city as a booster for Ratner’s bid.

Rap star Jay-Z, who has announced his retirement from performing, is also an investor in the plan along with Vincent Viola, chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

But not everybody is thrilled with the proposal.

To construct the arena, more than two square blocks of private property would be condemned and seized by the state.

And residents along those blocks do not plan to go quietly — or quickly.

“We’re going to fight this,” said Dan Michaelson, a graphic designer and spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy, a group of tenants and owners who live on the blocks that would be taken. Over the past month, the group has been meeting with attorneys and is weighing legal options.

Another group, the Prospect Heights Action Coalition, an early opponent of the arena plan, has collected more than 5,000 signatures against building the arena at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.

But residents won’t be the only hurdle for Ratner, who is best known for developing the Metrotech office complex in Downtown Brooklyn and far less visionary Atlantic Center mall, also at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.

Ratner must first secure development rights from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build over the Long Island Rail Road yards along Atlantic Avenue.

He would also need the Empire State Development Corporation to condemn and seize property along the blocks from Flatbush to Vanderbilt avenues between Pacific and Dean streets, something both city and state officials have indicated a willingness to do in order to realize the arena plan, which is being called the Atlantic Yards project.

“We have to be careful on how we use taxpayer money for stadiums or arenas,” said Empire State Development Corp. chairman Charles Gargano, who will direct state involvement in the project.

“Sometimes we can help with infrastructure, we can help in other ways, but at this point we don’t know,” Gargano said shortly after a meeting with Gov. George Pataki on Thursday afternoon. “It remains to be seen what’s coming up and what happens.”

Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, Sen. Charles Schumer and Markowitz have all rallied behind the plan, but Councilwoman Letitia James and state. Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, whose districts encompass the planned arena and tower sites, are fiercely opposed.

State inolvement could help Ratner avoid much of the city’s lengthy and stringent land-use approval process. Opponents said that is one of a number of advantages Ratner has because of his political connections.

Ratner has held high-level positions in two mayoral administrations, and was once appointed by Pataki to study the possibility of luring pro sports back to Brooklyn.

Said James, “There’s a notion that he’s not going to have any problems getting MTA approval because of his relationship with the governor.”

— with Brooklyn Papers wire reports

©2004 The Brooklyn Paper