Nets and Liberty owner buys three Brooklyn gyms for youth basketball

Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, the holding company for the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, has bought three one-story basketball gyms in Brooklyn from The Post BK in an all-cash deal, according to Commercial Observer.

Why it matters

The three buildings sit in three different Brooklyn neighborhoods: 100 Dobbin Street in Greenpoint, 53 Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, and 483 Baltic Street in Gowanus. The Post BK had run all three as rental basketball courts inside converted industrial space, and the sale covers the operator’s entire property portfolio, so it is unclear what The Post BK does next. Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment plans to reopen the sites next year as youth basketball facilities tied to the Nets’ and Liberty’s community programs, separate from the team’s much larger planned Liberty training center elsewhere in Greenpoint. Newmark’s Dan O’Brien, David Behin, Caroline Hodes and Loren Valla brokered the deal.

The numbers

The sale price was not disclosed, and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment paid cash rather than financing the purchase. The three buildings total roughly 40,300 square feet: the Dobbin Street warehouse is about 15,000 square feet, the Knickerbocker Avenue site is about 20,300 square feet, and the Baltic Street building is about 5,000 square feet, the smallest of the three. Each property is held by a separate ownership entity, and The Post BK continues to operate the buildings for now under its existing lease arrangement.

What’s next

All three facilities are expected to open next year as dedicated youth basketball sites for the Nets’ and Liberty’s community programs. No construction filings, permits, or a closing date have surfaced yet in public city records, so a Brooklyn youth sports operator or broker tracking Greenpoint, Bushwick or Gowanus industrial space should watch for the deeds and any DOB alteration filings that follow.