I went to a conference in NY on Tuesday and a panel was discussing real estate development in NY. Someone from Forest City Ratner Companies was on the panel and she spoke about Barclay's Center. She mentioned that you would be able to see the score inside the arena when you get out of the subway, which is remarkable given how not transparent sports arenas typically are. She claimed it was the first of its kind, which is really exciting. More interesting to me at least, was what she said about the skin. The weathered steel skin took four months to weather to fifteen years, and that they weathered it using rain water. Some of you may have known that, but I definitely did not know that last part. Although I am not clear on whether the panelists were intimating that Barclay's had this as an objective, they also stated generally that some foreign investors in NY look for what is known as "trophy assets". If that was an objective then it looks like it will be a nice one at that. Here is a link to the Crains listing about the event.