The ownership feud's resolution....

[AHF]

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He can basically communicate to Belkin that he will never be an owner and to the Spirit that he will investigate their financial ability to be owners without Belkin if they don't settle.

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That is the kind of behind the scenes stuff I am talking about. He likely isn't doing it because the other owners don't ever want to see it happen to them. However, it just sucks for us Hawks fans (although not as bad as eliminating the team would be, as in your other post).

[Sothron]

I have got to believe that as egomaniacal as Stern is that he has or will communicate that message to Belkin: "You may have won this fight but there is no chance I'll ever let you own a team in MY league" and the owners will not vote to let him in. Not after this backdoor approach Belkin took. I still think he's waiting for a big enough payday to go away or he's willing to risk a mega antitrust fight against the NBA and Stern to be accepted as an owner. That litigation could possibly tie up the Hawks pursestrings for at least four to six years depending on how long it drags out.

[DJlaysitup]

Haven't the other owners already approved Belkin as an owner in the league?...if not...how could he be an owner in this league right now (which, of course, he is)?

[AHF]

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Haven't the other owners already approved Belkin as an owner in the league?...if not...how could he be an owner in this league right now (which, of course, he is)?

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The owners have approved an ownership group consisting of the Atlanta and Washington contingents and Belkin. Whenever the sale goes through, there could be problems that the league would have with either Belkin alone or the smaller ASG. It is just premature for the league to address this in any formal way since there has not been any final change (legally) to the ownership structure.

Just because someone is approved as a minority owner does not give them carte blanche to be a majority or sole owner in the league.

[DJlaysitup]

Thanks...I wasn't sure.

[Diesel]

Stern can re-investigate Belkin as a new applicant without the Spirit. The funny thing is that Belkin supposedly has all of his finances tied up in a building that some believe he can not afford... To me that suggests that until the building is completed which would be in 2000never, he doesn't want to go into an investigation of his finances...

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The famed architect behind the audacious 1,000-foot environmentally sensitive skyscraper planned in downtown Boston, Renzo Piano, has split with the building's developer, Steve Belkin. Piano's original design for the building, which would be the tallest in the city and has received major support from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, was for an unusual tower of glass floating over a ground-level park.

A senior executive at Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Genoa, Italy, yesterday said the split involved a dispute over creative control of the tower.

"There have been requests to change" the building, said the executive, who asked that his name not be used because he had not discussed his remarks with Piano. "Some modifications were asked for. We felt they weren't appropriate," he said, but declined to elaborate on what those issues were.

Piano was traveling in California yesterday and couldn't be reached for comment.

Belkin's company, Trans National Properties, issued a statement with Piano's firm that did not discuss why the architect departed.

Rather, the statement said Trans National thanked Renzo's firm "for its inspired artistic vision for the site and its now completed involvement." Trans National said the Boston-based architect on its team, CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc., would have "sole future responsibility for architectural design and execution." Belkin couldn't be reached for comment.

In an article published this month in The New York Times, Piano was described as being "under pressure from Mr. Belkin to increase the tower's width, something he said he could not agree to do."

Belkin and Piano unveiled the Italian architect's design for the 80-story building in November. The design called for the glass tower to have reflectors that would direct sunlight to the ground-level public space, external elevators to whisk visitors to a restaurant and public space at the rooftop, and a supermarket and parking below.

Belkin was the sole respondent to Menino's solicitation last year for proposals to build a skyscraper on the site of a decrepit city-owned parking garage between Winthrop Square and Federal Street. In January, the Boston Redevelopment Authority officially selected Belkin as site developer.

"I called for world-class architects to come up with a building that reflects all the greatness and potential of Boston," Menino said when Belkin and Piano unveiled their design in November. "Today's proposal . . . promises everything we asked for."

Yesterday Menino said, "From what I understand, it's still a Piano-inspired design, and I'm happy about that."

Neither the joint statement nor the Piano executive indicated whether Belkin and CBT would keep the Italian architect's striking design, all or in part .

Belkin's project had already lost a key player when the leader of the development management team at Meredith & Grew, Daniel O'Connell, left to become secretary of the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development in the administration of Governor Deval Patrick.

O'Connell was a partner and experienced development professional who previously worked at Spaulding & Slye and helped prepare the massive Fan Pier on the South Boston waterfront for development. He was replaced by Yanni Tsipis, a vice president who has been with the firm's development group for years.

Belkin is an experienced businessman who helped launch the affinity credit card market, and has interests in travel, financial, and other industries. This is his first effort as a real estate developer. Other developers have privately said a project of the size proposed by Belkin would be difficult and expensive to build, even for an experienced developer.

Piano is known for the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which he designed in the 1970s, and for many other idiosyncratic buildings, like the Kansai Airport Terminal in Osaka, Japan. His new headquarters for The New York Times Co., which owns The Boston Globe, opens at Times Square this spring.

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