National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern confirmed the plans during a visit to the 275-seat, 17,000-sf NBA City restaurant located at Universal Orlando's CityWalk attraction. The Orlando restaurant's operation would be used as a prototype for the New York establishment.

Global expansion plans were scrubbed last year after Hard Rock Café International bowed out as an NBA City partner. NBA City opened in September 1999. Gross revenue figures to date have not been disclosed.

NBA receives licensing revenue from the use of the NBA name and logo at the restaurant but does not receive a share of the operating revenue until the restaurant is profitable, according to Stern. The NBA is funding some of the marketing and promotional expenses for the restaurant but is not financing any of the venture's debt.

Burnet owns RWB Financial, a privately-held real estate development and mortgage banking firm in Minneapolis. He is also a part owner of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves team.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.