A blowup algebra of hyperplane arrangements

It is shown that the Orlik-Terao algebra is graded isomorphic to the special fiber of the ideal $I$ generated by the $(n-1)$-fold products of the members of a central arrangement of size $n$. This momentum is carried over to the Rees algebra (blowup) of $I$ and it is shown that this algebra is of fiber-type and Cohen-Macaulay. It follows by a result of Simis-Vasconcelos that the special fiber of $I$ is Cohen-Macaulay, thus giving another proof of a result of Proudfoot-Speyer about the Cohen-Macauleyness of the Orlik-Terao algebra.