Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, after consultation with developer Bruce Ratner’s real estate group, has released a plan to revamp the Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the wake of the New York Islanders’ planned move from the Coliseum to Ratner’s Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The request for proposal calls for a scaled-down Coliseum with the winning developer fully responsible for renovation or reconstruction costs.
The current Coliseum has a capacity of more than 17,000; the new plan calls for a minimum of 8,000 seats for entertainment, concerts and sporting events, with an agreement to share revenues with the county.
“What the Ratner findings have documented is that a ‘right sized’ arena offering appropriate amenities would be a successful family-oriented sports and entertainment venue that creates significant revenue for the county and its taxpayers,” Mangano said in a statement. “Its ability to compliment the surrounding development being planned by Renaissance Downtown would ensure that, together, the economic sum would be greater than its combined parts. We have the means of creating a win-win for every county resident, each of whom has a direct stake in the future of the Hub.”
Forest City Ratner, the development firm that worked on the Barclays Center where the Islanders will hit the ice in 2015, would not comment on the request for proposal or whether the group will seek to gain development rights for the Coliseum. Mangano solicited unpaid advice on developing the property from Ratner and Islanders owner Charles Wang in November after news of the Islanders move cast the Hub’s future as a sporting attraction and economic center for Nassau into doubt.
“The RFP we will offer the real estate community reflects that this administration believes that business needs to be engaged in as many county public–private partnerships as appropriate if we expect to create new jobs, generate new investment and rebuild our tax base so that we can take the burden of government off the individual home owner,” Mangano said in the statement. “It is crucial that we let the private sector do what it does best while letting government provide the essential services where it has demonstrated core competence. Asking the real estate community to bid on the future of the Coliseum is a reflection of our commitment to come to the aid of the Nassau County taxpayer through innovative public policy initiatives.”
The county is worried that the Coliseum as it currently stands will not drive enough economic activity in Nassau.
“While the Coliseum now attracts over 1 million visitors annually, creates and maintains employment opportunities and generates significant tax and other indirect revenue for the county, the county is concerned that the existing Coliseum is outdated and does not maximize the job creation and sales tax revenue a redeveloped state-of-the-art arena would generate,” stated the request for proposal. “A renovation or rebuilding of the Coliseum would immediately create job opportunities for thousands of trades-people employed in the construction industry, and also create a significant number of additional, new permanent job opportunities, attract even more visitors and generate significant additional tax revenue for the county.”
The request for proposal, which set an April 15 application deadline for prospective developers, is the latest salvo in a years-long effort to revamp the Nassau Hub that is yet to find success.
Wang’s Lighthouse Project, a proposed $3.8 billion development proposal that included a revamp of the Coliseum, the building of a minor league baseball park and residential construction, was killed by the Town of Hempstead’s zoning board after years of debate. And Nassau voters defeated Mangano’s plan to take out a $400 billion bond to fund arena construction by a double-digit margin in a summer 2011 referendum.
The request for proposal also stipulates that the winning developer would be responsible for the first five years of capital expenditures, with the possibility of cost-sharing agreements with the county after that time.
Mangano has not given up on keeping professional sports in Nassau.
The county will give preference to development plans which include a commitment from a team to play in the new arena, according to the request for proposal.
And for residents unhappy with the changes, at least one bit of history will remain: the new arena will be required to keep “Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum” in its name.
