The Nassau Hub Community Benefits Advisory Committee held its inaugural meeting on Thursday, initiating discussions on how to transform the lots surrounding the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum while bringing benefits to surrounding communities.
The 15-member committee was formed last month in coordination with BSE Global and RXR Realty, the development team for the $1.5 billion Hub project, to advise how to best allocate funding to the surrounding areas.
Among the developers’ plans for the Hub, unanimously approved by the Nassau County Legislature in December, are 500 units of housing, a Northwell Health “innovation center,” retail outlets, hotels and more.
Paired with this is a community benefits plan to send some of the profits into the community, and the advisory committee, which will make recommendations on where to allocate the money.
“Over the coming weeks the Committee will be expanding their outreach to additional community stakeholders and experts, to ensure the plan brings meaningful and tangible support to community organizations, the local school district, minority and women owned business efforts, local veterans, etc.,” Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said in a statement.
Issues the plan hopes to address include youth programs, veterans, at-risk youth and vulnerable populations, job training and job creation, supporting local entrepreneurs, the Uniondale School District and sustainability.
Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss, a committee member, said the meeting went well and that he wants to make sure there is “no negative impact” to Mineola, since previous information he received suggested the project could involve buses coming to Mineola to ferry people to the hub.
“They gave an overview of the entire project, laid some groundwork as to what’s expected of the committee and the subcommittees and they gave us a rough timeline and it’s gong to be an interesting committee to be a part of,” Strauss said. “Hopefully we can make some things happen for them and be part of their success, but we’ve got to be careful.”
The committee is co-chaired by Hempstead Town council member Dorothy Goosby and Kevin Law, the CEO and president of the Long Island Association.
Government officials on the committee include Nassau County Legislators Siela Bynoe and Thomas McKevitt, Hempstead Town council member Erin King Sweeney, Strauss, Hempstead Mayor Don Ryan, Garden City Mayor Brian Daughney, Evlyn Tsimis, the deputy county executive for economic development, and Rebecca Sinclair, the deputy chief of staff to Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen.
Civic and business leaders include Matthew Aracich, the head of the Building Trades and Construction Council of Nassau and Suffolk, Paul Gibson of the Uniondale Community Land Trust, Pearl Jacobs of the Nostrand Gardens Civic Association, Jeannine Maynard of the Greater Uniondale Area Action Coalition and Walter Skinner of the East Meadow Chamber of Commerce.
