Mangano: Redevelop Coliseum, Build Casino at Belmont

MINEOLA, NY-A plan announced Wednesday by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and New York Islanders owner Charles Wang would redevelop the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum site here with a new sports arena. The plan, which would entail $400 million of public funds, including $50 million to construct a minor-league baseball stadium, would require voter approval in a countywide referendum to be held August 1. Mangano also is seeking to put a casino, which would be operated by the Shinnecock Indian tribe, at the Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, NY.

“We will ask residents to invest in their county in order to share the revenue” that a new arena would bring to the county, Mangano said at a news conference Wednesday morning. Wang, who first announced plans to redevelop the 77-acre Coliseum site in 2003, noted that Wednesday’s announcement culminated “a very long journey” and said the deal “does not put the burden on the taxpayers of Nassau County.” A revenue-sharing plan would offset the costs over the course of the Islanders hockey franchise’s new 30-year lease, which would commence in 2015.

According to a release from Mangano’s office, construction on the arena to replace the aging Coliseum facility would begin next year. The new facility, which could also accommodate concerts and other events, is scheduled for completion in ’15 under the proposed timeline. Failure to move forward on the project would jeopardize efforts to keep Long Island’s only professional sports team on the island after its current lease expires in four years, Mangano says in the release.

Wang’s original plan to redevelop the site, a $3.8-billion mixed-use project known as the Lighthouse at Long Island, was scuttled when the Town of Hempstead put zoning restrictions on the redevelopment last July. In a joint statement issued at the time, Wang and Mangano called the scaled-down zoning blueprint “economically unviable.”

The Shinnecock casino plan, which comes soon after the federal government formally recognized the tribe, is subject to approval by the US Department of the Interior. At Wednesday’s news conference, Mangano said a casino would provide “an economic boon for western Nassau County.” Randy King, president of the tribe, says in a release that the Shinnecock Nation is prepared to discuss siting a casino at Belmont “with the state, the local community and all the stakeholders there.”