In October 2008, Gov. David A. Paterson, Empire State Development and the New York State Racing & Wagering Board explored redevelopment options for the 36 acres comprising two parcels at Belmont Park.
According to the Belmont Park Redevelopment Study, released by Empire State Development in December 2008, the options for eight-acre Site A included a Racino, a hotel and video lottery terminals.
Options for 28-acre Site B included mixed-use property or big box retail, a small hotel or senior housing.
However, none of those plans have come to fruition.
In September 2012, almost four years later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a new request for proposals through Empire State Development.
Submissions were due six weeks later.
This time Site A was open to proposals for a resort and spa hotel or any other use complimentary to horse racing and pari-mutual wagering. Site B was open to proposals for retail, professional office space, institutional or educational uses and lodging.
As specifically written in the request for proposals, “Residential development, including senior housing and assisted living facilities and similar uses, will not be permitted on either Site.”
The second request for proposals in 2012 attracted three submissions.
The first two were somewhat similar retail based proposals from accomplished and respected developers, Engel Burman Group and Blumenfeld Development Group.
The third proposal was from Queens-based Mattone group for a $400 million, 25,000 seat soccer stadium with 250,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, to house the second-tier team, the New York Cosmos.
Last year the Cosmos declared they had financial trouble and subsequently the request for proposals was cancelled in December 2016.
Why this whole request for proposals process lasted more than four years is anybody’s guess.
The total 36-acre tract, with excellent access to public transportation and highways, is arguably the most valuable undeveloped land anywhere near the Queens/Long Island border.
In the almost nine years since the idea to develop this land was first floated by Gov. Paterson, no projects are remotely close to becoming a reality.
Now what?
Unanswered questions about the development abound.
For example, why isn’t housing part of the equation when quality affordable rental units are in short supply? Why hasn’t health care focused development been actively pursued when health care is by far the largest employer on Long Island? Why didn’t anyone, including supportive elective officials, bother to scratch the surface of the Cosmos financial ability to support a 25,000-seat stadium when they advocated for it?
The governor and the Empire State Development haven’t called for a new request for proposals but when they do I suggest they include a timeline as to when the project will be awarded.
Right now, a new hockey arena for the Islanders is being suggested, but if built would leave the recently renovated Coliseum in Hempstead a moribund, second-rate facility surrounded by asphalt.
Retail by itself won’t keep Nassau’s economy growing as brick and mortar retail locations are contracting across the country thanks to Amazon and other online retailers.
There will probably be more delays and studies conducted, but the question remains: What should be built on the 36 acres at Belmont Park?
Here are my suggestions for a mixed-use, live, work and play walkable community:
· Commercial space that supports health care, our largest local employer
· A large, first-class resort hotel and spa with a convention center and a wing for medical tourists
· Affordable rental apartments for Millennials so the next generation doesn’t leave for Manhattan or Brooklyn
· Market-rate condos for those who want to stay on Long Island and no longer want the work of a house, but want access to public transportation
· A creative commercial space for a “We Work” type facility to foster a start-up community of entrepreneurs
· A first-class, small-entertainment venue with a food hall to attract tourism and act as a gateway to Long Island.
This 36-acre parcel remains an unexcavated asset, and the losses in opportunity costs to our community are real.
Long Islanders need shovels in the ground to prepare for long-term growth.
Economic growth at Belmont Park will expand the tax base, create good paying jobs and bring the tax relief we are all so desperate for. Nassau County can’t afford to wait another decade for something to happen.
Hate to break it to you, Mr. Haber, but Nassau County and Bruce Ratner left the recently renovated Coliseum as a second-rate facility with its diminished capacity, high-school quality scoreboard, minuscule locker rooms, and lack of suites. It is too ambitious for minor league sports (like the Long Island Nets of the NBA D-League who are its sole sport tenants), and nowhere near acceptable for a major league team. And its moribundity followed on from decades of short-sightedness by many in power in Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead. There were plenty of opportunities to turn the Coliseum into a crown jewel, but political machinations doomed every one; Republicans in the TOH like Kate Murray and current TOH Sup. Anthony Santino stonewalled Tom Suozzi’s preferred Lighthouse plan, while your own party boss Jay Jacobs did everything in his power to stop Edward Mangano’s preferred referendum. And they think the Islanders are going to believe they’re being welcomed back to Uniondale with open arms?
Understood…. My concern is if a new arena opens at Belmont the Coliseum would suffer and I feel have a difficult time remaining viable.
With all due respect, Mr. Haber, that’s Nassau County’s problem. The problems with the building and its insuitability as an NHL arena were hardly secrets, and the development did nothing to address them, despite having ample opportunity to do so. If the solution to bringing them home is a new building at Belmont built with professional hockey in mind, I’m not going to shed any tears over the Islanders snubbing the renovated Coliseum as a result.
I can, however, be angry at the County for failing to properly develop the Coliseum, or for throwing so many self-congratulatory press conferences for doing the bare minimum. Instead of trying to cast the Islanders, the Empire State Development Corportation or Gov. Cuomo as the bad guys, start at the beginning and see who created this mess in the first place.
A new arena at Belmont would put a huge squeeze on that dump in Uniondale and to be honest, who cares. The Residents of this county and fans of the Isles have deserved a 1st rate facility for years now. Belmont is a smart play as long as it’s done correctly. Sitting here worrying about to many arenas in one location is useless and only for people looking to complain about something, that is, unless you lie in bed every night thinking about how you are going to put a stop to the numerous chipoltes, starbucks, and CVS in a certain mile radius as well
Adam, as longtime residents of Floral Park we and our neighbors in Elmont strongly prefer a green alternative. Growing community support for a commercial organic farm and market for this space make sense. As this area becomes more and more developed, the green pastures of Belmont and its PARK are important to us all.
Demand for organic food has skyrocketed and the local communities will benefit from a fresh, local food source.
Would appreciate further discussion ahead of any firm recommendations on your part. Feel free to contact me at kcrail@kw.com.
With all due respect, this is probably the worst of all possible ideas. Forgetting that none of this will touch the park aspect of Belmont Park (we are talking about fields of asphalt that exist there), and forgetting the fact that there’s no way on God’s green earth that the state would waste the enormous economic boost a proper development could provide for the region, have you or any of the proponents of this actually lived near a large-scale organic farming operation? The smells can be, um, breathtaking. Kiss your property values goodbye as the stink from the composting of waste products, garbage, etc., waft across your yards and into your homes. Imagine going to the bathroom, not flushing, closing the windows and doors for a week and letting bacteria, etc. do its job. Like I said, breathtaking.
Organic farming isn’t like rotting garbage! And I guess you are unaware of horse manure? Pasture-raised farms and organic farms are not “smelly”, Kerbers in Huntington and Eves Garden in Riverhead are excellent examples, along with Sang Lee.
Nature is preferred over asphalt and car fumes, at least by most in the Floral Park and Elmont communities.
And by the way, soil bacteria are keys to nutrition.
These days, Kerbers is a two acre “farm” behind an overpriced take out food operation. I’ve not been to Sang Lee, but we’ve been to Eve’s Garden of Eden, and if you are there at the wrong time of year, oh boy. That’s farm country out there, so it’s accepted, but place that in an urban or suburban setting and your friends and neighbors might just not be very happy with you or other proponents of this “idea.”
Anyway, you can’t just spread fresh horse manure and call it fertilizer. It needs to be composted — allowed to rot — to break it down and make is usable, otherwise it would kill the plants. Whether that’s done by spreading raw manure on fields in the fall, after harvest, or in a large composting facility, the process is odorific. Also, since horse manure isn’t an ideal fertilizer for all plants, other organic fertilizers, including chicken manure, cow manure and even treated sewer sludge, known as biosolids, could be brought in and used by a commercial farming operation.
Finally, since the property is a former parking lot, the soil beneath it would almost certainly require massive remediation to be usable for farming in the first place, and that cost alone should be a deal breaker for the state or any commercial concern interested in your plan. Decades of car exhaust and leaking automotive fluids, plus leaching from the blacktop itself, almost certainly have left the soil chock full of PAHs, lead (from all the years when gas contained that), and other contaminants.
Bottom line — the idea of using this property for farming instead of commercial development that would lower property taxes and create jobs for the community is a non-starter. Sorry.