County breaks ground on ice center

Former NHL players bringing 85,000-square-foot complex to Eisenhower Park

Posted

Eisenhower Park will soon be home to an 85,000-square-foot sports and recreation center, highlighted by two NHL regulation-sized ice rinks and one outdoor recreational ice rink. The privately financed complex will cost an estimated $15 million to construct, paid for by a company called Twin Rinks at Eisenhower Park, LLC.

Twin Rinks is headed by former NHL hockey players — and twin brothers — Chris and Peter Ferraro. According to Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, a Republican from Bethpage, the company was selected after the county issued a request-for-proposals, or RFP, in June 2012. The company also comprises partners Joel Friedman, of Clearview Capital Management, LLC, and his brother Ronald Friedman, of SilvermanAcampora, LLC.

The project’s target completion date is September or October of this year, according to Kerry Gillick-Goldberg, a spokeswoman for Twin Rinks at Eisenhower. No date was given as to when construction is expected to begin, but Gillick-Goldberg said they plan to “hit the ground running” as soon as possible.

According to Mangano, the new complex will be built just south of the Aquatic Center, and will be funded and maintained by the Twin Rinks at Eisenhower. The county will receive part of the proceeds generated by the complex, though officials did not say how large its share would be. According to

Gillick-Goldberg, Twin Rinks at Eisenhower has a 50-year license with the county to lease the land that the complex will be built on, and will increase its payments to the county as the term progresses. At the end of the 50 years, the license is renewable for another 50 years.

At a Jan. 17 news conference, Mangano was joined by the Ferraros and their consultant Richard Salgado of Coastal Advisors, LLC, as well the Nassau County’s Legislature’s presiding officer, Norma Gonsalves, a Republican from East Meadow, to break ground on the project. They used shovels that were custom-made to look like hockey sticks. “It’s going to create some balance for our county,” Mangano said of the complex, “as well as provide unique world-class ice hockey opportunities right here in

Eisenhower Park, the park that is bigger than Central Park.”

Page 1 / 3