There's still hope for redevelopment at the Nassau Hub

It was a promising sign to see several firms answer Nassau County’s recent call for a master developer to create a workable plan for the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the surrounding Hub area.

Folks should credit County Executive Ed Mangano, one year after a failed referendum, with continuing the drive to make the Hub a workable project. The good news is that at least one of the respondents is committed not only to keeping the New York Islanders, but also to creating a long-promised mixed-use destination.

You need a scorecard to keep track of the plans for the Coliseum and its surroundings. There have been no fewer than three notable infrastructure plans in the past 14 years: one in 1998, under then County Executive Tom Gulotta; another in 2005, under Gulotta’s successor, Tom Suozzi; and now another, produced by the Mangano administration. There have been two plans proposed over the past decade for the Coliseum site. The privately financed Lighthouse proposal failed to secure rezoning approval from the Town of Hempstead, and last year’s plan for the construction of a new Coliseum and a minor league baseball stadium failed at the ballot box in August, when voters made it clear that they didn’t have the appetite to publicly finance the project.

The plan that generated the most support was the Lighthouse project, both in Hofstra/News 12 polls and at the two public hearings on its application. The selling points of that proposal were a strong tax base, job development, the creation of a mixed-use destination and keeping the Islanders with a new Coliseum. The developer held more than 200 community meetings on the project.

So here we are, 14 years later, and some of the same challenges remain. A redevelopment project will need infrastructure funding to, at a minimum, improve the Meadowbrook Parkway, create an express bus system to the Hempstead and Mineola train stations and address wastewater treatment upgrades to the Cedar Creek Sewage Treatment plant. Over the past 10 years, county administrations have failed to apply for federal or state funds to address these basic needs.