LONG ISLAND, NY | Nassau Coliseum | 450 FT / 137 M | 31 FLOORS | PRO
 

Wang unveils bold vision for Nassau

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http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-b...age-bigpix2005

BY ELIZABETH MOORE
November 14, 2007

For starters, Islanders owner Charles Wang and his Lighthouse Development Group want to build a newer, bigger, better Nassau Coliseum topped with billowing white sails that call to mind the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

Then, he will to turn its bleak asphalt parking lot into a lively urban center, where twin towers 31-stories tall will house Long Island's first five-star hotel, overlooking a conference center, offices, homes and a "Celebration Plaza" larger than New York's Bryant Park.

And that's just phase one.

Wang's 5.5-million-square-foot application for a planned development district, filed late Tuesday with the Town of Hempstead, aims to transform the Coliseum and its surrounding 150 acres of county-owned land into "a state-of-the-art venue which will serve as an economic and socioeconomic engine," bringing new jobs and tax revenues, higher property values and a focal point for the Island. It will also, they say, keep the Islanders from leaving.

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"We kid around that the cockroaches and the rats [in the Coliseum] are so old, even they have Stanley Cup rings," Islanders General Manager Garth Snow said.

The development proposal, copies of which were given to Newsday and some other media outlets in advance, is being viewed as a watershed moment for Nassau County.

Will its residents embrace a new vision of development that accepts urban scale and density on the promise that it will deliver vibrant, walkable communities where the next generation can afford to live?

Or will they see it as just another attempt to jam too many buildings onto too small a piece of land, with too much traffic and not enough parking?

The Lighthouse project, originally named for a now-scrapped 60-story tower that was to be its centerpiece, is the keystone of Thomas Suozzi's "New Suburbia" land-use plan for central Nassau, and the filing is expected to focus new energy on the county's proposed new transit network that still has yet to settle on a mode or route.

Wang and his partner, RexCorp Realty chairman Scott Rechler, promise to follow green-building and smart-growth neighborhood development principles and include bicycle and jogging trails that connect with Hofstra University, Nassau Community College, Museum Mile and wind all the way to Eisenhower Park.

"This is not just sprawling big-box development, it's something distinctive and special," Rechler said. "It'll be the best of the city and the best of the suburbs."

The developers want to navigate the complex zoning, planning and environmental reviews within the next 18 months. That would allow them to finalize a 99-year lease for the county-owned property and break ground for the Coliseum's long-awaited renovation by July 2009. The rest of their vision would take form over the following five to 10 years.

It will be up to Hempstead Town to decide whether the site and its surrounding neighborhoods can handle the traffic and parking demands this development would place upon it.

"Anyone who has driven along Meadowbrook Parkway or Hempstead Turnpike during rush hour in the vicinity of the Hub knows that traffic is already a very serious issue," Supervisor Kate Murray said. "There's no reason to expect that it won't be an even greater concern as we consider any new development proposal."

The proposed conceptual master plan covers a swath of county-owned land allocated by the federal government in 1963 from the former Mitchel Field Air Force Base. The land, which is now zoned mostly for office and hotel development, includes the county's 77-acre Coliseum parcel, which is leased by SMG Management, as well as RexCorp Plaza, the Marriott Hotel and the Omni Building, are leased from the county by a joint venture between Wang and RexCorp.

The first phase, the mixed-use core subdistrict, includes a transformed Coliseum that could hold up to 17,500 hockey fans or 20,000 concert goers with an additional concourse and new suites, seats, electronics, restaurants and shops. Next door are a sports technology center and an athletic complex with four sheets of ice to host local, regional and national events. The Lighthouse design provides for more than 250,000 square feet of convention, conference and exhibition space, up from the 60,000 square feet the Coliseum holds.

This first phase would also include the site's two 31-story signature towers up to 450 feet tall, housing a five-star hotel with 300 rooms, including luxury full-service condominiums. The hotel would overlook the plaza and down a canal lined with shops and restaurants, with loft housing above and a gourmet grocery below. These condominiums would range from just a few stories to 18 stories tall, or up to 275 feet high.


The second, residential village sub-district, the architects envision a neighborhood more or less built on top of parking decks, with each block a circle of multi-story townhouses and condominiums looking out over green courtyards, many of them with swimming pools. Below on street level will be grocery stores and dry cleaners.


Wang and Rechler's overall proposal calls for a blend of next-generation, luxury, active adult and multifamily housing. A multi-screen movie theater will be part of this phase. The typical building in this section is 7 stories; the tallest would be no more than 150 feet tall.
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Finally, the developers envision four new office buildings comprising 1 million square feet under the residential subdistrict, with two each to be built on the Coliseum parcel's northwest corner and just west of RexCorp Plaza. The tallest would be no more than 175 feet.

Fitting this many residents, visitors and employees onto a parcel this size depends on intensive, efficient parking development. The Lighthouse proposal features parking decks that may be as much as two stories under ground and one and a half stories above, with the exception of the Coliseum parking deck, three stories above ground. Spaces associated with the Coliseum and offices are to be shared, used by commuters during the day and by Coliseum visitors at night.

The developers admit that they don't have enough parking to comply with the Town of Hempstead's building code, but if they did, they maintain it would be wasted. They plan to conduct a "shared parking study" to demonstrate that the 17,211 spaces they have planned will be enough.

The Lighthouse Group has dedicated $55 million toward roadway improvements needed to accommodate the development's added traffic and connect to the larger Hub transit network envisioned by Nassau County planners. They also plan to operate a bus trolley system which will serve the site and its surrounding area.

Matthew Frank, managing director of the Lighthouse group, said the developers also have committed to participate in a pilot program of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Neighborhood Development, to certify the Lighthouse project as a "green" or sustainable development.

Mindful of the feedback they got on early plans comparing the development to Queens, the Lighthouse Group this summer hired Baltimore-based Development Design Group and the Spector Group of Woodbury to overhaul them. DDG scrapped the towers and plazas of the last version in favor of a more "psychologically manageable" streetscape, integrated with the surrounding community.

Approvals for the project can't come too soon, say the long-suffering Islanders, who don't understand why Wang couldn't secure approvals long ago to renovate an arena that is now one of the nation's oldest.

"They should have had it done by now," said team captain Bill Guerin yesterday. "This has been way too long coming."

31 story buildings on long Island? Sure.....over the dead bodies of a few million NIMBY's

Reminds me of the Westin in Hollywood, FL

They shot down Charles Wang's 60-story "Lighthouse", and I believe rightly so. However, this redevelopment is welcomed for this so-called hub which has been done in piecemeal fashion for decades. Residential NIMBYs shouldn't object to this one with any great force.

Given the way that much of Long Island has evolved over time at least some sensible nimbys might have been an asset.

Joking..............of course......well, mebbe.....

This project seems okay enough. It has cohesion. And now that sprawl has pretty much spent itself, time to go up!

WOW, I went to grad school at Hofstra back in the early 2000's & this project would give that area a huge boost. Would love to see it happen. Imagine the property values after something like this completed (Nassau county is already skyhigh)!!!

Wow...that looks great.

Shame that the Lighthouse Tower is gone, but at least the development looks nice overall.

31 stories isn't that much of a stretch here. Current tallest on Long Island is the 19-story Nassau University Medical Center (299') about a mile to the east, in East Meadow (1974).

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North Shore Towers -- Apartments on the mid-Queens/Nassau border.....30 stories (early '70s).

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What is the large building i see on Long Island, just slightly west of due south from New Haven CT?

It looks to be about 200-300 feet, and it is as wide as it is tall, in Suffolk county, possibly in the Centereach area.

Must be SUNY Stony Brook, University Hospital tower.

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Long Island, N.Y. | The Lighthouse | 450 FT / 137 M | 35 FLOORS
 

This proposal has been around in various forms over the past decade. It now seems things are getting more serious, so it's time for an updated look...

Here's the website with tons of information, videos, and renderings on this mega development.



About the Lighthouse Development Group, LLC.

Lighthouse Development Group, LLC, a joint venture between Charles Wang, the Founder of the Lighthouse project and owner of the New York Islanders, and RXR, Long Island's largest owner, manager and developer of commercial real estate, has been designated the exclusive developer of the Coliseum site and has entered into a Development Plan Agreement with the County of Nassau. The partnership combines Charles Wang's vision for the revitalization of the aging Coliseum property with RXR's renowned expertise.

The Lighthouse project is the transformation of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum site and surrounding area into a modern 24/7 suburban center. The centerpiece will be a revitalized arena for the New York Islanders, surrounded by exciting residential neighborhoods with a variety of housing options, lifestyle retail and entertainment venues, Class A office space including an incubator for the sports technology industry, multi-purpose athletic complex, state-of-the-art conference and exhibition facilities, a minor league ballpark, and the first 5-star hotel on Long Island.

The estimated $3.74 billion project is expected to generate $71 million of annual tax revenues. An expected 75,000 construction and construction related jobs will be created over the 8-to-10 year build out of the project. Once completed, 19,000 thousand permanent jobs and many new businesses will provide the opportunities and careers Long Islanders need and want. A transformed coliseum will ensure the New York Islanders have a state-of-the-art home for decades to come. The Lighthouse at Long Island, in the backyard of America's first suburb, will create a destination for future generations of Long Islanders.

___________________________________

The Lighthouse at Long Island Top Ten Facts

1. The Lighthouse project will transform the 150-acres at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum site and the surrounding area into Long Island’s signature destination.

2. The Lighthouse is approximately 5.5 million square feet of new mixed-use development and will be designed and developed to be Long Island’s largest LEED, environmentally friendly, project.

3. The Coliseum will be transformed into a state-of-the-art arena providing a premier entertainment experience. With additional and expanded concourses, all new restrooms, VIP suites, larger seats, and first class concessions and restaurants, the arena will comfortably accommodate 17,500 for hockey, 18,500 for basketball and 20,000 fans for concerts.

4. The Sports Complex will be the region’s preferred sports and entertainment facility. It will house four sheets of ice for local teams and clubs, as well as be capable of hosting regional and national events. The facility will also include basketball courts and a state-of-the-art health club.

5. The Lighthouse’s central landscaped park, Celebration Plaza, will be larger than New York City’s Bryant Park, and will soon become Long Island’s favorite meeting place for family concerts, or just relaxing with a friend.

6. The project’s 2,300 residences will include next generation, luxury, active adult and multi-family housing types. There will be a mix of lofts, condominiums, and town houses set amidst quiet neighborhoods or above vibrant retail streetscapes.

7. Long Island’s first five-star hotel will contain 300 rooms, meeting and banquet facilities, and luxury full-service condominiums.

8. The project will have more than 250,000 square feet of Convention, Conference and Exhibition space and will establish Long Island as a preferred destination for national and international programs while giving local companies a place to host their events.

9. One million square feet of new class A office space, including a sports technology center, will attract new industries and create jobs and career opportunities as well as allow local companies to expand in the heart of Nassau County.

10. The project’s approximately 500,000 square feet of complementary retail, restaurants, and cafes will provide great places to dine and shop for residents and visitors alike.

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Some highlighted facts of the development...
http://www.lighthouseli.com/about/faq

What is the status of the Lighthouse Project?
The application for the re-zoning of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Site was submitted to the Town of Hempstead on November 13, 2007. Two Public Scoping sessions were held on May 22 and 27, 2008. The Lighthouse Development Group filed the Environment Impact Statement in compliance with the State Environmental Quality Review Act(SEQRA) on February 24,2009. The Town of Hempstead is currently reviewing the document and will agree upon its completion no later than July 7th, 2009

How much will the Lighthouse project cost Nassau County, and how will it affect the County's budget?
Nassau County will not be providing any financial support for this project. Currently, the County loses $1.5 million on the Coliseum and has no money in its budget to improve the Coliseum or the surrounding area. However, the Lighthouse will help the County's budget, creating a profit from the lease of the Coliseum and generating millions in incremental tax revenues, putting the Coliseum back on County tax rolls.

What is going to be done to the Coliseum?
A transformed Coliseum will provide a world-class venue to attract top acts, while providing the richest fan experience. Expanded and additional concourses will offer a variety of concessions and restaurants, all new restrooms, larger seats, and VIP suites. These amenities, never available before, will enhance the overall experience for 17,500 fans for hockey, 18,500 for basketball and 20,000 for concerts, giving Long Islanders the first-class sports and entertainment venue they deserve.

What is the build-out time for the project?
The first phase of the project will include the transformation of the Coliseum and the project's infrastructure. It is expected that the Coliseum construction will take two years. The total project will be completed in 8-10 years.

Will the approval of the Lighthouse project ensure that the Islanders will not move?
As part of the proposal submitted the Nassau County Legislature, the New York Islanders would extend their current lease agreement at the Coliseum until 2025. The Islanders are Long Island's only major league professional sports team.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06142009...ule_174185.htm

ALL NHL HAS TO DO IS FOLLOW ITS OWN RULES

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June 14, 2009


I CAN'T tell you whether the Lighthouse Project conceived by Charles Wang is good for Long Island, but I can tell you the Islanders are good for Long Island, that the Islanders are good for this community, and when the Islanders are competitive, they are very good for hockey in New York.

I also can tell you that if Gary Bettman's declaration is to be believed, then the case unfolding in Judge Redfield Baum's courtroom in Phoenix regarding the future of the Coyotes is nothing but positive as it relates to the future of the Islanders in this market.

Understand. Wang has been a Long Island resident for 57 years. He has built a life here. The last thing he wants is to be anathema in his own home, to be to Long Island what Walter O'Malley is to Brooklyn. The last thing he wants is to own a hockey team in Kansas City, for goodness sakes.

Well, not exactly true. The last thing Wang wants is to own a hockey team that is consigned to play forever in an antiquated Nassau Coliseum that was once the home of the greatest team in NHL history but now stands as an impediment to building a contender.

But even as Wang awaits the outcome of the political food fight that has infected the Lighthouse approval process on Long Island, the declaration Bettman submitted to the court in support of keeping the Coyotes in Phoenix should establish the foundation for keeping the Islanders here, either under new ownership or in a new arena built by or for Wang, should Lighthouse be rejected.

Paragraph 10 of the commissioner's declaration refers to the importance of rivalries as "long-standing." There is no greater rivalry in the NHL than Islanders-Rangers. Islanders-Flyers isn't too shabby either, and neither, for that matter, is Islanders-Pittsburgh. They all would seem to trump Coyotes-Kings.

Paragraph 26: "The NHL has a critical interest in maintaining the viability of franchises in their home markets already assigned and approved by the Board of Governors. As such, franchise relocation is disfavored when there is a viable local buyer available to keep a club in its current location . . ."

Paragraph 29: "The fact that a particular ownership or ownership group has faced difficulties in a particular market does not necessarily signal that the market is not viable."

Paragraph 30: "In evaluating potential relocation of the Coyotes, the Board of Governors would need to consider . . . whether the present owner of the Club has made a good faith effort to find prospective purchasers who are prepared to continue operating the Club in its present location . . ."

The Islanders have a lease that runs through 2015. Wang told Slap Shots in a telephone conversation this past week he has no intention of seeking a way out of the lease should Lighthouse be voted down. He also told Slap Shots if Lighthouse is not approved by October, he will "consider all options."

"If the answer is no, we will become an unrestricted free agent, but I can tell you that it doesn't mean we are leaving," Wang said. "I am going to honor the lease. Someone might want to build an arena for us."

Nassau County might want to build an arena for the Islanders without the bells and whistles of Lighthouse. Suffolk County might want to build an arena for the Islanders, and so might a developer in Queens. If the arena in Brooklyn becomes reality, a new urban rink could be awaiting Victor Hedman.

"I have not talked to anyone about Brooklyn or Queens or any alternative because this is where we want to be and this is where we want to stay," Wang said. "We have all the plans in place to modernize [Nassau Coliseum] and make it the best arena in the league for our fans and our players.

"We have 80-percent public support on Lighthouse. It is not meant to solve every problem on Long Island, but it is a catalyst, and now more than ever."

But let's say Wang is rejected on Lighthouse and does not want to remain in Nassau County. Let's say he would rather move the team to Kansas City or Las Vegas than to Queens, Brooklyn or Suffolk. O'Malley, remember, took the Dodgers to L.A. instead of Willets Point.

Well, according to Bettman, Wang would first be obligated to seek a buyer who would keep the team in this market. Given the assurance of a new arena, there is no doubt that multiple prospective purchasers would emerge for the Islanders.

Bettman is engaging in a fight to the death over Glendale, Ariz., a market that has never proven itself viable. Long Island has proven itself. There is no market that deserves more protection, no fan base that deserves more support from the league than this one.

The commissioner is on record, subject to perjury: The NHL opposes relocation of teams in viable home markets with viable ownership groups or viable prospective buyers. If Lighthouse fails, it is imperative Bettman be held accountable if there is any attempt to move the Islanders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/ny...1&ref=nyregion

In Suburbia, a Megaproject Offers Hope

By PETER APPLEBOME
June 17, 2009


Back when the potato fields turned into tract houses, Long Island became Long Island and suburbia became suburbia 60 years ago, a best-case scenario might have been a week just like this one, with flocks of golf-inclined pilgrims descending on Bethpage State Park for the United States Open.

What would have seemed a lot less likely would have been the seven-year game of three-dimensional chess now coming to a head about seven miles away. It is basically asking whether there’s a vision of suburbia beyond single-family homes, clogged highways and high-end golf, and if so, whether it can take hold on Long Island.

It sounds like a lot of significance to put on one development, however big — and, even taken with a few shakers of salt, the projected $4 billion in investment, the 5.5 million square feet of mixed-use development, the 75,000 construction and secondary jobs and 19,000 permanent jobs claimed for the project, the Lighthouse at Long Island, qualify as suitably big.

The project, as proposed for 150 acres in the heart of Nassau County, includes a renovated Nassau Coliseum, 2,300 residences including two hotel and residential towers nearly 40 stories tall, canal and pedestrian plaza, sports complex and sports technology center, convention center, office buildings — in effect, the first ambitious urban space in a county that developed as a rejection of exactly that.

So with Long Island having given birth to the modern suburbs in the days of Robert Moses and Levittown, what happens with the Lighthouse could go a long way to answering whether the island has a second act or just an increasingly embattled version of the first.

Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, who touts the Lighthouse as the centerpiece of his vision of a smart-growth, new suburbia, always begins his sales pitch for the project and the idea behind it by saying it’s not a threat to the Long Island of myth and fable.

Ninety percent of the county will stay the same! We love our single-family homes, beaches and waterfronts! It’s not about becoming the sixth borough!

“We don’t want to be postsuburban,” he says. “We don’t want to be a new urbanism. We want to be a new suburbia. We want to keep the good stuff about suburbia and get rid of the bad stuff about suburbia. But the old model of suburbia began 60 years ago with Levittown. It’s no longer sustainable.”

In truth, Mr. Suozzi’s gospel of New Suburbia, a combination of what he calls cool downtowns — somewhat loosely defined — and a megaproject like this, isn’t completely new. You need only to go as far as White Plains or Stamford, Conn., or New Rochelle to find “smart growth” urban models in the middle of distinctly suburban environments. The problem for Mr. Suozzi is that there’s almost none of it on Long Island. Nassau County’s population is smaller now than it was in 1970, it’s pretty much out of developable land and facing high taxes, stagnant revenues and the exodus of young people.

It’s not like the Lighthouse will save Long Island, but it’s by far the biggest thing to have come along in decades.

Still, good luck in getting it done. Long Islanders are expert in stopping anything. The Republicans who run the Town of Hempstead and the Democrats who run Nassau County have a vested interest in making sure the others don’t succeed. In a region where the DNA is suspicious of anything urban, Charles Wang, Islanders owner and project sponsor, didn’t help his case by first announcing an Ozymandian 60-story tower as the centerpiece.

On the other hand, county and town officials have actually been talking to one another and showing some sense of urgency about moving it along. Mr. Wang says he needs an answer on the project by October or he will entertain proposals to move the team, so something has to give before long.

Things could still fall apart or the project could get approved and then flop (hello, Xanadu). But oddly, the criticism thus far has been pretty muted, perhaps a sign that people realize that, particularly in this miserable economy, Nassau desperately needs a second act, and this may be the only game in town.

“It’s potentially a game changer, and after this, there’s nothing else,” said Lawrence Levy, executive director of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University. “This is a region that hasn’t been able to get much done in a long time, and this would show that it could. And you think, if they can’t do this, they can’t do anything.”

Good to see such high ambitions in a suburban area, but do you now what I mean when I say ick?

Looks worse than something built in China. This developer needs to take a trip to Northern Europe or the UK to get some better taste.

IMO it's quite a decent development, especially for the suburbs. Sure, they have large parking garages and all, but that's a necessity in that type of built environment. The development itself, though, looks quite urban-minded/pedestrian-oriented. It's a nice breath of fresh air from the usual mall or office park we'd expect from a place like that.

with the expectations tied to the #1 draft pick in next week's NHL draft, could the Islanders not picking John Tavares possibly kill this venture (by way of disappointing fans / voters)? Sounds ridiculous but with expectations high on the pick, expectations after that selection may push this over the top or pull it back down to the ground (again).

I don't think that will have any bearing on support of the development, one way or the other.

It seems more about getting development done and keeping and creating jobs in the area than anyhing else. It's a rare mix of public and political support.