Exploring other options

While the Lighthouse project remains in limbo as 2009 winds down, developments in Queens and Brooklyn appear to be gathering steam.

In Nassau County, Lighthouse developers Charles Wang and Scott Rechler continue to remain silent, and Supervisor Kate Murray and the Hempstead town board have stood pat on their wish to revise the nearly $4 billion privately funded megaproposal to revitalize the Nassau Coliseum property.

Though Wang never offered specifics, the owner of the New York Islanders said he would “explore all options” if the town did not give him an answer to the proposal by his deadline of Oct. 3. At the time, there was talk that Wang would consider moving the Islanders to Kansas City, which has a new arena and wants a professional hockey team. Those rumors subsided after the Islanders played a preseason game there in September in front of a sparse crowd of fewer than 10,000.

Now the second-guessing of Wang’s intentions is focused on Brooklyn and Queens. In Queens, New York City’s Economic Development Corporation is soliciting bids for the Willets Point project, a proposed development of the 61-acre industrial area that neighbors Citi Field and Flushing Meadows Park. The Queens Chamber of Commerce has publicly invited the Islanders to the Willets Point development, which includes a convention center that planners say could be converted into a hockey arena.

“It can certainly double as an arena, there’s no question,” said Jack Friedman, executive vice president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. “And Queens is still on Long Island.”

Wang grew up in Queens and graduated from Queens College.

In Brooklyn, Bruce Ratner, a developer and the principal owner of the New Jersey Nets, leads a project whose centerpiece is the Barclay’s Center, a new arena to be built at the railyards in Prospect Heights, near downtown Brooklyn. That proposal includes thousands of residential units and several acres of open space.

While the fate of the Lighthouse remains in the hands of political leaders, the projects in Brooklyn and Queens have encountered legal road blocks. Both the Atlantic Yards and Willets Point developments would be situated on property now occupied by businesses or homes and could require eminent domain proceedings. The Lighthouse would be developed on the county-owned Nassau Coliseum property and nearby real estate already owned by Wang and Rechler.

Residents of the communities surrounding the site of the Atlantic Yards, including a group known as Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, have fought the project for years. Overseen by the Empire State Development Corporation, the proposal was given a green light by the state’s highest court in November, but continues to be slowed by legal challenges.

The situation appears much brighter in Queens, where the Willets Point project took a major step forward in November, when a federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by property owners. According to Friedman, 70 percent of the existing properties have already been acquired by the city through negotiations, a process the city is continuing for the remaining 30 percent, before it considers eminent domain proceedings.

The next step is finding interested developers, and Friedman said he hopes Wang and the Lighthouse Development Group get involved. “We don’t want them to ignore us and go elsewhere,” Friedman said.

What’s next for the Lighthouse?

The Town of Hempstead, which has authority over the Lighthouse developers’ environmental and zoning applications, held public hearings in August and September. For the project to move forward, it will require environmental and zoning approval from the town, and then an approved lease agreement from Nassau County, which has the Islanders locked into the Coliseum through 2015.

Following her re-election, Murray told the Herald that talks with the Lighthouse development group had been going “smoothly.” Like Wang and Rechler, however, Murray has been quiet about the process since then.

In Mineola, meanwhile, the county is undergoing a transfer of power in both the executive and legislative branches. Outgoing County Executive Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, was an outspoken supporter of the Lighthouse project, and even came to terms with Wang on a proposed lease agreement before he lost the election to Republican Ed Mangano.

During his campaign, Mangano cited his support for the Lighthouse project. He is no stranger to new developments, having been instrumental in revitalizing the Grumman property in Bethpage.

Mangano’s right-hand man, Rob Walker, currently an assemblyman in the 15th district but slated to be the chief deputy county executive come Jan. 1, is an outspoken supporter of the project, and appeared on a video presented by the Lighthouse group as one of several notable backers. In an interview with the Herald following the announcement of his new role with the county, Walker emphasized that the Lighthouse is one of the main issues that will be addressed.

“We are going to bring everybody to the table,” he said. “It has to go through the process it’s going through, but we will continue to be the conduit. Let’s get everyone together and do it the right way.”