Longislandpress.com
The Nassau County Legislature voted to approve a proposal to lease the ownership of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to the company of Casinos Las Vegas Sands.
It was approved by a margin of 18 to 1, after being approved both in the County Planning Commission and in the Rules Committee of the Legislature on July 18 and 22, respectively. The vote for a state environmental review of the coliseum and the surrounding property was approved unanimously.
The vote was approved for the first time by 17 to 1 in the republican majority legislature in 2023 (the only vote against was that of the minority leader Delia Deriggi-Whitton, a democrat by Glen Cove, with an abstention of former leder Kevan Abrahams (Democrat for Freeport)) and gave Sands a lease contract of 99 years for the lease of 99 Colosseum, but a state judge of New York ruled that the lease was invalid.
Deriggi-Whitton was once again the only dissident in this Monday vote, although he voted to approve the environmental review of the property.
As a result, although Sands has had the property control since November, the process of approval of the lease had to start over.
Las Vegas Sands plans to build a casino and resort of $ 4 billion in the property, which has the support of the Nassau County Executive, Bruce Blakeman, and (number) of County legislators, some Republicans, some Democrats.
However, this vote was technically not related to Casino’s plans, but simply granted Sands a site control lease contract for 27 years with three five -year renewal periods, which would potentially give Sands the control of the property for 42 years.
Sands will take care of the coliseum and its surrounding property, a central area for the region known as Nassau Hub, but you still have to receive state game licenses, which could be granted next year as very soon. If a game license is denied, Sands intends to move forward with the plans for a property resort.
Criticism of residents
The plans for a casino have received mixed criticism from Nassau residents, and a group of them formed the Say no to the casino association in 2023. The entity affirms that putting a casino will bring addictions to the game, drugs, unnecessary traffic, prostitution and pollution.
Although the Colosseum is located in Unionndale, a village not incorporated in the Hempstead Town, the neighboring Villa de Garden City voted in 2023 to condemn the plans for a casino, and its mayor, Mary Carter Flanagan, chosen in 2023, has openly expressed her opposition to the casino.
“The town of Garden City opposes the casino project,” said Flaganagan. «We do not want more deaths for driving under the influence of alcohol. We don’t want more addictions. We don’t want more pollution and we don’t want more traffic. We have had two elections (in the town) since this project was known, and in each election the candidates presented themselves, all the candidates in the last election demonstrated against the Casino ».
The University of Hofstra has also criticized the plans, and the Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Terry Coniglio, appeared to the meeting to criticize the plan, saying that the lease contract is a precursor to the casino.
“Las Vegas Sands has been operating the property of the Colosseum since November 2023 and, as Hofstra has previously stated, we appreciate and support the continuous operation of the coliseum in the same way that has been produced until a resolution is reached with respect to the long -term development of Nassau Hub,” said Coniglio.
«The works of the coliseum employees do not depend on the lease. The operational lease contract in question does not aim to maintain jobs. Rather, it is a precursor and contemplates the development of a casino in the Nassau Hub. The 42 -year period of the proposed lease contract would exclude the possibility of any long -term development of the coliseum by someone other than the Vegas Sands ».
However, labor leaders are in total disagreement with anti -centers. Sands is currently the only bidder for the coliseum, and if the lease contract is denied, the workers there would be left without work, they say.
«The economic development of this county is what will promote county to the future. Look, we have to look at this objectively, ”said Matthew Aracich, president of the Construction and Building of the Nassau and Suffolk counties.
«We understand it, but we see something different. The model of the construction trades is something completely different, which means that we try to do projects, we try to ensure that they are high -class work with high -class salaries, with the same with the benefits, a retirement labor security. That is what are given to these people here (in the coliseum). If we do not keep going and we get that lease, these people would run out of work. And it’s not just a job, it’s a career, in which many years passed. What do we do to replace them? Just a blow and ends. That is an inconceivable action ».
The lease has also been supported by Ryan Stanton, president of the Long Island Labor Federation.
The Colosseum hosted the New York Islanders, where they played from 1972 to 2015, the year they obtained four consecutive titles from the Stanley Cup. Since the Islanders left, doubts have persisted about the state of the coliseum and many plans for their future have failed over the years.
