MARCH 2019 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 19
Renderings of what the redeveloped Nassau Hub will look like.
REBUILDING THE HUB
BY JAMES BERNSTEIN
For decades now, Nassau officials and developers have talked about redeveloping
what’s known as The Nassau Hub, the area smack in the county’s mid-section, by
building offices, stores, entertainment facilities, and parks on the 72 acres of parking
lot surrounding Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The plans died each time. But now, ideas for the Hub are alive once again, and this
time, local leaders are certain it is going to happen. But if all the excited talk about the
Hub — on the largest tract of undeveloped land in the county, off the Meadowbrook
Parkway and Hempstead Turnpike — sounds familiar, it should.
Since 1998, there have been five serious proposals to develop the coliseum parking
lot into something that would include all the amenities of a “new suburbia,” as it has
been described.
And each time, all the hoopla turned into nothing more than crumpled piles of paper
and aging charts. One of the more memorable plans was in 2004, when late New York
Islanders owner Charles Wang and Long Island developer Scott Rechler tried to build
a project called the Lighthouse. The $3.8 billion project, which was to include office
towers, a renovated coliseum, restaurants and businesses,
never materialized. WHAT’S INSIDE continued on page 20
22 24 NONPROFIT
CORNER OFFICE 25SPOTLIGHT26 EVENTS
27
WHOLLY MOLI: MADE
ON LONG ISLAND
MOVERS &
SHAKERS
CHARITY
PRESS BUSINESS
NASSAU CONFIDENT LONG-STALLED DEVELOPMENT PLANS WILL FINALLY ADVANCE
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
