28 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Cuomo breaks ground on Islanders arena to ‘energize all of Long Island’
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
It was the start of a homecoming for
Islanders fans who have had to skate all
the way to Barclays Center to watch their
team since 2015.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a group of
die-hard Islanders fans celebrated the
groundbreaking of the new 19,000-seat
hockey stadium right next door to the
Belmont Racetrack as well as its very own
Long Island Rail Road station.
Cuomo expects the 350,000 total square
feet of development to be an economic
stimulant primed to pump vibrancy into
the locality on the Nassau-Queens border.
To start, 10,000 construction jobs will
be created, which will give way to retail
and hospitality opportunities.
“I am an old Queens boy and for many
years I would go up and down the Cross
Island Parkway. You look at this site and
you would say, ‘Why doesn’t someone do
something with that site?’ Four hundred
and forty acres, all sorts of potential just
sitting there and it sat widely unused for a
long, long time,” Cuomo said. “Well, today
is a diff erent day, my friends. Th is is going
to be a transformative project that I think
is going to energize all of Long Island.
It does several things all at once. First,
bringing the Long Island Rail Road here
to Elmont, a Long Island Rail Road that
goes both ways. You can commute into
the city, people can take the Long Island
Rail Road to the game.”
In December 2017, when Cuomo fi rst
announced the Islanders would return to
their namesake, Long Island, the governor
said he would negotiate a deal with
National Hockey League Commissioner
Gary Bettman to allow the Islanders to play
at least 21 games at the Nassau Colliseum,
where they had played since 1972.
Cuomo seems to have not forgotten this
facet of the plan.
“I spoke to the commissioner as part
of this transaction and the commissioner
promised me that they would play even
more games at the Nassau Coliseum,”
Cuomo said. “I know the commissioner is
a man of his word, and I know that there
are many state police on site today just in
case the commissioner is not a man of his
word, but I know he is.”
Bettman was next at the podium.
Th e NHL commissioner said the completion
of the project would be historic
for the team and ensure them a home on
Long Island where they deliver a sense of
identity to fans.
“Th is is the day that assures everybody
who that has anything to do with the
Islanders … this is the future of this franchise
right here on Long Island,” Bettman
said.
Cuomo’s offi ce estimates that the amenities
in Belmont will generate about $2.7
billion once the 43 acres have been developed
to their full potential.
“Th e construction of the new arena at
Belmont Park will redevelop the home of
Th e Islanders, support more games and
events, and increase visitors to the region,”
said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul.
“Th is signifi cant project will establish
Belmont Park as a sports destination and
will create thousands of jobs and boost
economic activity on Long Island.”
Th e arena is scheduled for completion
in time for the 2021-2022 hockey season.
In recent years, the MTA under
Cuomo’s administration has made a blitz
of improvements to LIRR infrastructure
— the second track, the third track and
59 renovated stations — and the new
Elmont Station at Belmont Park will be
one of them.
Belmont Park, however, has an existing
LIRR stop that only operates seasonally
during sports events and the race
track. Th e new station will have more regular
service.
Queens to get its fi rst IKEA location in Rego Park next summer
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Rego Park is about to get access to
Sweden’s bounty of modern, practical furniture.
Ikea Retail announced that it will open
a 115,000-square-foot store in the Rego
Center at the corner of Queens Boulevard
and Junction Boulevard in the summer
2020. It’s the fi rst branch of the furniture
giant in the borough.
“With a growing community of more
than 900,000 households, Queens was a
natural next destination for IKEA in New
York City,” said Leontyne Green Sykes,
CEO of IKEA Retail U.S. “We know that
more than half of Queens residents travel
via public transportation, and we selected
Rego Park for this new store concept to
meet the unique needs of this customer.”
Th e Queens store will be the fi rst to open
in the U.S. with a new layout for the furniture
giant. Th e Queens version of the bigbox
retailer will take up less than half the
amount of fl oor space of a typical IKEA, like
the 346,000-square-foot store in Brooklyn.
While the store will feature thousands
of products for purchase and takeaway,
larger furniture items will be available for
convenient delivery. Th e retailer also will
off er services like assembly and installation,
Photo courtesy of IKEA
in addition to a new food options.
Th e Rego Park Center couldn’t immediately
be reached for comment.
IKEA is set to open its fi rst location in Queens next year.
Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
Islanders fans are thrilled to have the hockey club return from Brooklyn.
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