Ratner called in on New Nassau Coliseum plan

November 21, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
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The developer behind Brooklyn’s Barclays Center has been named to a team that will come up with a new proposal to develop the 77-acre Nassau Coliseum site on Long Island.

The Coliseum has most recently been famous as the home of the New York Islanders, who will be moving to Barclays in 2015. Ironically, it was also the first home, in the 1970s, of the Nets basketball team – which Barclays was built to house.

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano says Bruce Ratner will work with New York Islanders owner Charles Wang, a graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School, on a plan for the 40-year old arena. They should have a proposal within the first six months of 2013.

The goal is to create a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment destination.

Newsday reports Mangano also selected Renaissance Downtown as the master developer for the rest of the property surrounding the arena.

“I think the big thing that we’re offering is that we’ve been through the process of creating an arena with respect to fan experience, with respect to physical structure, with respect to marketing,” Ratner told WCBS Radio’s Sophia Hall.

As for the price tag of a new sports complex and what the cost may be for taxpayers, Mangano said that has not yet been sorted out, according to WCBS.

Ratner said the goal is to come up with an arena that will work for all parties.

“There is no cost accounted for our time and effort. There will be some cost expended by our company in putting together the studies,” Ratner told WCBS.

The public last year voted down a plan last year to borrow $400 million to build a new Coliseum.

In 2007, Wang and the Lighthouse Development Group created a new plan to build two 31-story buildings at the site, along with more than 2,000 residential units, a hotel, a convention center, retail stores, a new sports complex and more. As of now, there has been no action on the plan.

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