Changes planned to layout of arena project at Belmont

ELMONT, N.Y. – While the three major components of a redevelopment project at Belmont Park remain the same, the location of two of them has changed.

The proposed elements of the project – built on two parcels totaling 36 acres of underutilized property at Belmont Park – include an 18,000-seat arena for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League; 435,000 square feet of retail and dining space; and a hotel. As was proposed when the project details were unveiled last December, the arena will be built behind the west end of the grandstand, in convenient proximity to the Long Island Rail Road Station at Belmont.

Originally, the retail space was going to be east of the arena on the track grounds, and the hotel, which was to have 200 to 250 rooms, was to be built just outside the grandstand near upper stretch with views of the track. The bulk of the 28 acres on the south side of Hempstead Turnpike was to be utilized for parking, with some acreage dedicated to community and office space.

Tuesday, at a meeting with local residents at the Elmont Memorial Library, officials with New York Arena Partners, which was awarded conditional rights to the project in December, said about 335,000 square feet of retail space would be moved across Hempstead Turnpike into the southern parking lot. An underground parking garage also would be built.

Also, the hotel would be shorter than initially planned and be moved east of the arena, taking up some space in the existing backyard of the track.

The Empire State Development Corp. is still conducting environmental reviews and traffic studies for the project, but an ESD official said Tuesday she expects ground to be broken on the project in May 2019 with completion scheduled by October 2021, in time for the Islanders to play the 2021-22 season at the arena.

Richard Browne, managing partner of Sterling Project Development Group, part of New York Arena Partners, said the arena would take up land initially reserved for the retail space, leading to the prospect of a multi-level retail space.

Browne said officials with Value-Retail, the company that plans to operate a luxury outdoor shopping village on the property, didn’t want the retail space so close to the arena.

“It fits much more easily and in a much more selfcontained retail village over on [the other] side,” Browne said.

According to the plans, there will be some pop-up retail in places around the arena.

Browne also said that officials from the New York Racing Association expressed concern about having a multilevel retail village on track grounds.

“What’s very important to them is the paddock area right in front of the grandstand,” Browne said. “That’s the grand exposure and face of this wonderful building, which has been here for almost 100 years. If we were to pepper this with multilevel retail and then an arena, you’re basically obscuring the entire southern face of that building.”

The hotel will be scaled down from a maximum of 270 feet high to 150 feet and built near the paddock.

Regarding the proposed hotel, Holly Leicht, executive vice president of real estate and planning for Empire State Development, said, “There’s a little encroachment on the [backyard], but that was part of the RFP.”

Officials from Empire State Development and New York Arena Partners both said they plan to work in concert with NYRA and its plans to renovate the existing Belmont grandstand. Those plans have not yet been revealed, though NRYA president and CEO Chris Kay has said he wants to modernize the grandstand and renovate the area surrounding the paddock.

Browne said New York Arena Partners has been meeting monthly with NYRA officials and “we’ve had their planners sitting with our planners about how all this will be activated.”

During a sometimes contentious two-hour question-andanswer session with local residents, one person asked why this project is needed in Elmont.

“We want to support the racetrack and NYRA – that is something we’ve heard strongly from all the communities around here that that’s an important asset and part of that is bringing additional resources to NYRA,” Leicht said. “There are a lot of synergies between the racetrack and what NYAP is going to do. The retail, the food and beverage, that will help support NYRA. NYRA is very, very supportive of having this kind of project here that will really work in unison with it, and that’s an important priority.”