Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano in his “State of the County” address Wednesday announced his administration is close to finalizing plans for a public-private partnership with the New York Islanders to construct a practice facility and administrative office for the National Hockey League Club, which will play home games at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center beginning this fall.
Mangano told an audience at the Twin Rinks at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow that the facilities would “cement the Islanders in Nassau and provide hope that we will witness their full-time return when they see the magnificent new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.”
“We will work to make that a reality,” he said. “Whether they know it or not, we’re going to continue to try to keep our sports team here.”
A development group run by Barclays chief executive officer Bruce Ratner won a 2013 bid to redevelop the Nassau Coliseum and its surrounding area, known as the “Nassau Hub,” and overtake the property’s operations once the Islanders leave.
The plan was one of several initiatives set forth by Mangano in his address, another being a proposal for a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center at the Nassau Hub to continue the development of a health care industry that he said is quickly becoming the largest employer on Long Island.
Sloan Kettering, he said, would bring approximately 250 jobs at a $150,000 average salary.
Financial details of both projects were not disclosed.
Mangano attributed declining unemployment – down to 4.1 percent from 5 percent last year and 7 percent in 2010, which he considered the best in the region – due primarily to the expansion of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, Winthrop-University Hospital and Nassau County University Medical Center.
He touted future economic growth due to the retention of businesses like DealerTrack, whose new office building in Lake Success would generate approximately $3 billion toward the county economy and create more than 300 jobs, and Hain Celestial, which is also moving its international offices to Lake Success, as well as a film industry that has generated approximately $250 million annually.
Mangano said his administration was committed to developing a premiere sports entertainment complex at the Nassau Hub as well as constructing more affordable housing units from unused office buildings located near mass transit stations.
In his five years in office, Mangano said his administration has created more than 3,500 apartments and lauded successes with apartment housing in Hempstead, Great Neck, Farmingdale, Mineola, Roslyn and Westbury.
He also said the county is currently exploring housing opportunities in Baldwin, Lynbrook and Valley Stream in an effort to keep young families from leaving Nassau.
“The fact is, today’s starter home for many families is actually an affordable apartment,” he said.
Mangano also championed the sixth straight year of freezing property taxes for Nassau County residents who earn less than $500,000 a year, cutting approximately $330 million in what he called wasteful government spending as well as reducing the size of the county’s operations by about 20 percent.
“We are on the road to being the most financially secure county in the region,” he said.
Mangano said the county would also generate revenue from its forthcoming police training facility at Nassau Community College, a $40 million project to be paid for by asset forfeiture funds from the police department, donations from the Nassau County Police Foundation and the county’s capital plan, through national police conventions planned there.
“My administration’s determination to save taxpayer dollars through public-private partnerships is working,” he said.
