Forest City Ratner gets $229M Nassau arena renovation job
MINEOLA, N.Y.— A decade-long effort to renovate an aging and dilapidated suburban New York sports arena moved a step closer to fruition on Thursday when officials chose the company that recently opened Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to redevelop the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and its surrounding 77-acre property.
The selection of Nassau Events Center, LLC over the Madison Square Garden Co. for the $229 million job was announced by County Executive Edward P. Mangano following a months-long competition that initially involved four bidders.
The announcement comes nearly a year after the coliseum’s primary tenant, the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders, said the team would move from the coliseum to the new Barclay’s arena after the 2015 season.
The plan still requires the approval of the Nassau County Legislature, but observers said it was likely the GOP majority in the legislature would go along with the Republican county executive’s selection.