Nassau County Executive Pens Op-Ed On $1.3B Islanders Arena

ELMONT, NY — The Nassau County executive is bullish on plans to build a new arena for the New York Islanders hockey team and a new Long Island Rail Road train station. In an op-ed penned Tuesday morning in Crain's New York Business, Laura Curran called the Belmont Park project a "hat trick" for the county, as it achieves three key goals for Long Island: strengthens the economy, grows the public transit system and, of course, brings the team to Long Island.

"Three goals—a hat trick for Nassau County," she wrote.

She emphasized that the project will generate more than $25 million in new tax revenue through ticket sales, hotel rooms, retail purchases, staff salaries and more.

"Before declaring my support for the project, I made sure it would benefit all our residents—especially surrounding communities," wrote Curran, "It does, and a new train station at almost no cost to the state is only one of the benefits this project will bring."

Curran was referring to the new Elmont train station that was announced last month as a part of the Belmont redevelopment. As Patch previously reported, that station would be the first new Long Island Rail Road station built in nearly half a century.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, released an economic impact analysis that said the Belmont project would will generate nearly $50 million in public revenue each year and $725 million in yearly economic output.

Curran noted that a large-scale development plan in Elmont would not have always been welcomed, particularly due to the threat of increased traffic congestion on already busy roads. The Belmont project has not had to face that fierce opposition, she said, because the "right investments" were made to transit infrastructure.