"The Proposed Redevlopment of The Nassau Coliseum: Project Lighthouse."

In Nassau County there is 77 acres of undeveloped property around the Nassau Coliseum. Charles Wang, owner of the Islanders, came up with the perfect plan to renovate the coliseum and build a large development project called “Project Lighthouse,” this way the coliseum renovation would be funded by the profits of this project which would include: many new housing projects, an 80 story tower, a new practice and training facility for the Islanders, a five star hotel and restaurant, a large outdoor concert venue and a newly expanded coliseum.
Many people see the benefits this large scale project would offer.
Sarah Lansdale from Sustainable Long Island, a group committed to positive growth on Long Island, feels that new housing in an area like this will make the Island seem more attractive and therefore help retain local youth. She says, “ The light house is such an interesting project because it has the potential to really create a new community and a new downtown for L.I. it, has the potential to retain Long Island’s youth, recent college graduates, things like that as well as be a huge economic engine for Long Island.”
Rexcorp, well known for large development on Long Island, was chosen as the major project developer. William Schaefer works for The Lighthouse Development Group and also feels the project also has the potential to make Long Island more attractive. He says the group works constantly on all issues surrounding the project especially the one that seems to upset Long Islanders the most: the extra traffic on Hempstead Turnpike. Schaefer says: “Just yesterday that kicked off formally the legal process of it, but we have been studying these impacts for over a year starting with traffic, traffic is probably the number one issue we have to deal with. During the play-offs last year when the Islanders, made it in there we didn’t know they were gonna make it to the playoffs until the last game and we decided the next day to commence an unprecedented traffic study which is still going on today.” The formal legal process he is referring to is what is called a Positive Declaration and it was just granted by the town of Hempstead, Tuesday, April 8^th, 2008. This declaration as explained by development expert Richard Guardino, “means this project is definitely going to have an environmental impact,” and every aspect of the project will need to be perfectly planned out before Rexcorp wins the right to break ground on this project."
This project was first proposed back in 2004 but continues to get closer to becoming a reality, especially with the declaration, Rexcorp anticipates ground breaking happening sometime in the summer of 2009. Schaefer says Rexcorp wants to really work carefully because one step to fast and in the wrong direction could lead to a law suit and result in a cancellation of the entire project.