Elmont still awaits promised community center from $1.3B project | Long Island Business News

As the New York Islanders prepare to begin their fifth season at UBS Arena and shoppers peruse the sprawling new tony retail complex across the street, a long-promised community-benefit component of the $1.3 billion development on Belmont Park property has still yet to be realized. 

The project’s principal entity, New York Arena Partners (NYAP), had committed to build a community center for the people of Elmont as part of its agreement with Empire State Development to allow the arena project to be constructed on state land. 

Specifically, the developers promised to “fund, construct, operate and maintain community space” of about 10,000 square feet “that will offer various community-oriented programming options,” including educational and career development services. 

The agreement gave NYAP five years to deliver the community space or forfeit its $5 million that ESD is keeping in escrow. Though the five-year deadline passed in November, and a subsequent six-month extension expired in May, ESD says it is giving NYAP more time to find an appropriate property and secure an operator for Elmont’s long-promised facility. 

“ESD has provided NYAP with month-to-month extensions, to ensure continued progress and to allow for both parties to continue working through key project elements,” an ESD spokesperson told LIBN. 

A NYAP spokesperson declined to comment. 

The delay in building the community center and the lack of an actual community benefits agreement have roiled Elmont residents, who have borne the brunt of years of construction, traffic, noise and disruption brought on by the massive Belmont development built on 43 acres of public land, including the 660,000-square-foot, 19,000-seat UBS Arena, the 340,000-square-foot Belmont Park Village retail complex and six-story, 1,500-space parking structure that towers over Hempstead Turnpike. And while all that’s been completed, the imposition on the neighborhood drags on, as construction also continues on the New York Racing Association’s $455 million overhaul of the Belmont Park racetrack and new 275,000-square-foot grandstand, which isn’t expected to be completed until next year. 

“I don’t think that the arena partners have really shown the residents of Elmont that they really care in any meaningful way,” said Lori Halop, vice president of the Parkhurst Civic Association and a 67-year resident of Elmont who was part of a lawsuit that aimed to stop the arena project. “No one has ever been able to produce an actual signed community benefits agreement since day one. I do not believe in all honesty that this community center will ever happen.” 

Last month, State Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick sent a letter to ESD demanding immediate action on the elusive community center, expressing the frustration of residents over ESD’s lack of community engagement regarding the Belmont redevelopment project. She pointed out that it has been more than a year since ESD last convened a Community Advisory Committee meeting, despite repeated requests for updates on the community center. 

“The residents of Elmont deserve better,” the letter read. “They deserve transparency and to finally have the community center they were promised.” 

When LIBN asked ESD for a status update, a spokesperson said: “Discussions are ongoing as ESD and NYAP continue to make progress toward identifying a suitable site for the community center.” 

State Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, who organized a rally in Jan. 2024 to urge the Belmont arena developers to build the community center, says she has been constantly working with ESD and NYAP to secure a site and keep the project alive. Despite the delay, she’s insistent the community center is still going to happen.  

“We identified an operator, we identified a location, and unfortunately, due to items out of our control, the negotiations have been paused,” Solages told LIBN. “That doesn’t mean that it’s been canceled, or that we’re not going to figure out a solution to the issue. So, it could still happen this year and I just ask the community to be patient, because good things come to those who wait.” 

Though the community center has yet to come to fruition, some community benefits have been realized. NYAP has funded renovation of two Town of Hempstead parks in the Elmont area, which was also part of the developers’ agreement with ESD. Last year, ESD gave $2.4 million from Belmont Park project funds to the Elmont School District, which was earmarked for security enhancements at the district’s school buildings. 

Still, it’s been six years since construction began on the arena and Elmont remains without its pledged community center. And despite optimistic statements from her state representative and ESD, Halop believes Elmont residents have never been a priority when it comes to the Belmont arena project and the yet-to-be delivered community center.  

“It’s called a carrot on a stick. That’s what it was from the very beginning,” she said. “They told people what the community wanted to hear to gain support and to make this happen in the easiest way possible.”