Arena Project at Belmont Celebrates Groundbreaking

On an outdoor stage set up in front of bulldozers and piles of dirt on the property of Belmont Park, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and dignitaries gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of a project that will add a 17,000-seat arena for the New York Islanders of the NHL.

Islanders fans were seated in front of the stage and cheered both the return of the Islanders to Long Island as well as the 10,000 construction jobs and 3,200 permanent jobs at a development that will use largely unused parking lots on the Belmont property to build the arena, a 250-room hotel, and a retail village. 

Empire State Development acting commissioner, president, and CEO Eric Gertler said the $1.3 billion public-private construction project will use 43 acres of the site and will offer 350,000 square feet of development.

"We are proud of the great benefits this project will bring to Long Island—from jobs and new tax revenue to a permanent home for the Islanders—and are excited to break ground today," Gertler said. "This project has gone through an open, robust, collaborative process, and I'd like to acknowledge those New Yorkers who participated, helping create a better project here at Belmont, which we all can be proud of."

Gov. Cuomo said the project is exactly what Long Island deserves. 

"This property sat unused for a long, long time," Cuomo said, later adding, "This will be one of the largest and most impactful developments in the downstate region in a long, long time."

The ceremony did not include any new details of renovation at Belmont Park racetrack. It did note that the new arena will include salutes to Belmont Park in its architecture and will offer overlooks of the track.

Belmont Park racetrack also figures to benefit from improved access to the Long Island Railroad. That $105 million project will be partially operating in time for the planned first hockey season at the new arena in the fall of 2021 and fully operationally in late 2022.

NYRA CEO and president David O'Rourke attended the ceremony. New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky acknowledged him and said he looks forward to working with the New York Racing Association for many years.

"We are excited to welcome the New York Islanders to Belmont Park," O'Rourke said. "This project will create jobs and economic opportunity for countless New Yorkers now and in the decades to come and will contribute to the continued success of Thoroughbred racing at Belmont Park."

Many Islanders players attended the ceremony, including captain Anders Lee. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman also spoke at the ceremony. To cheers, Bettman announced that during the building of the new arena, the Islanders will play 28 games at their former home, the Nassau Veteran's Memorial Coliseum this year. (The team also played some games there last season after leaving for Barclay's Center in Brooklyn after the 2014-15 season.)

Last week, NYRA announced plans to offer all of its 2019 fall meet racing dates at Belmont. NYRA has filed a request with the New York State Gaming Commission seeking approval to scrap initial plans to shift the final three weeks of the meet to Aqueduct Racetrack and conduct the remainder of the fall meet at the Elmont, N.Y., racetrack through its originally scheduled closing date of Oct. 27.