Nassau Legislature Approves Coliseum Overhaul

The Nassau County Legislature on Monday unanimously approved a $229 million plan to renovate the Nassau Coliseum.

The 19-0 vote was hailed by County Executive Ed Mangano as historic.

Forest City Ratner's Nassau Events Center subsidiary is slated to redevelop the aging Coliseum beginning in August 2015, immediately after the current lease between the Islanders and management company SMG expires.


"The Coliseum will serve as an economic generator for the region while creating new jobs and opportunities for our residents," Mangano said.

The redeveloped Coliseum will have about 13,000 seats, which is less than the current capacity of about 16,000. The arena's size makes it a strong candidate to become the home to minor league sports teams, including, possibly, an American League Hockey team.

The Islanders, meanwhile, will move full-time to Brooklyn after the 2014-2015 season, where they will play at the Barclays Center, which is also run by Bruce Ratner's Forest City.

The redevelopment will bring more than 1,000 union jobs to Nassau County, said John Durso, the president of the Long Island Federation of Labor.

"We are very pleased with this," Durso said. "We expect to have it built union and Bruce Ratner has a great history of working with unions.

"There will be thousands of man-hours and that will put more money into the economy. This is great. It's long overdue."