Nassau County Exec Edward Mangano yesterday joined the developers of the upcoming Nassau Coliseum renovation "to tout plans for a new facade and at least seven restaurants" for the $229M project, according to Laura Figueroa of NEWSDAY. Forest City Ratner Chair & CEO Bruce Ratner and Long Island-based developers Edward and David Blumenfeld "fielded questions from an audience of about 200 small business owners." Ratner said of the redesign for the Coliseum's exterior featuring a metallic facade designed by SHoP Architects, "As the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, this will be to Nassau." Mangano said that Nassau County has applied for $10M in state grant money "to build multitiered parking on the site, to free up land on the 77-acre Hub area that otherwise would contain surface parking." Ratner and Blumenfeld Development Group "plan to reduce the number of seats inside in the arena from the current 18,000 to 13,000, and will build an outdoor entertainment district featuring restaurants, a bowling alley and shops." The deal calls for Nassau County to receive a "minimum" of $4.4M annually -- a figure that would increase by 10% every five years (NEWSDAY, 10/24).
