Nassau County plans 5M SF biotech complex near Islanders’ Coliseum

Don Monti
Don Monti

Long Island politicians and developers are in talks to build a five-million-square-foot biotech campus in the vicinity of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the current home of the New York Islanders, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Developers see the Islanders’ 2015 exodus as an opportunity to cultivate an area that has languished since the arena was built in the 1970s. Don Monti, the president and CEO of Renaissance Downtowns, a Plainview, NY-based real estate development company, came up with the idea for the campus. In November,  Nassau County appointed Monti and Forest City Ratner’s Bruce Ratner — whose Barclays Center in Brooklyn will be the Islanders’ new home — as consultants on the project, which is estimated to cost between $2 billion and $3 billion.

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Monti told the Journal that he sees office space for new and established companies in fields including biotechnology, healthcare and sports medicine at the reclaimed arena. “We’re ready,” he said. “This island is ready and they don’t even know it, but they’re ready.”

Monti is also responsible for a $2 billion revitalization of downtown Hempstead. The planned development, which includes up to 3,500 apartment units and 2 million square feet of commercial and retail space, is expected to break ground in mid-2013. [WSJ]   – Hiten Samtani