A week after the Nassau County Planning Commission approved a 42-year lease for Las Vegas Sands to take over Nassau Coliseum, the Nassau County Legislature Rules Committee signed off on the deal, allowing for Sands to take over the stadium and surrounding land.
After more than 100 residents provided public comments during the meeting, the committee voted 5-1 in favor of the lease transfer, much to the chagrin of opponents of a proposed Sands New York downstate casino in Uniondale.
However, as Nassau County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton emphasized, this vote was not to approve a casino. Rather, she said, it was to make sure that the stadium remained under lease and allowed those currently working there to remain employed.
Even so, it still represents another positive step for Sands after months of appearing out of luck for a potential casino site.
Sands to pay $54 million upfront for use of land
The full county legislature will take up the matter next, with a vote expected to come Aug. 5. But that vote won’t surround the actual transfer, according to the rules committee.
Instead, the legislature will sign off on an environmental review as well as authorize a use and occupancy permit for Sands.
That said, as detailed in the meeting agenda, Sands expects to pay $54 million upfront to the county, potentially allowing the company to construct a casino complex costing upward of $6 billion on the land. According to the meeting documents, at maturity, Sands New York gaming revenue could reach $50 million.
Sands also said that if it does not receive one of three downstate casino licenses, it would still intend to use the land and build a mixed-use development.
Certainly, though, Sands will commit to a downstate license, which could authorize recipients to offer online casinos in New York once lawmakers legalize iGaming.
Detractors continue to voice displeasure with Sands’ presence
Advocates for Sands developing the Hub noted the amount of jobs created by the proposed project. No other bidder is in place for the land, according to reports. So by denying Sands the lease, the county would put up to 400 people out of work.
What’s more, the proposal is not just a casino, as Matthew Aracich, president of the Long Island Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties told the Long Island Press.
“The casino is about 10% of this whole project,” Aracich said. “The idea is that building this creates all that economic wealth, it gets people out of poverty, it gets them to go ahead and become middle class, it gets them to go ahead and ensure that all of the events that will happen will transpire from those people coming over to sands as well. So it’s it’s not just those 400 people, it’s expanding those 400 people.”
Added Valerie Fitts, security manager at Nassau Coliseum:
“This is about opportunity and employment in the near future of the community of that the National Veterans Memorial Coliseum sits there – we don’t want to see that building vacant.”
The Say No to the Casino Civic Association released a statement shortly after the vote, saying the committee “tried to gaslight” county residents by claiming the approval is not linked to Sands’ casino development plans.
“We vehemently object to LVS being given control of this land and urge the full Legislature to follow DeRiggi-Whitton’s lead and vote no on August 5,” the statement read. “This lease is based on a lie.”
The group concluded:
“[Sands’] only goal is to fleece all of us of [$2 billion each year] in gambling losses. They see our community as a tank they can plug into and pump out our cash. They’ll use whatever means necessary to get that land. Our Legislature is complicit in this scheme and it is disgraceful.”
