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Bruce Ratner, Brett Yormark, Jay-Z want to renovate Nassau Coliseum

By Net Income
SHoP Architects

Nassau Coliseum on Thursday unveiled four plans for the renovation of the 41-year-old Nassau Coliseum and one of them came from the team that built Barclays Center. In both a written proposal and a promotional video, the echoes of Barclays Center successes were noted. On top of that, Bruce Ratner, Brett Yormark and Jay-Z went to Long Island for the presentation. The competition includes Madison Square Garden

Under the plan, the same group that built Barclays --including SHoP architects and Hunt Bros. construction-- would downsize the mammoth arena to 13,000 seats. It would also build a 2,500-seat outdoor amphitheater, 50,000 square feet of retail space and a veterans’ memorial on-site. The arena would be operated by Legends, the company headed by former Knicks president Dave Checketts.

The proposal was filed on behalf of Nassau Events Center, LLC. In describing who the team, the proposal notes the involvement of Forest City, Ratner's firm; ONEXIM Sports and Entertainment, Mikhail Prokhorov's US holding company; Roc Nation, Jay-Z's holding company; Legends, Checketts company, and Yormark.

SHoP would wrap the bland exterior of the coliseum with a new facade, more shimmering than rusty. It could be SHoP's third arena/stadium in the region. In addition to Barclays Center, they're working on the new MLS Stadium in Queens.

Ratner also reported that both the Nets and Islanders would play games at the renovated Coliseum, the Nets a single pre-season game, the Isles four regular season and two pre-season. Construction would take 15 months and $229 million. When it begins will determine how soon the Islanders would move to Barclays. Right now, the plan is for the Isles to arrive in 2015, but rumors persist that they could come in a year, for the 2014-15 season. Barclays will need some revisions to accommodate hockey.

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