Comments on: Press Exclusive: Plug Is Pulled On Lighthouse

By: What Happens if the Vote is “No”? | NHL Realignment

What Happens if the Vote is “No”? | NHL Realignment — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:53:15 +0000

[...] This is not Wong’s first attempt at getting a new arena for his hockey club. We all remember the Lighthouse Project from a few years back. [...]

By: » The second widowhood tennis, life and few sports in between

» The second widowhood tennis, life and few sports in between — Fri, 27 May 2011 21:55:26 +0000

[...] on. It’s just too brutal. What’s stopping the county to grant Mr. Wang’s wish? The Lighthouse Project‘s already nixed.. .. The rink is in a decent condition, could be better but it’s ok. [...]

By: Bloggleheads » Blog Archive » It’s Aboot That Time, Eh?

Bloggleheads » Blog Archive » It’s Aboot That Time, Eh? — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:37:06 +0000

[...] York Islanders owner Charles Wang says this article from the Long Island Press is hog-wash, but if any of this is partly true, Kansas City here they [...]

By: Lighthouse Project finished? | CTC

Lighthouse Project finished? | CTC — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:45:58 +0000

[...] The Press also reports that some of Wang’s employees are already being moved off their efforts on the Lighthouse Project: [...]

By: PJ

PJ — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:35:05 +0000

Nah, Mr Wang simply has acknowledged the 10,000 pound gorilla in the room: looming massive industry wide defaults in commercial real estate, thousands upon thousands of vacant hotel room’s, retail locations and unsold “condo” units in Nassau County, all of which are built out for the next 8 to 10 years.

Wang knows the free ride is over, no tax revenue to be tossed his way, as LI’ers loose their job’s & home’s and business small and large leave in droves. Compound that with a bankrupt federal Highway Trust Fund and a FHWA that is now scrutinizing wasted transportation funding on Long Island and the game is over for a publicly funded development benefitting a few developer’s. That is of course Mr wang & Mr Rechler would like to build it with their own money. LOL

By: Wang: Lighthouse Project Still On - Slap Shot Blog - NYTimes.com

Wang: Lighthouse Project Still On - Slap Shot Blog - NYTimes.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:42:28 +0000

[...] a story Wednesday in The Long Island Press that Charles Wang and the Islanders were pulling out of the Lighthouse Project, Wang responded [...]

By: allsmiles

allsmiles — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:57:46 +0000

quote from a conversation thread
“She doesn’t want to approve it because: a) the project has democrat support and she’s a republican; b) she and her party fear an influx of democrats into the area with the new housing proposed; c) IMO Nassau county politics works on kickbacks and quid pro quo and she hasn’t gotten hers yet; d) IMO her massive ego wants to make her either the reason … Read More the whole thing fails while she spins it as a disaster for Nassau or that she pushes it to the brink of disaster and then she can claim credit for rescuing it and saving Nassau single-handedly. This has been going on since 2003 and here we are six years later and not only are no shovels in the ground but zoning isn’t established while she is handing high paying county jobs to her relatives in typical Nassau county nepotism. Don’t forget lifelong republican Sen Al Damato was originally a proponent of the lighthouse, until Wang nixed Al’s request to make Damato’s brother the attorney involved for the project, and since then Al has used his political clout to slow it down when he can as well.” end quote….

By: allsmiles

allsmiles — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:31:06 +0000

well it’s back on!!!
I guess this LIP article kind of shook Murray off her snuggie and made her work! and made Wang feel good that “word” was out there to push her *ss to make this happen! thanks LIP! let’s see what the little republican lady will do now….

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:22:24 +0000

Jerry-It certainly does look like that doesn’t it?

Terrible journalism. It certainly isn’t what it used to be.

By: Cory

Cory — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:33:37 +0000

Jerry – that’s probably exactly what happened. I can’t name one person that reads this paper nor do i even know where to get a copy of it. The only reason I came to the site was to read this article after I heard about it on WFAN.

This does not help the credibility of this publication….

By: Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:21:32 +0000

Wang says the LI Press story is nonsense in Newsday today.

He says the Lighthouse project is still on.

Did the LI Press just make this story up to get some webpage hits?

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:20:41 +0000

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/wang-lighthouse-still-on-1.1524982

Or not.

By: Cory

Cory — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:13:09 +0000

Lighthouse is still alive:

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/wang-lighthouse-still-on-1.1524982

By: honestly

honestly — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:55:46 +0000

You’ve done a great job of researching this. My question is why haven’t you been able to get your research out to the public. It seems like everything you read is pro project. People who are too ignorant to see anything further than the so called jobs (which are certainly not guarenteed in this economy) and the so called tax breaks (which will only affect the local area) are being led like sheep to the fire. Please continue to get the facts out there. Maybe some of the more intelligent people will read what you have to say and understand all the dangers of this project the way it is now. Some people need a good dose of reality and the media is not going to give it to them.
The County was being held hostage by Wang.. that in itself shows the ethics behind this project! Great job!

By: CHARLES WANG SEZ LIGHTS OUT FOR LIGHTHOUSE | BigLeagueScrew

CHARLES WANG SEZ LIGHTS OUT FOR LIGHTHOUSE | BigLeagueScrew — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:47:29 +0000

[...] been for show. The Long Island Press reports that, although there has been no public announcement, Charles Wang has already abandoned the Lighthouse Project. The report goes on to say that key members of the Lighthouse team have been re-assigned to other [...]

By: Empty Netter Assists - 10-15-09 - Empty Netters - post-gazette.com

Empty Netter Assists - 10-15-09 - Empty Netters - post-gazette.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:02:07 +0000

[...] to the Long Island Press, Islanders owner Charles Wang has abandoned the Lighthouse Project, a proposal which would rennovate Nassau Coliseum and develop much of the property surrounding the [...]

By: Islander

Islander — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:41:45 +0000

Very well said.
Mr. Wang’s inflexibility and lack of compromise was what undermined his project.
Every successful developer knows those two things are key to getting things accomplished.

*I’m reposting a corrected URL for you as the one you posted didn’t work..
http://www.nassaucivic.com/Nassau_County_or_New_York_City.htm

By: Economist

Economist — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:33:49 +0000

I think Mr. Martino’s source hit the nail on the head when he spoke about the lack of financing being available for this project.
It is easy for the developers to lay the blame at the Town of Hempstead’s feet instead of admitting a failure of capitalization of the project.

Reality in the current economic investment markets is one in which available capital has dried up. The one venue that Mr. Wang mentioned (which was undoubtedly was going to be his main source of capital) had been China.
Currently Chinese investment capital is being focused on domestic projects within their country and very little capitalization of foreign development projects is currently occurring.

I hope the story is true because the Lighthouse Project as it was proposed would have ended up being bad for the region and ultimately would have ended up costing Nassau residents dearly.

By: Savanti

Savanti — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:13:49 +0000

I concur.
TOH only had this project for the past 20 months most which was taken up by the developers generating their Environmental Impact Statements, the final Statement was only submitted to the Town Board last month.

Success in development projects does not come via making ultimatums and threats or being inflexible in your position but instead comes through compromise and civil discussions where a middle ground can be reached when there is a disagreement between parties. Mr. Wang has exhibited very little diplomacy in this regard.

What few seem to realize is this parcel of land belongs to all of Nassau County’s residents, yet prior to the entire process our county executive and his developer friends never accumulated meaningful information on what the people expected, needed, wanted or might use on this 150 acres. Instead of something organic to the area, generated from the needs and desires of actual people, we would end up with something that would be imposed upon us ..which will not belong to us but will belong to them.. who ever they end up being.. (Mr. Wang & investors from China? Europe? Russia?) and the land eventually would be sold to these same developers for $1.. one dollar!

This would have ended up not saving Nassau taxpayers money but would have ended up costing you even more in taxes. The developers were already lining up tax breaks which every Nassau homeowner would end up making up.
It’s little wonder that Mr. Wang was upset with Ms. Murray’s request that it be stipulated that no tax breaks would be given to the developers

One last thing for each and every Islander fan to think about…
If this project went forward and was built ..you do realize that you would be paying twice what you currently pay for parking at the Coliseum?
You’d end up paying 2 to 3 times what you currently are paying for a seat for for games? And finally the cost of food would more than double?
This is the true economic reality of having a new sports facility built.. just look at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium to understand what it is I’m saying.

By: Michael Martino

Michael Martino — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:45:18 +0000

I’m sure there will a lot more news later. Thanks for all the comments thus far…good and bad.