Over the weekend Islanders’ co-owner Jon Ledecky spoke the press to further push the team’s proposal to build a new arena at Belmont Park and a small group of residents rallied to bring Amazon’s planned second headquarters to the site.
Now, more news emerged around New York State’s request for Proposal for the land at Belmont Park. On Monday Syosset-based Blumenfeld Development Group announced to Newsday that they withdrew their proposal for the site, citing “extraordinary requirements that appear to create a selection process that has been predetermined.”
The revelation means only the Islanders and New York City Football Club remain as bidders on the state-owned land. Blumenfeld Development Group had bid on two previous RFPs that New York State put out, which included bids from a bid from another New York-based soccer team, the New York Cosmos.
The news came just as local officials announced a public listening session that will be held on Sunday at Elmont Memorial High School. Both NYCFC and New York Islander officials will be in attendance to make presentations and answer pre-submitted questions from residents.
The event is not sponsored by the Empire State Development Corporation, which is handling the RFP.
And to clarify once more: This is NOT an Empire State Development event and is NOT required by the RFP. It is sponsored by the elected officials and is a way of getting the community involved in the process. And bidders agreed to it before it was announced. https://t.co/p3fKx2Jvfq
— Randi Marshall (@randimarshall) December 4, 2017
Other than when Ledecky has met with reporters, the first quarter of the Islanders season has been focused primarily on the product on the ice. However, in the last week, the team’s bid for an arena has become a more prevalent topic.
Renderings, claimed to be of the Islanders potential arena, were posted on social media and then days later Ledecky spoke with reporters from Newsday and the Connecticut Post. The following day over two dozen residents rallied in favor of bringing Amazon to the state-run site.
The flurry of activity is the most around the Islanders’ hopes of building an arena at the site since they submitted their bid in late September.
So after weeks of silence, Ledecky banged the drum for Belmont again for story I wrote in Sunday's @newsday and now today we're getting lots of movement on the Belmont RFP process (Blumenfeld out, listening session scheduled). Could ESD decision be not that far behind?
— Jim Baumbach (@jimbaumbach) December 4, 2017
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
