Remembering Charles Wang's Islanders Lighthouse Project, and why it never came to fruition

What was the Lighthouse Project?

Former Islanders owner Charles Wang had a grand but ultimately unsuccessful plan to renovate Nassau Coliseum and redevelop the adjoining area, highlighted by a 60-story lighthouse. It’s worth revisiting the twisted tale of the project with the Islanders concluding their fifth regular season at UBS Arena on Tuesday.

The initial plans for redevelopment of and around the Coliseum, first unveiled in 2004, were grand in scale and cost. The Lighthouse Project was estimated to cost $3.74 billion and was expected to generate $71 million in annual tax revenue for Nassau County, adding 75,000 construction jobs and 19,000 permanent jobs. At the time the Lighthouse Project was developed, Nassau Coliseum was the fourth-oldest  arena in the NHL and the smallest in terms of capacity.

In addition to a renovated Coliseum, the project proposal called for 42 new or renovated buildings, 2,300 housing units, one million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet for retail, a sports technology center and a luxury hotel across its 150 acres. A canal was to run through the land, abutting a “celebration plaza.”

The thought was, if something needed to be celebrated, like a parade for Columbus Day, it could be held in the redeveloped land around the Coliseum. The project would have connected the redeveloped land to Eisenhower Park and to Hofstra University and Nassau Community College.

The developers estimated construction would take eight to 10 years with work being completed on the Coliseum within three years.

The Lighthouse Project was proposed as privately financed and Nassau County accepted a scaled-down proposal in 2007. But the Town of Hempstead did not approve the zoning changes needed as it also investigated the potential environmental impact of such a huge construction. There was a counterproposal in 2010, and in 2011 a referendum for Nassau County voters to decide whether to authorize the project. 

“The Lighthouse was really a visionary project that would have built a new Coliseum at no cost to the taxpayers and created a central destination for Nassau County,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, who as Nassau County Executive from 2002-09 advocated for The Lighthouse Project, told Newsday. “People would have flocked there. It would have expanded the tax base and created a really fun environment. It really got killed because of local politics.

"The only regret was we tried to do something very big and bold all at once instead of piecemeal. People just couldn’t handle it.”

How it all started

The Coliseum opened in 1972, the same year the Islanders were born, and it became legendary for the home-ice advantage it provided through the Stanley Cup dynasty of 1980-83 and the record 19 straight playoff series wins from 1980-84.

But part of its charm — the proximity of the fans to the ice, the low ceiling — was also part of the building’s flaws. The concourses were cramped. The lack of restrooms and the lines to get in became a joke — unless you were waiting on that line.

By the mid-1990s, ownership issues and an aging Coliseum left the Islanders in disarray.

Enter Wang, who became a part owner in 2000 and the majority owner in 2001. Hockey was not Wang’s first love. He was a basketball fan who had once looked into owning the New York Jets.

But Wang was also friends with Al D’Amato, by then a former U.S. Senator for New York.

“He called Charles and said, ‘If you don’t [buy the Islanders], then they’re going to leave Long Island,” said retired Islanders’ executive Paul Lancey, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Lighthouse Project. “If it wasn’t for that call, there’s a good chance the Islanders wouldn’t be on Long Island.”

Wang, who co-founded software firm Computer Associates in 1976, knew the Coliseum would not provide the revenue needed to compete in the NHL.

“I loved him,” said former Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro, who played for the club from 2001-13. “He was like a father figure to me. You’ve got to give him all the credit. He was a basketball guy. We used to play basketball. That’s what he loved to do. And then he became a die-hard hockey fan. But he wanted to keep the Islanders on Long Island. I think he was probably happy about that. But I’m sure it would have been nice to realize his dream of building that whole Lighthouse Project.”

One thing about Wang: He could never be accused of not dreaming big.

“One of our first meetings was, ‘How do we save the Coliseum?’ ” said Lancey, who first worked with Wang in 1980 and joined the Islanders in 2001.

“I believe there were talks of trying to find a solution, whether it be there or somewhere else,” said Peter Laviolette, who coached the Islanders from 2001-03. “I think it was pretty much focused there [the Coliseum] at the time. It was a great building. But, like everything, times change and demands and needs change out of buildings.”

By 2007, Wang had partnered with Scott Rechler, the CEO of Long Island-based real estate company RexCorp, and re-submitted plans for a downsized Lighthouse Project. Instead of a 60-story Lighthouse, there would be two 30-story buildings connected by a footbridge.

“We had 212 outreach meetings trying to make it happen,” Lancey said. “The politics was overwhelming.”

Why there was pushback

Wang had hoped politics would not impact The Lighthouse Project. In retrospect, that was unavoidable.

There were rumors D’Amato eventually turned against the project after Wang declined to hire him or his brother, Armand, as a lobbyist, though D’Amato refuted that and Wang never commented on the subject.

Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray submitted a counterproposal for The Lighthouse Project on July 12, 2010. That included a zoning plan for the area that permitted far less development and lower building heights. But Ed Mangano, who succeeded Suozzi as Nassau County Executive, and the project developers did not believe that counter proposal was economically viable.

“I personally reached out to Kate a couple of times to try and get meetings,” Lancey said. “We were getting calls from all other cities to move the team. It was a little frustrating. It was the entrenched politics."

Murray, who still works for the Town of Hempstead, did not respond to requests for comment.

While The Lighthouse Project was initially proposed as privately financed, its many twists and turns eventually led to a referendum for Nassau County voters in 2011 to authorize $400 million toward work on a new Coliseum as well as a minor-league baseball park and other projects within a 77-acre Nassau hub.

The referendum was rejected, officially sounding a death knell on any remnants of The Lighthouse Project.

“Sound bites ruled the day, not the facts," Wang said on Aug. 1, 2011, the day of the vote, standing in front of supporters at the Coliseum.

But the opposition was clear in its belief that taxpayer money should not be involved. If Wang wanted a new arena, he should pay for it.

Longtime WFAN radio host and Manhasset resident Mike Francesa believed the overall project "had merit," but said the developers' approach was, "pie in the sky. Way too expensive. The plans way too over the top. Had no chance.”

Leaving Long Island?

Now that the Islanders are settled into UBS Arena, their state-of-the-art new home in Elmont, there can be some 20/20 hindsight into all the maneuverings that got them there. At the time, though, there were no guarantees the Islanders would remain on Long Island. 

Two years before voters rejected the referendum, the Islanders agreed to play in a preseason game in Kansas City, Missouri, one of a handful of cities shopping for an NHL franchise.

The Islanders certainly seemed like a potential free agent once their lease at the Coliseum ended in 2015. And if that point could be made by playing a preseason game elsewhere, all the better.

So on Jan. 15, 2009, the Islanders announced they would do just that in the upcoming fall against the Kings.

“As we travel from city to city during the season, we come across Islanders fans throughout the country,” then Islanders general manager Garth Snow said in a statement. “I have had conversations with the Los Angeles Kings about an exhibition game and when they extended the invitation to play in Kansas City, I thought it provided a great opportunity to continue to grow our fan base.”

It certainly also left some uncertainty within the organization.

“There was some thought that we were going to Kansas City,” DiPietro said. “That was the real thought. It was tough. I love Long Island. I’ve been here since I was drafted and it’s a great place to be and the Coliseum was a great place to play."

Developer Bruce Ratner, who purchased the NBA’s New Jersey Nets with an eye toward moving them into New York City, had a vision just as Wang had. Ratner’s was about a state-of-the-art arena in Brooklyn.

Ground was broken for Barclays Center in 2010, while Wang was still trying to develop a new Coliseum. Barclays Center was not built with hockey in mind.

Eventually, it became clear moving the Islanders to Brooklyn, which they did for the 2015-16 season, and retrofitting Barclays Center to accommodate an ice rink, was the only solution for keeping the team in New York.

It proved to be an unhappy forced marriage.

Neither the arena ownership nor the Islanders were happy with the financial returns. The players, who all still lived in Nassau County, hated the commute. The arena’s infrastructure was simply not suitable for hockey.

By the 2019-20 NHL season, the Islanders started splitting games between Brooklyn and the Coliseum, playing all three of their playoff rounds in 2021 at the Coliseum before closing that venerable building to the NHL for good.

Fans’ perspective

Phil Jewell was too young while the Lighthouse Project was being fought over to care about politics, zoning concerns, who was paying for what or any of the other factors involved. His was a simple concern.

“Being the kid that I was then, all you kind of know is where are the Islanders going to be playing and is it going to be here?” the now-30-year-old Massapequa resident said recently while attending an Islanders game at UBS Arena. “As a kid, you’re a die-hard hockey fan and you’re like, ‘Am I going to be going to games next year or are they moving to Kansas, Quebec, wherever they were rumored to be.

“As a kid, you don’t have many fears in the world. It’s just like, ‘Where are the Islanders playing next year?’ That was kind of it. You were just scared.”

Fellow Islanders fan Nicholas Hirshon of Forest Hills, who authored “We Want Fish Sticks: The Bizarre and Infamous Rebranding of the New York Islanders,” in 2018, is 10 years older than Jewell, so he had a better understanding of the political and financial machinations of trying to make the Lighthouse Project a reality.

And he was strongly in favor of it getting built.

“I was all-in on the Lighthouse Project,” Hirshon said before a recent Islanders home game. “I remember when the first renderings came out and the jingle was, ‘Take me to the Lighthouse and don’t forget your smile.’ You could send away for a Lighthouse hat for free in the mail and I got that. I remember looking at all of those renderings and thinking this is such an incredible way of transforming a space where, right now, before and after the game, there really isn’t much to do. Unless you like hanging out in the lobby of the Long Island Marriott, there just isn’t a lot around Nassau Coliseum.

“It also seemed that Charles Wang was willing to put up a lot, almost all of the money, for this transformative project and the idea of an actual lighthouse tower that would send the beacon out whenever the Islanders won and be this landmark on Long Island, it just all felt right for bringing Long Island into the big leagues. And the response felt NIMBY (not in my backyard) to me of, ‘We don’t have large-scale projects on Long Island. We like things the way they are.’”

And when the Lighthouse referendum was rejected by voters?

“I was like heartbroken ,  my buddies and I at the time,” Jewell said. “It was just like a big cloud, like, now what?”

Added Hirshon, “I was really stunned when the voters rejected the referendum. It happened around the time of the financial collapse. I feel like a lot of the public were viewing Charles Wang as another billionaire asking for public funds for his own development. It wasn’t a very sympathetic place for him to be at that time.”

UBS Arena and lasting memories

A great irony of The Lighthouse Project is that the proposed 60-story lighthouse was one of the first elements to be eliminated.

At UBS Arena, a blue, orange and white lighthouse approximately 20 feet tall stands on the upper concourse, near the team’s four Stanley Cup banners and overlooking the goal the Islanders defend in the first and third periods.

It is not, the team has said, an homage to Wang’s grand plan. Instead, it’s a nod to Long Island itself and its seafaring history.

 The Elmont arena, built on the border between Nassau County and Queens, kept the Islanders on Long Island and finally gave them a modern home. The team opened the $1.3 billion UBS Arena at Belmont Park Nov. 20, 2021.  

 UBS Arena isn’t perfect, and there have been fan complaints about the parking — most of it not adjacent to the arena — and the lack of tailgating as was enjoyed at the Coliseum. Many would have preferred a more central location in Nassau County.

“It’s adequate in that we have a state-of-the-art, first-class arena and it’s home to the Islanders,” Suozzi said when asked whether UBS Arena represented an adequate resolution to the journey that started with the initial Lighthouse Project proposal. “It’s inadequate in that the Coliseum property is still moribund and [UBS Arena] is not centrally located.”

Islanders fans can come to UBS Arena and see a lighthouse. Just not the Lighthouse Project.

“I spent two-thirds of my life living in Nassau County,” said Gary Harding, the executive vice president of the independent Islanders’ Booster Club. “I know what Nassau politics are like. I really think there wasn’t a lot of confidence on either side to get this done. Of course, we all know what happened.”

DiPietro remembers following every twist and turn.

“The project, what it would have meant to that area, what it would have meant to Charles, we got an opportunity to see what his plan was,” DiPietro said. “The Coliseum was such a special place. To drive in and see people tailgating, it was something that was special for the players, to know that your fans cared as much as our fans cared. I remember we were doing the megaphones, Vote yes,’ and all that stuff. And it was something that we thought was going to happen and we were excited about.”

Epilogue

Wang agreed to sell majority ownership in the Islanders to Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky in September 2014 with the team valued at approximately $485 million. The transfer in ownership was formally approved by the NHL in June 2016 with Wang retaining a 15% stake as minority owner.

Wang died at age 74 on Oct. 21, 2018 after battling lung cancer. Malkin and Ledecky have frequently credited Wang’s role in the building of UBS Arena and keeping the team on Long Island.

There is a plaque honoring Wang’s life and tenure as the Islanders’ owner on the main concourse at UBS Arena that attests to that. The final paragraph reads, “It is thanks to Charles Wang that the New York Islanders are able to stay in New York, where they belong. UBS Arena at Belmont Park would not exist without his remarkable vision.”

UBS Arena is not Wang’s originally-intended Lighthouse Project. But, through all the twists and turns, the Islanders finally found a permanent home that greatly expanded their ability to generate revenue.