Jones Lang LaSalle
Mixed-Use Project
Aims to Revitalize
March 29, 2006; Page B6
Long Island's Nassau County, facing sluggish job and population growth, is planning a mixed-use project aimed at developing a central core in one of the country's oldest and wealthiest suburban regions.
The $1.6 billion project is slated to include a $200 million renovation of the aging Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, home of the New York Islanders hockey team. Also on tap: a minor-league baseball stadium, a hotel, as much as one million square feet of office space, retail space and about 1,700 residential units -- with 340 of those slated to be affordable.
A joint venture has proposed renovating the existing Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum as part of a larger $1.6 billion project.
The pedestrian-friendly project will be a boost to "this great suburb that has not had the ability to develop a center," says Scott Rechler, chief executive of Reckson Associates Realty Corp. The Melville, N.Y., company is financing the project with Islanders owner Charles Wang. Earlier this month, the joint venture was tapped by County Executive Thomas Suozzi to develop the 77-acre county-owned parcel that is covered mostly by parking lots.
Mr. Suozzi, a Democratic candidate for New York governor, says the project is part of a broader vision for a "new suburbia" that will help prevent Nassau's younger people from fleeing the congestion and higher taxes that he says are part of being a middle-aged suburb. Mr. Suozzi, who has said the project will broaden the county's tax base, expects construction to begin in about two years.
Nassau County, which stretches just east of John F. Kennedy International Airport to the less densely populated Suffolk County, is home to about 1.3 million residents. In 2005 an estimated 17.5% of Nassau County households -- or 78,816, the seventh-highest county total in the U.S -- had net worths of $1 million or more, excluding the value of their primary residences, according to a division of TNS, a London-based research firm.
Nassau's median home price rose in December to $482,000, well above the national median of $213,000, according to Moody's Corp.'s Economy.com. Nassau's employment level fell in June by 0.1% from a year earlier compared with the national gain of 1.5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent data.
Partly owing to its proximity to the economic engine of Manhattan, Nassau boasts a robust commercial real-estate market despite the region's above-average housing costs. While fourth-quarter office vacancy rates ticked up from a year earlier due in part to bank consolidations, Nassau remained the healthiest suburban office market in the tristate New York region with a vacancy rate of 10.8%, according to CB Richard Ellis Inc.
Office properties fetched average prices of $188 a square foot last year, in line with the national average of $190, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. Philip M. Heilpern, senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis in Woodbury, N.Y., says prices are held down by comparatively high property taxes. Strong demand has prompted some companies to convert warehouses into offices, pushing some industrial users seeking newer space and lower taxes into Suffolk County, says Mr. Heilpern. He says property taxes on office properties in Nassau County range from $6 to $10 a square foot, compared with $3 to $5 in Suffolk County.
The retail market in Nassau and Suffolk counties, fueled by high incomes, also remains strong. But some experts say brisker job growth is needed to sustain retail growth. Asks Pearl M. Kamer, chief economist for the area's largest business organization, the Long Island Association Inc., "At what point does an excess of retail space clash with limitations on purchasing power?"
Mixed-Use Project
Aims to Revitalize
March 29, 2006; Page B6
Long Island's Nassau County, facing sluggish job and population growth, is planning a mixed-use project aimed at developing a central core in one of the country's oldest and wealthiest suburban regions.
The $1.6 billion project is slated to include a $200 million renovation of the aging Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, home of the New York Islanders hockey team. Also on tap: a minor-league baseball stadium, a hotel, as much as one million square feet of office space, retail space and about 1,700 residential units -- with 340 of those slated to be affordable.
A joint venture has proposed renovating the existing Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum as part of a larger $1.6 billion project.
The pedestrian-friendly project will be a boost to "this great suburb that has not had the ability to develop a center," says Scott Rechler, chief executive of Reckson Associates Realty Corp. The Melville, N.Y., company is financing the project with Islanders owner Charles Wang. Earlier this month, the joint venture was tapped by County Executive Thomas Suozzi to develop the 77-acre county-owned parcel that is covered mostly by parking lots.
Mr. Suozzi, a Democratic candidate for New York governor, says the project is part of a broader vision for a "new suburbia" that will help prevent Nassau's younger people from fleeing the congestion and higher taxes that he says are part of being a middle-aged suburb. Mr. Suozzi, who has said the project will broaden the county's tax base, expects construction to begin in about two years.
Nassau County, which stretches just east of John F. Kennedy International Airport to the less densely populated Suffolk County, is home to about 1.3 million residents. In 2005 an estimated 17.5% of Nassau County households -- or 78,816, the seventh-highest county total in the U.S -- had net worths of $1 million or more, excluding the value of their primary residences, according to a division of TNS, a London-based research firm.
Nassau's median home price rose in December to $482,000, well above the national median of $213,000, according to Moody's Corp.'s Economy.com. Nassau's employment level fell in June by 0.1% from a year earlier compared with the national gain of 1.5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent data.
Partly owing to its proximity to the economic engine of Manhattan, Nassau boasts a robust commercial real-estate market despite the region's above-average housing costs. While fourth-quarter office vacancy rates ticked up from a year earlier due in part to bank consolidations, Nassau remained the healthiest suburban office market in the tristate New York region with a vacancy rate of 10.8%, according to CB Richard Ellis Inc.
Office properties fetched average prices of $188 a square foot last year, in line with the national average of $190, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. Philip M. Heilpern, senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis in Woodbury, N.Y., says prices are held down by comparatively high property taxes. Strong demand has prompted some companies to convert warehouses into offices, pushing some industrial users seeking newer space and lower taxes into Suffolk County, says Mr. Heilpern. He says property taxes on office properties in Nassau County range from $6 to $10 a square foot, compared with $3 to $5 in Suffolk County.
The retail market in Nassau and Suffolk counties, fueled by high incomes, also remains strong. But some experts say brisker job growth is needed to sustain retail growth. Asks Pearl M. Kamer, chief economist for the area's largest business organization, the Long Island Association Inc., "At what point does an excess of retail space clash with limitations on purchasing power?"
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 10:16 AM
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