Belmont Gets Final Approval

The Islanders’ new arena at Belmont, and the development of its surrounding areas, received its final stamp of approval today, courtesy of the Franchise Oversight Board.

As you can see in the tweet above the one declaring its approval, the meeting apparently went off without a hitch. Newsday’s Jim Baumbach, who also live-tweeted the webcast of the ESD approval meeting, started and ended this thread in under a half hour. Unlike the ESD meeting, which I believe lasted more than an hour and a half. Though, the ESD meeting allowed for outside commentary. Anyway!

So, you may be wondering what’s next. Or, probably not, since it’s indicated in Jim’s tweet that the developer needs to finalize a lease with ESD and obtain the proper permits to officially start work. Folks on the Twittersphere have reported that staging is already underway and excavators are on site, so as long as they’re not lying, it doesn’t sound like that’s going to be an issue.

The 120-day window for filing litigation against the development to stop work opened right after the ESD approval last week, so the project isn’t a guarantee until December. And the mayor of Floral Park has claimed they may explore any avenue to try to halt the project. But the amount of state support thrown behind this project from the beginning suggests it would be unlikely any lawsuit would get very far.

As Islanders fans, we’re conditioned to not get too excited about anything until it actually happens, but I think that we can start celebrating now. Hooray!