Belmont Arena Developer Tries to Dismiss Construction-Halting Lawsuit

[Wandering Eyes]

New York Arena Partners (NYAP), the developer of the proposed $1.3-billion hockey arena, hotel, and retail project adjacent to Belmont Park, has asked a New York court to dismiss a lawsuit filed last month by the Village of Floral Park that seeks to halt construction from moving forward.

Two state agencies that green-lighted the project and are also defendants in the lawsuit–the Empire State Urban Development Corporation (ESD) and the New York State Franchise Oversight Board (FOB)–filed their own, separate requests Oct. 25 to have the lawsuit thrown out. Newsday broke the story on Monday.

In its Sept. 9 lawsuit, the Village of Floral Park, where Belmont is located, cited a flawed bidding process and a “secret master plan” for the arena’s development that was allegedly floated by the New York Racing Association (NYRA) nine months before the state issued an official request for proposal for the project.

NYRA itself was not listed as a defendant in that suit, although court documents for the original complaint allege that the plan “contained multiple NYRA-related improvements” that then-NYRA president Christopher Kay pitched in conjunction with the hockey arena being built, including a “synthetic track for winter racing,” “light stanchions for nighttime racing in warm weather months,” a large sports bar, restaurants, luxury suites, and terraces overlooking the paddock.

In Friday’s motion-to-dismiss filing, an attorney for NYAP wrote that the “There is simply no legal basis to hold this project up.”

An ESD spokesman told Newsday, “As our filing makes clear, the Belmont Redevelopment Project went through a transparent, public process that adhered to all requirements under state law. The Village of Floral Park’s lawsuit is, in essence, an attempt to stop the project simply because the village doesn’t like it–despite broad support from other community stakeholders and ESD’s full compliance with the law.”

 

The post Belmont Arena Developer Tries to Dismiss Construction-Halting Lawsuit appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article