Las Vegas Sands: Hofstra, NCC split on proposed $4B casino resort

At one end of Las Vegas Sands' proposed $4 billion casino resort is Nassau Community College, the county's 2-year institution that has signed on as its primary employee training center.

At the other end is Hofstra University, a private college that sued the county over alleged meetings violations weeks before Sands was granted control of the Nassau Coliseum site.

Sands' plans are testing the colleges within walking distance, highlighting a growing debate over whether pursuing a career on Long Island requires workforce training or a liberal arts degree, whether a casino should be near campuses or if the economic opportunities associated with them have too much potential to pass up.

The Nevada-based company's proposal is still years away from becoming reality. Sands needs approval for zoning changes and its review of the environmental impact. Community and state site selection panels need to sign off, and the plan requires one of three downstate gaming licenses expected to be awarded by the state in 2024 or 2025. 

Supporting the project could benefit NCC students in hospitality, culinary, theater production, marketing and management programs, officials say, and boost enrollment that has lagged over the past decade. Opposing it might mean exclusion from partnerships and, potentially, financial rewards.  

“[Students] are going to school, they are either getting a two-year degree or a certificate, but they know that there is great opportunity at the end for an internship or job —  something that we haven’t had that opportunity to provide for them before,” said Jerry Kornbluth, NCC’s vice president for community and governmental relations. 

Hofstra President Susan Poser has been among the most vocally opposed, saying a casino should not be near tens of thousands of students and urging a different development. The university is in the backyard of the property known as the Nassau Hub, a 72-acre site where it would be located.

“Such development could include affordable housing and restaurants, grocery stores, green spaces, community-oriented entertainment, and new industries,” Poser said in a recent statement. She declined an interview request.

Proximity of proposed casino to local colleges

Las Vegas Sands' proposed $4 billion casino resort at the Nassau Coliseum site is within walking distance of both Hofstra University and Nassau Community College.

Resort a 'shot in the arm'

Sands executives estimate 8,500 full- and part-time jobs in more than 150 categories in their "integrated resort" of a Vegas-style casino, luxury hotel, high-end retail, celebrity-chef restaurants, a live performance venue, convention and event space, and day spa. 

This appeals to NCC, which already offers programs including hotel and casino management, security and surveillance, meetings and banquets, entertainment and food and beverage. The college is preparing a new facility for its culinary arts department to open in 2025 and has agreed to a partnership with Sands to explore opportunities. 

A spokeswoman for Northampton Community College said when Sands owned the casino resort near the campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, they hosted a popular annual food and wine expo that raised $2.1 million for the school’s students.

Such partnerships also benefit Sands, whose application for a gaming license would receive a boost from community support. 

Sands received near-unanimous approval from Nassau legislators for a 99-year lease of the Coliseum site. The company's land-use plan, filed with the Town of Hempstead in August, shows a zoning change to create a hospitality district that would merge the Coliseum property with the adjacent Long Island Marriott hotel site. 

Legis. Arnold Drucker (D-Plainview), among the 17 lawmakers supporting the project, said he hopes its proximity to NCC provides a “two-way pipeline” with students easily commuting to and from jobs at Sands, and for Sands workers “who might want to return to school because it’s right across the street."

“The synergy is perfect,” said Drucker, who served on the NCC Board of Trustees from 2012 to 2016 as enrollment plummeted and the school was put on probation after an accreditation review.

“This partnership has the potential to return the college back to being a hub for accessible, higher education in Nassau County,” said Drucker, who noted the college's continuing fiscal challenges, aging infrastructure and contentious administration-faculty relationship. 

In June, he and other legislators approved NCC's $185 million budget that includes a modest 2.5% enrollment growth. In 2022, enrollment was down 10.5%, and in 2021 down 16.9%, according to testimony from Office of Legislative Budget Review Director Maurice Chalmers at the time. 

NCC lost half its enrollment over the last decade, dropping from more than 23,000 in fall 2012 to under 12,000 in fall 2022, according to State University of New York enrollment data.

The collaboration between Sands executives and NCC administrators has few specifics as of now, but both say it would lead to new programs and enhance existing ones. The partnership also would provide for "experiential learning" as well as internships, they announced this year. Kornbluth, Drucker and other supporters of Sands believe it will be the "shot in the arm" the college needs. 

In March, Sands executives announced a second partner: LIU Post in Brookville, where students with associate's degrees in hospitality could go on to earn bachelor's degrees. The agreement creates "a comprehensive hospitality program for Long Island's students," according to Sands' announcement.  

Kornbluth, a veteran college administrator and former math professor who rose up NCC's ranks over more than four decades, said part of the debate over the casino resort involves “educating a community that has seen this college as strictly a liberal arts college.” 

“When there was talk years ago about technical or vocational training, you would hear from certain individuals in academic leadership positions who say ‘we don’t want this to become a BOCES’ — that was the negative around that," Kornbluth said.

"But I’m going to make it real simple: If you’re in the fish business and it’s drying up, you have to create something else, you have to add poultry and meat, too. It’s the same thing here,” said Kornbluth, referring to a shift toward adding new programs to boost enrollment. 

Hofstra opposition

While Sands has gained broad support from economic organizations, labor and trade unions and workforce development partners across Long Island, Hofstra has not backtracked on its opposition. 

Poser has urged local lawmakers to nix the plan in public comments, editorials and paid advertisements. Hofstra’s Student Government Association issued a statement in March opposing the project. 

“We should be investing in opportunities to foster growth and development, not an industry that could be dangerous for students and community members," according to former SGA president Will Germaine and vice president Julie Singh.

The university's pending lawsuit alleges the Nassau Planning Commission violated state Open Meetings law in approving the Coliseum lease agreement before it advanced through the full legislature in May.  

That month, Poser told legislators she believed the development would negatively impact a combined 32,000 students from Hofstra, NCC and Kellenberg Memorial High School, all within walking distance from the Coliseum. 

“Nassau County should not situate a gambling center in a location brimming with young people who are especially predisposed to such risky behavior," she said in a 13-page statement.

NCC nursing student Kieasia Abraham, 19, of Valley Stream said she wouldn't mind the development because “casinos as a whole are pretty fun places” and she would consider getting a job there while she attends college, “depending on the benefits.” She works at McDonald’s to pay for her education, she said, and hopes to transfer into a bachelor’s degree program.

“I don’t really see the casino as an issue because I believe the age to go in is 21, right? If you’re 21, legally you’re an adult. You can say, ‘This is right, that’s wrong,’ ” Abraham said.

New York State, which has the final decision on who wins gaming licenses, has placed no restrictions on a casino's proximity to schools.

Ron Reese, Sands senior vice president for global communications and corporate affairs, said the company does not market to students. 

"The 20-year-old college student is not our customer and we'll have very stringent entrance policies from an ID standpoint, the same as we will around alcohol purchases on the property," he said.

"I think it's a little bit disingenuous in 2023 to pretend that gaming is not prevalent in our society," Reese added. "These kids don't need to leave their apartments to gamble, so to say that this is a risk to young people or that we are preying on young people, I think, is disingenuous." 

Former Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz, a member of the State Gaming Facility Location Board that will decide who wins the gaming licenses, declined to comment.

Poser, who succeeded Rabinowitz in August 2021, has said she would like to see the Nassau Hub become a health technology center, which would support current Hofstra programs and provide careers with higher wages.

In 2008, the university opened the Zucker School of Medicine to train physicians and researchers, a step toward shifting its focus to health care. In 2015, the university launched a nursing and physician assistant studies program with the Northwell Health system.    

Sands, however, will roll the dice without Hofstra's support. Reese said the company is in talks with Long Island's other four-year colleges. 

"We are really focused on the people we sign these partnerships with, and those we are having conversations with. Our doors are always open but we are less focused on folks who haven't given an inclination to want to partner with us," Reese said. 

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.