Nassau seeks expo center at Mitchel Field

Nassau County is pushing for building a small sports and exposition center at its Mitchel Field Athletic Complex in Uniondale, county officials said.

Brian Nevin, a spokesman for Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, said the facility would extend the use of an open field into the winter months and provide a site for small to midrange conventions that would boost the local economy.

"This will be a multipurpose field that can be converted into an expo center for conventions," he said. "This proposal envisions the facility supporting surrounding restaurants and hotels, both of which generate dollars for the county and support local jobs."

A request for proposals was to be released Wednesday for "a public indoor recreation & exposition" site on about 2.5 acres of the 67-acre complex. "Final space allotment and boundaries will be determined by the County with the selected Proposer based on needs and the plan as submitted to RFP," it said.

Nevin said that a dome might be placed over one of the complex's fields. He said he did not believe there would be any problem with zoning from Town of Hempstead officials. "This is governmental use on existing park land."

Hempstead had successfully opposed much larger projects, but town spokesman Michael Deery said officials there had not seen the current proposal so he could not comment on it.

The proposal did, however, say that the company selected must comply with all laws and regulations and must obtain from the Town of Hempstead "all required building permits and approvals. [And that] all cost associated with potential rezoning of the Site will be borne fully by the Selected Proposer."

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County officials said the expo idea was included in Accelerate Nassau, Mangano's economic development and job creation plan he submitted to the Governor's Regional Economic Council in October.

"Several companies have expressed an interest in investing the private-sector dollars needed to construct an expo center of this size at Mitchel Field," Nevin said.