What happened to NYU Langone's $3B plan at Nassau Community College? Democrats want to know.

Nassau County Democrats are demanding answers on the scuttled agreement to bring a $3 billion project by NYU Langone Health that Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman said was on "pause" because of "external factors."

Minority Leader Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) sent a letter Friday asking the presiding officer to convene a hearing in "the best interest of taxpayers and our responsibility as a coequal branch of government."

Democrats say they were excluded from the discussions between the Blakeman administration and NYU Langone. Now they want to know why the deal is suddenly off.

The two sides have offered broad explanations on why the project fizzled over the last few weeks, citing cost, regulatory hurdles and logistical and technical problems. Officials with the health system have said the need to expand has them exploring other possible sites in both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

"We really need to find out what happened and what the future plans or locations are if any," DeRiggi-Whitton told Newsday after more than a week of fielding questions and concerns from constituents over the sudden pause. "County Executive Blakeman spent two years parading around a $3 billion fantasy, and now that it's crashed and burned, he didn't even have the decency to tell the college or the legislature it was dead." 

The plan — a significant private investment into the county — was to bring a teaching hospital onto the campus of Nassau Community College in Uniondale. News that the health system was no longer interested dealt a blow to college and county officials, who had been working since May 2023 with hospital officials to develop on at least 37 acres. The project promised thousands of construction and health care jobs as well as internship and educational opportunities for students at the two-year community college, officials said.

No one had touted the project more than Blakeman, who noted the progress on the project as recently as last month in his State of the County address but Democratic lawmakers say he never updated them on the status of the proposal. They said they were surprised when the administration announced the negotiations were off and puzzled as to why after two years nothing had materialized.

'External factors'

Blakeman, in an emailed statement, said both NYU Langone Health and the county worked "very hard" to put a new hospital at the community college and "mutually agreed to a pause which will allow NYU Langone the ability to explore other options."

Blakeman and administration officials did not answer Newsday's questions on what hurdles they were unable to overcome. Instead, Blakeman blamed "regulatory, technical, cost and timing" concerns as reasons the deal got shelved. 

"Both sides felt further negotiations between the respective lawyers and experts would not expeditiously lead to an agreement," Blakeman said. "Unfortunately, sometimes there are external factors that deter noble ideas.”

Similarly, the hospital officials told Newsday that the project was halted because it was going to take "too much time" and involved "too many moving parts," including having to create a new power station on the campus to power the facility.

In a recent interview, the health system's billionaire benefactor and chairman, Ken Langone, said the project would not move forward because of “the complexity of all the things that had to happen and we just concluded that it was going to take too much time and it was too complex and we were better off taking a step back and looking at the alternatives.”

The project would have been the second largest private investment after Las Vegas Sands' $6 billion proposal to build a casino resort on the adjacent site of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. 

Blakeman, who is running for reelection in November, first announced he was working with Langone, a major Republican donor, at NCC's 2023 graduation ceremony. There was little public discussion about the status of the plans, which would require several agency approvals, including from the State University of New York and the state Health Department, in addition to the college trustees and county legislators.

Jerry Kornbluth, NCC's vice president for community and government affairs, said he did not know what derailed the plans. As recently as March 24, a team from NYU Langone were expected to visit the campus, he said.

He said he was surprised when county officials told him several days before the visit the deal was on pause. 

The hospital officials drew up the plans in consultation with NCC’s architects and engineers, he said. College administrators and the college's board had a positive reaction to it. They wanted to make sure the medical center wouldn’t cast too many shadows on the rest of the campus and that there would be separate entrances, and they were pleased with the plans, he said.

Kornbluth said a new power facility needed to be built. “It was not a cheap proposition,” but it didn’t seem insurmountable, he said.

Eyeing Canon

NYU Langone Health officials say they are unwavering in their commitment to expanding the hospital system on Long Island, exploring alternatives to the NCC site for a teaching hospital, medical education and a research facility, according to a statement last month.

NYU Langone officials had also engaged in discussions with executives at Canon with their sights on the company's Melville property in Suffolk County for a new hospital.

Christine Geed, spokeswoman for the Town of Huntington, said NYU Langone officials contacted the town after a conversation with Canon officials.

The first meeting between Town of Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth and NYU Langone took place Nov. 20, Geed said in an email.

"It was then that Supervisor Smyth and the Town began talking about the possible NYU Langone to Canon connection, looping in the County and [Suffolk County Executive] Ed Romaine," Geed said. 

In a memo to company employees obtained by Newsday, Canon U.S.A. president and chief executive Sammy Kobayashi said: "Over the years, we have received interest in several of our properties and evaluated those proposals. We prioritize what we feel is best for our Company and our employees, who are vital to our success."

Another site that has been up for consideration, according to Kornbluth, is a mall property along Sunrise Highway in Massapequa. Earlier this year, Newsday reported that the Sunrise Mall on 72 acres in Massapequa is nearly vacant. 

A spokesman for Urban Edge Properties, which owns the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa, declined to comment.

Kornbluth said he is confident the college will "bounce back" and find other opportunities for NCC students even if they had gotten their hopes up.

“For the last two years we have been working closely with them on all aspects of the proposed plan and it was an important project for the students at NCC giving them a tremendous opportunity in nursing and allied health,” Kornbluth said. “It was a major project for the residents of Nassau County. The faculty would have been involved with their faculty and do research with the hospital and the college.” 

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.com,maura.mcdermott@newsday.comcandiceferrette,

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