Recently, New York State Supreme Court Justice Sarika Kapoor, the very same judge who formerly invalidated lease of the Las Vegas Sands (LVS) with Nassau County last November, decided that LVS doesn’t have a legally acceptable lease to manage the Nassau Coliseum and the ground surrounding it. Additionally, this ruling poses another problem for the firm’s intention to construct a resort and casino there, a project worth multi-billion dollars.

Verdict:

Beside the aforementioned ruling, the judge also said that the separate deal signed by LVS with the former tenant of the Coliseum is also invalid. Also, the said verdict represents one more victory for Hofstra University in its current lawsuit with Nassau County, which is the current owner of the Coliseum and allowed LVS a lease that will last for next 99 years, to manage it.

Furthermore, Hofstra took legal action during April 2023, claiming that the planning commission of Nassau breached state’s open meetings law when it moved the lease from the previous tenant of the Coliseum, Nassau Live Center LLC. In addition, Kapoor gave an order in November to repeat the process and manage the review of an environment prior to taking into consideration the fresh lease. However, the County is making a plea regarding this verdict.

Nassau, meanwhile, claimed that LVS has leaseholder rights according to the private agreement with the aforementioned Nassau Live Center LLC, and referred the development to the Town of Hempstead to start zoning and environmental considerations. In this regard, the lawyer of the aforementioned University, Adam Schuman, commented in the statement: “The Court has issued another important ruling needed to protect the public’s rights under state and county laws. The Nassau Coliseum cannot be transferred or developed without a public hearing and environmental review first being properly conducted by the County, so that the public can provide its input to such critical decisions for the future of the County.”

Relatedly, a spokesman for County Executive Bruce Blakema, Chris Boyle, commented that lawyer of the county is considering the order. Officials of the LVS refused to provide a comment, according to the Newsday.

Commenting on the aforementioned verdict, Hempstead Town Special Counsel, Steve Losquadro, commented: “The town just received the decision issued by the judge, we are carefully reviewing it, and will determine how it applies to the town.”

Reasons for the ruling:

The firm and county were counting on obtaining the location to fuel Sands’ bid to obtain 1 out of the 3 licenses to be rewarded in the downstate New York. Also, Sands officially purchased the Coliseum’s lease for $241 million from Nassau Live Center LLC, based on the filing by the firm with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The said filing also indicates that the said company originally paid $54 million to the county.

However, in her ruling that consists of sixteen pages, Kapoor wrote down: “The assignment of the original lease … is not a mere private transaction between non parties. The fact remains that the assigned lease has been terminated. Any new lease agreement between Nassau County and [Las Vegas Sands] would need to be in writing and comply with, among other things, the Nassau County administrative code and Open Meetings Law.”

Opponents of the proposed casino by LVS commented that they weren’t “surprised at all” by the verdict and urged Hempstead Town to put the review of the environment on hold. Speaking on the matter, Say NO to the Casino, an organization made up of local citizens, said in a statement: “We want reassurances that control of the Nassau HUB land and coliseum operations have been returned to Nassau Live Center. The Nassau HUB is taxpayer-owned land, our elected officials should start treating it as such.”