Latest on Midway Crossing: Suffolk will pitch in up to $50 million to redevelop site, County Executive Edward Romaine says

Suffolk County will kick in up to $50 million to redevelop county-owned land in Ronkonkoma and begin soliciting ideas within weeks from private developers for a new project to replace the $2.8 billion Midway Crossing development, County Executive Edward P. Romaine said Thursday.

In his first public comments since removing master developer JLL from the project, Romaine said the Chicago-based real estate conglomerate "did not show the progress" needed to advance plans to build a convention center, hotel and health sciences offices at the 179-acre site. JLL had been named in 2018 to lead redevelopment of an area dominated by parking lots between Long Island MacArthur Airport and the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road station.

Romaine, a Republican, said the county would issue a Request for Expressions of Interest and Qualifications “in two to three weeks” to seek potential developers and solicit fresh ideas for the project.

“The whole process was backward” under then-County Executive Steve Bellone, a Democrat, whose administration selected JLL from among four developers in a competitive bidding process, Romaine said. 

“Let’s go to the private sector and ask what their ideas are,” he said in an interview after speaking to 275 business and nonprofit leaders in Woodbury about the results of a new economic poll from PKF O’Connor Davies accountants and the Siena College Research Institute.

Bellone declined to comment Thursday.

JLL officials have said they had invested millions of dollars into Midway Crossing and were ready to move forward as soon as Suffolk officials committed money to improve infrastructure in the area.

Romaine said Thursday the county would put up to $50 million into the project for infrastructure and expects the state to announce “a major investment" within the next few days.

"We need private as well as public dollars. A public-private partnership will get this done,” he said.

Midway Crossing was canceled following years of delays and changes to the plan.

JLL's original proposal featured a 17,500-seat hockey arena that was scrapped when the New York Islanders agreed to move from Barclays Center in Brooklyn to the 17,250-seat UBS Arena in Elmont.

JLL's final plan called for 2.7 million square feet of new construction, including a convention center; a 300-room hotel; health sciences facilities; a new air terminal at MacArthur Airport; and a walkway connecting the airport and the Ronkonkoma train station. Construction was expected to take 10 to 15 years.

Romaine said JLL had failed to show significant progress toward getting the project started.  

“Midway Crossing was out there for seven years, and I felt it did not show the progress that it should have shown” under JLL, he said. “We’re going to put this on the fast track. We think it needs to move. I’m one of those people that would rather be half-right on time than all-right too late.”

Matt Cohen, CEO of the Long Island Association, a nonprofit business organization, said the county's commitment to restarting the project was “an exciting development."

“It’s clearly a top priority of County Executive Romaine. They’re putting their money where their mouth is,” he said Thursday.

Martin Cantor, a former Suffolk County economic development commissioner, said Romaine made the right move when he severed JLL from the project.

“We can’t dawdle around. Four years in economic development is an eternity,” said Cantor, director of the Long Island Center for Socioeconomic Policy, a Melville think tank. “Everybody wants it. It’s not like you have to go around and try to inculcate enthusiasm for the project. It’s already there.”