STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Lauren Primerano, administrator for the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, said Friday that the facility has long been missing something.
The complex has become a regional destination for track and field events since it opened in 2015, but Primerano said the general lack of amenities in the surrounding area has long been a complaint from visiting athletes.
On Friday, she and a group of Staten Island leaders announced a plan to change that.
“Sometimes the kids are here for 12 hours a day, so we do have a lot of situations where we see the kids are Door Dashing, Grub Hubbing. We constantly have deliveries coming to the facility,” Primerano said. “They’re always looking for something to do, especially those that come [from] out of town.”
On Friday, she and a group of Staten Island leaders announced a plan to change that.
“Sometimes the kids are here for 12 hours a day, so we do have a lot of situations where we see the kids are Door Dashing, Grub Hubbing. We constantly have deliveries coming to the facility,” Primerano said. “They’re always looking for something to do, especially those that come [from] out of town.”
Visitors looking for something to do sometimes go as far as leaving the Island, taking dollars away from possible Staten Island businesses.
To address that, Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-East Shore/South Brooklyn) announced he would be funding a $50,000 Staten Island Economic Development Corporation (SIEDC) study looking at possible investments in the area.
“This is quite an impressive complex where thousands of athletes come here with their families to compete in different arenas and different sporting events,” Tannousis said. “The issue that we have is that if you look at the surrounding areas, unfortunately, there is not a place for them to go. Perhaps get something to eat, have dinner with their families, maybe perhaps do some shopping.”
Michael Cusick, president and CEO of SIEDC, said the study will be looking at investment opportunities for businesses, and possibly, residential development in the neighborhoods along Father Capodanno Boulevard.
Hurricane Sandy decimated the area in 2012, and Tannousis said many of the neighborhoods have had a hard time recovering.
Ocean Breeze saw mass state-sponsored residential buyouts following the storm with strict restrictions on redevelopment.
Tannousis suggested that those restrictions may someday be lifted, particularly as the federal government constructs the East Shore Seawall, a massive $2.3 billion project that saw its first groundbreaking in October.
“We’re hopeful that once the sea wall is built, that will be able to change a lot of those restrictions. Because once that seawall is built, we’re hopeful that a lot of these areas will no longer need flood insurance,” he said.
Tannousis said he and other elected officials, including Borough President Vito Fossella and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn), had long sought the chance for economic development in the area, and that the study would serve as a way to reignite that conversation.
On Friday, Fossella, who grew up in South Beach, harkened back to a bygone era when the Island’s beach communities were a national destination for summertime vacationers.
“People came from all over, not just New York City, but the country, to vacation here, so there is a footprint already in place, and we should try to revisit that,” Fossella said. “I think we owe it to the people of Staten Island to start, to begin and lay out a strategy and a blueprint of what this corridor is going to look like for the next 50 or so years.”