Last semester, some students received a survey and a brief description of the Nassau Hub, a development project proposed to be constructed right off of the northern side of Hofstra’s campus.

The Nassau Hub would be constructed in the empty parking lot surrounding the Nassau Coliseum. On the developer’s website, it is described as a “dynamic, cohesive and lively Innovation District – ‘a new suburbia’ – in the heart of Nassau County.”

The funding coming from New York state would build three parking structures and pedestrian bridges that connect the hub to Nassau Community College and Hofstra, as well as finance the construction of Northwell Health’s Innovation Center. All together, these will cost a total of $125 million, according to the Nassau Hub’s fourth-quarter report. 

The Nassau Hub is being financed by Onexim Group via its subsidiary BSE Global (formerly Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment), which manages multiple sports and entertainment facilities around New York City. However, the Nassau Hub is being physically constructed by RXR Realty, a real estate development firm that has multiple properties around the New York metropolitan area. BSE Global has a vested interest in developing New York properties, with somewhat of a sketchy motive.

Onexim’s owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire turned politician, has shuffled money and other assets from Russia to the United States, particularly in New York real estate, mostly using Onexim’s many smaller subsidiary companies. Prokhorov contested Vladimir Putin in the 2016 Russian election and lost harshly. Prokhorov’s BSE Global also at one point owned the Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets. RXR, conversely, has multiple properties around gentrified areas of Brooklyn. 

Overall, the lingering smell of luxury real estate and a Russian billionaire doesn’t seem like community development. It seems like what has happened to Brooklyn is now being injected into Hempstead. Once again, the private market is servicing the richest 1% and neglecting everyone else.

In 2018, the city of New Rochelle, New York underwent a similar downtown development, also planned out by RXR. Within the next few years, the property values in downtown New Rochelle tripled and mom-and-pop stores closed around the city. This prompted a concession from New Rochelle development commissioner Luiz Aragon, who stated, “Gentrification is inevitable as we move forward.”

The problem is that gentrification is not inevitable – it can be prevented. While Hempstead is better off than somewhere like New Rochelle in 2011, the effects of supposed “development” would surely force out some residents through rent hikes. Uniondale might sit comfortably with an easy middle-class household income of $70,000 a year, but Hempstead residents are some of the poorest on Long Island, with 20% of the population living below the poverty line. Of that 20% of impoverished residents, 85% rent their homes. 

Those renters are the most vulnerable, as landlords can react and adjust prices the quickest. By adjusting zoning laws and capping rent prices, communities can ensure that real estate prices remain stable and developers set aside certain units for affordable housing. From a purely economic perspective, more housing will decrease the price overall. 

On paper, this is the principle that local and state governments use to justify the construction of projects like the Nassau Hub. In reality, luxury real estate has a spillover pricing effect. Prices will skyrocket as the Nassau Hub makes Hempstead a desirable playground for the ultra-wealthy. While the proposed project does include some aspects of sustainable modern living, like dense zoning and walkable spaces, the existing benefits these features would supposedly bring are minuscule in comparison to the inevitable rent crisis that Hempstead would experience. The Nassau Hub needs to find another area to “innovate.”

Daniel Cody is a freshman journalism major from Pennsylvania who writes about politics.