The following quote is from an Newsday article by both Carl MacGowan, Sam Kmack, and James Madore that was published June 22, 2026. You can read the entire piece here.
But detractors say any project that has been around as long as the hub without making any discernible progress is likely destined for failure.
“There’s been a lot of false starts here. To have one branch [of government] be not fully on board with the vision says the likelihood of this happening isn’t very good,” said Richard Murdocco, a Stony Brook University adjunct professor and author of “The Foggiest Idea,” an economic development blog.
“You need to be in sync,” he said. “Moving that [airport] terminal physically closer to the railroad station would create a true intermodal hub, but the other levels in government have to be on board.”
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Beyond the debate about whether to develop the parking lot site, some observers and officials don’t agree on what to put there.
Many favor a convention center, calling the site an ideal location between MacArthur and the train station.
“We don’t have one on Long Island,” Cantor said. “What conventioneers want is, they want an airport that is within 25 minutes of a convention center.”
Others are not so sure.
Murdocco said convention centers are “a financial loser in these kinds of markets.”
“You really just need housing and you need to foster interconnectedness between trains, the planes and the buses, and this is the spot to do it,” Murdocco said.
He pointed to the emerging Melville Town Center project in Huntington — a mix of residential and retail planned a few blocks from state Route 110 — as an example of smart suburban planning.
“It takes us awhile,” Murdocco said, “but eventually we do things.”
