ELMONT, N.Y. - When Belmont Park reopens for racing in September 2026, the new building will not be a finished product, New York Racing Association officials said Wednesday, which will lead to limited patron access.
“It’s still going to be an active [construction] site,” NYRA president and CEO Dave O’Rourke said. “We’ll have the first two floors done. We’ll have to limit [access] to some extent. The real question right now is how much of the grounds [will be open] because we’ve got about 30 acres here so people will be able to watch the races.”
O’Rourke said the building will likely be completed in the first quarter of 2027 and definitely before the expected first major racing event, the Grade 2 Wood Memorial, that April.
“I think we’ll be operational before that, but that’s the first big race,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke said it became evident in “the last three or four months” that the new five-story building, which, at 300,000 square feet, will be roughly a quarter of the size of the old grandstand, would not be completed by September 2026. The construction project has meant the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of racing’s Triple Crown and the signature event held each June at Belmont Park, had to be held at Saratoga in 2024-25 and will again in 2026.
“It’s a massive project, we’re getting a lot done in a very condensed time period,” O’Rourke said.
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Toward that end, Wednesday marked a milestone in the construction project. The last steel beams have been put in place and on Wednesday there was a “topping off” ceremony held at Belmont, with a ceremonial beam being raised to the top of the structure. The beam was signed by many in attendance before being hoisted to the top of the building while the Star Spangled Banner was played. A small evergreen tree, which symbolizes good luck, was on the beam.
Wednesday’s event was attended by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and several state and local politicians as well as NYRA chairman Marc Holliday and representatives of AECOM Tishman, the construction management company for this project. Several hundred construction workers were also present as the project continued even as people spoke.
“Keep going, hammer away,” Holliday said as sounds of a hammer were heard nearby as he spoke. “We don’t stop even for this ceremony.”
It was three years ago that Holliday went to Hochul to present her with a vision for Belmont Park that would require a $455 million loan. Hochul put that loan in the state budget in 2024.
Hochul said at the time Holliday presented her with the ideas for a new building, Belmont Park, which sat mostly empty except on Belmont Stakes Day, was “an antiquated facility, its days were numbered.”
Wednesday, Hochul said she sees a facility that “projects us into the future but it honors Belmont’s storied past. That’s the genius behind this. We can carry racing into the future and this bold vision is going to continue.”
Holliday, during his remarks, looked at the governor and said “you’re project is on time and on budget.”
In addition, Holliday said, “the laying in of the final steel beam is an important milestone, especially to the people that are here every day working hard in all weather conditions to make this happen. In racing parlance when that beam goes up, this is the turn for home and in less than one year this facility is going to be buttoned-up and you’re going to see something that is going to be awe-inspiring.”
NYRA will pay back the loan from the money it gets from Aqueduct’s video lottery terminals, which is used to fund NYRA’s capital projects. Separate from the state loan, NYRA has invested over $100 million into the renovation of its three existing racing surfaces at Belmont Park while also adding a synthetic surface. The synthetic surface will be used for winter racing beginning in 2027 as well as for scheduled turf races that are rained off the turf.
That part of the project is on or ahead of schedule. The laying of the synthetic surface - which lays inside the inner turf course - should be completed in time to allow training on it sometime in November, said Glen Kozak, NYRA executive vice president of operations and capital projects. Kozak also said the sod for the two expanded turf courses should be completely laid down by November, giving the roots 10 months to take hold before the turf courses are used.
Kozak said the renovation of Belmont’s 1 1/2-mile main track should be done in the spring and, depending what the status of the construction is on the building, limited training on the main track should be available in the spring.
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