Many happy people preparing to gamble in Queens.
Photo: Metropolitan Park
Looks like we’ve got our final four contenders for the three downstate casino licenses. On Tuesday, a community advisory committee voted six to zero in favor of Metropolitan Park, Steve Cohen’s $8 billion bid to put a casino next to Citi Field. (“While the Mets may not make the playoffs, I think we can consider this a home run,” per Queens borough president Donovan Richards — ha.) Cohen now joins Bally’s in the Bronx, MGM Empire City in Yonkers, and Resorts World in Queens as the last proposals standing.
A reminder of what’s on offer: The New York Mets owner’s bid (with Hard Rock Entertainment) would take over a 50-acre parking lot next to Citi Field and includes a 5,600-person theater and a laundry list of community sweeteners, like a 25-acre public park and High Line–inspired “skypark”; nearly $500 million for a full revamp of the Mets–Willets Point subway station; a long-term, 450-unit affordable-housing complex in nearby Corona; and a Taste of Queens food hall because why not.
The Bally’s proposal, which passed its own community advisory committee vote on Monday, would build a 3 million-square-foot gambling and entertainment complex next to its Ferry Point golf course. The nearly $4 billion casino proposal includes plans for a 500-room hotel, a spa, a retail space, and a 2,000-person events center, all of which seems like the perfect fit for a former landfill site. Then there’s Genting’s Aqueduct Resorts World bid in Jamaica and MGM’s Empire City Casino in Yonkers, both of which are heavy favorites to win full casino licenses from the state thanks to their preexisting “racinos” — horse-racing and slot machines.
Let us not forget the casino bids we’ve lost along the way: All three applications in Manhattan, including SL Green’s partnership with Jay-Z and Caesars to build a casino smack in the middle of Times Square, were shot down by their respective panels. (“Sorry, Jay-Z, we win again,” Richards said after his panel approved Genting’s project, which counts the rapper Nas as one of its partners.) Thor Equities’ the Coney, which, to the tune of $3.4 billion, would have put a roughly three-block casino-hotel-retail complex right in front of Luna Park on Surf Avenue, is dead in the water after its community advisory committee voted four to two against the proposal Monday afternoon. Four of the six members on the community advisory committee had already publicly stated they would oppose the project. (“The Surfs, Mermaids, and Neptunes suffer no fools,” per city councilman and panel member Justin Brannan.)
This community-advisory-committee process exists in large part because Liz Krueger, one of the top-ranking State Senate Democrats who has called gambling “a tax on desperation,” had, along with other lawmakers, pushed for it when the casino-licensing process was being hashed out in Albany. “I was pretty sure that with the right education opportunities … we could actually swing public opinion momentum to have my colleague elected officials not want to vote yes,” Krueger told Gothamist.
But there have been limits on local input: Kristy Marmorato, the Republican city councilwoman whose district encompasses Ferry Point, was a vocal “no” on a casino in her backyard, prompting the City Council to reject Bally’s land-use application, seemingly killing the project. That was until Eric Adams stepped in with a rare veto on the council’s vote, justifying his decision by claiming that the Bronx should have the same odds to be chosen for a casino as other parts of New York City. (Also of interest here: The Trump Organization, which sold the remainder of its lease on the golf course to Bally’s for $60 million, will land a $115 million bonus if the site is chosen for a casino license. Also also of interest: A number of Adams’s allies have ties to Bally’s, including the mayor’s former chief of staff Frank Carone.)
Cohen’s proposal was favored for local approval, but the unanimous vote was a surprise: George Dixon, a committee representative for Jessica Ramos, had opposed the plan over the past year. (Dixon said Ramos ended up telling him to make his own decision.) Metropolitan Park, projected to raise $850 million in taxes for the city and state by its third year in operation, is the largest project of the remaining contenders, which is partly why it’s favored to secure one of the three licenses up for grabs. Lord knows Cohen could use a win.