The City Council on Wednesday approved New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s plan to bring a casino to Citi Field.
The Council, which will soon vote on several other proposals from developers hoping to win one of three casino licenses to be handed out to downstate bidders by the end of the year, voted 41 to two in favor of the $8 billion casino and entertainment complex known as Metropolitan Park. Three councilmembers, including Queens Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, abstained from voting on the project.
The approval grants Cohen and his partner in the project, Hard Rock International, the right to make several zoning changes to the site, which currently houses Citi Field’s parking lot. While the zoning changes are needed in order for Cohen’s plans to move forward, Metropolitan Park will still need several other approvals, both from local and state officials, before the project truly will be granted the green light.
Most importantly, Cohen needs to win one of the casino licenses soon to be doled out by the state’s Gaming Commission – he’s in competition with around a dozen other developers pitching casinos in Manhattan, the Bronx, Long Island, Yonkers and Queens.
Image: Rendering via Metropolitan Park
Nonetheless, the Council’s approval of the project, which would feature a casino, new hotels, a live music venue, a food hall and 25 total acres of park space, is a step in the right direction for Metropolitan Park, which has had trouble getting land use approvals at the state level.
“From the very beginning we have been focused on creating something the community can truly be proud of,” Cohen said in a statement. “It’s time the world’s greatest borough gets the investment it deserves.”
The Council’s approval of Metropolitan Park was never really in doubt.
Metropolitan Park began city review in September. Its developers were seeking approval for two, relatively minor zoning changes – the upzoning of the parking lot to a new designation created this year by the city specifically for casinos, and the de-mapping of a number of streets in the area they want to build on.
In November, all five of the community boards charged with reviewing the plan voted in favor of Cohen’s casino.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards issued his support of the plan in December – Richards has also issued his support for the effort to turn the racino at Resorts World New York City in South Queens into one of the state’s newest full-service casinos.
Last month, the City Planning Commission voted 9-1 in favor of Metropolitan Park, sending the request to make the zoning changes to the Council for a final vote.
On Tuesday, the Council’s Land Use Committee voted unanimously in favor of the plan and left little doubt that it would pass a full vote on Wednesday. Adding to its guarantee of success was the support it received from the local councilmember, Francisco Moya. The Council often votes the way of the local councilmember, a practice known as councilmember deference.
“This project is about more than building a new venue – it's about creating lasting job opportunities, transforming this area into a world class destination, and elevating our local economy to unprecedented heights,” Moya said before the vote on Wednesday.
“This project deserves the opportunity to compete in the established process for one of the new gaming licenses,” he added. “I vote ‘yes’ on the future of Queens.”
But not all of Queens’ representatives were on board with the proposal.
Republican Queens Councilmember Joann Ariola, who was recently elected to serve as the minority leader in the city’s legislature, was one of two Queens representatives to vote “no” on Metropolitan Park.
Ariola told the Eagle after the vote that her opposition had less to do with Cohen’s plan than it did with her support for Resorts World, which sits just outside of her South Queens district.
“I don't think that there's enough of a market share for two casinos in Queens,” Ariola said. “If two [casinos] are in Queens, only one will prevail.”
Resorts World is seen as a top contender for one of the three licenses largely because it’s already in operation as a racino and has a history of being a good neighbor in the borough, according to a number of elected officials.
Resorts World’s owners, the Malaysian-based company Genting Group, have said that if they receive one of the state’s casino licenses, they’d construct a $5 billion project featuring an expanded casino, a live music stadium, open space, a conference center and new hotels.
“Resorts World has done everything right,” Ariola said. “They've checked every box to be able to get a license and then to build out onto the property, which is what we'd like to see there.”
Republican City Councilmember Vickie Paladino also voted against the rezoning, and Queens City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán abstained from voting on the plan.
Paladino did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Cabán declined to comment.
Wednesday’s vote marked the first time the City Council had voted on one of the several casino proposals that will require land use approvals.
A plan from Wynn Resorts and Related Companies – which is behind the massive Willets Point development across the street from Citi Field – to build a casino in Hudson Yards has been widely panned by local officials and will likely soon make its way to the Council for a vote.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine told Crain’s New York Business last month that he felt the project was “not good enough” to earn his approval.
Even with the Council’s thumb’s up, a number of obstacles remain in Metropolitan Park’s way.
Cohen and Hard Rock will next turn their eyes to the state, where they’ll need to convince lawmakers to change the designation of the land they hope to build on. The parking lot, which is owned by the city but under a lease to the Mets for the next 80 years, is technically designated as parkland. The designation doesn’t allow for the building of a casino, or anything else that doesn’t “serve an explicit public good.”
In order to skirt around the designation, lawmakers in Albany would need to pass a “parkland alienation bill,” giving Cohen permission to build what he pleases on the land.
While the local assemblymember, freshman lawmaker Larinda Hooks, is a major supporter of the project, her counterpart in the Senate, mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos, is perhaps its fiercest opponent. Ramos decided against introducing a parkland alienation bill last year, and has said in recent months that she doesn't plan to do anything differently this year.
In addition to parkland alienation, Cohen will also need the approval of a local community advisory committee, which would be made up of mayoral representative, a gubernatorial representative, a City Council representative, the local assemblymember, the local state senator and the borough president. In order to get the council’s OK, Cohen would need two-thirds of the group to vote in support of Metropolitan Park.
The Gaming Commission will be the final piece of the puzzle for Cohen. The commission, which is around a year behind its original timeline for issuing the downstate casino licenses, is expected to hand out the three approvals in the final days of 2025.
Source: Queens Daily Eagle
Preview Image: Rendering via Metropolitan Park
