Advantage Cohen
Steve Cohen’s Metropolitan Park project in Queens has emerged as a leading contender for a New York casino license despite a lively Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) hearing open to the public.
Up for debate at the CAC earlier this week at a packed Queens Borough Hall was the $8bn pitch by the New York Mets owner and partner Hard Rock International.
cheers in favor of Cohen’s bid
Supporters and opponents filled the Atrium for the hearing, many holding up signs, cheering, and chanting. Most of the cheers were in favor of Cohen’s bid, with 53 of the 79 speakers testifying in support of the casino project next to Citi Field.
That Metropolitan Park is passionately backed by Queens locals gives the already strong bid added momentum, a wave of populism that wasn’t lost on political observers.
Clock ticking on Times Square?
After the hearing, anti-New York City casino State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal stated the Queens bid “has a very good shot.”
Conversely, Hoylman-Sigal took aim at the Caesars-Jay-Z project in Times Square over the potential impact a Manhattan casino would have on crime, addiction, and congestion.
“If you want to exacerbate the problem of quality of life in a neighborhood, drop a casino in the middle of that,” Covers cited the lawmaker stating.
Hoylman-Sigal’s talking up Queens while damning Manhattan is a further blow to the under-fire Caesars Palace Times Square (CPTS) bid. Last week, the CPTS group dismissed a new survey that claims 67% of Times Square-area residents are against a casino as “fake news.”
The CPTS further accused Broadway theater owners of wanting to “maintain their monopoly on entertainment options in Times Square.”
With the Times Square bid seemingly without deep community support, reports have emerged that the CAC “seems likely to recommend against the bid later this month.”
Moment of truth nears
Two of the three licenses are virtual locks for MGM’s Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway and Genting’s Resorts World New York City at Aqueduct. Both are already operating as racinos, with the existing infrastructure to quickly convert to full-scale casinos.
Could it be Cohen’s Queens bid then, that captures the last license? Caesars’ pitch seems doomed, potentially leaving the Freedom Plaza bid as the only serious challenger to Metropolitan Park.
By September 30, however, the various CACs that hosted the hearings will have voted on which proposals they believe should get tossed or proceed to the New York Gaming Facility Location Board.
Should the body choose Yonkers, Aqueduct, and Metropolitan Park as its three bid winners, the New York State Gaming Commission will award the trio their casino licenses by the end of 2025.
