The race to get one of the three downstate New York casino licenses is down to its final four options after Steve Cohen’s Citi Field pitch secured a 6-0 vote from its local community advisory committee (CAC) on Tuesday.
It joins Bally’s Ferry Point, MGM Empire City, and Resorts World New York City as the applicants that have made it to the next phase in the process, where their bids will be under scrutiny from the New York State Gaming Facility Location Board (GFLB) before the state’s gaming regulator makes the final decisions before the end of the year.
Talking about the prospects of the Hard Rock casino beside Citi Field, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., said: “While the Mets may not make the playoffs, I think we could consider this a home run for Queens.”
the plan is to invest about $1.75bn into improving the area around the casino
The proposal has overcome stiff opposition from locals, with Senator Jessica Ramos blocking the rezoning of land for the project for quite some time before a workaround was found. Hard Rock is Cohen’s partner on the project, and the plan is to invest about $1.75bn into improving the area around the casino, including building 450 units of social housing.
