More and more concepts are coming out for the downstate casino licenses have been getting revealed and if there was going to be one on Queens, I think Resorts World might be the way to go. Also releases were some ideas for a casino in Manhattan. I also think Citi Field doesn't need a casino as well as Manhattan not needing one either. You guys should check this out.
Some people in New York City are calling 2024 the year of the casino. Two years ago, state politicians authorized the awarding of three casino licenses for downstate New York. (Although voters approved Vegas-style gambling in 2013, then-governor Andrew Cuomo allowed upstate casinos to move forward first, so they didn't have to compete directly with NYC.) Lobbyists and people closely tracking the process assume two of the three licenses will go to the two already functioning “racinos” — facilities that have race tracks and slot machines but no card games, table games, and other Vegas-style gambling — in the area, one in Ozone Park, Queens, and the other in Yonkers, just north of the Bronx, since they can more easily and quickly expand to include casinos. That means local developers and national and international casino operators have to vie for just one license, and, as Freedom Plaza indicates, they are piling on neighborhood amenities to entice the powers-that-be to grant it to them.
Of the five Midtown Manhattan proposals, two of them would put the casino in existing buildings (Times Square and Saks), while the other three would include the casino as part of larger developments: at the base of two mixed-use towers with Silverstein; in the second phase of Hudson Yards, which was originally slated to be residential; and on a long-unbuilt empty void immediately south of the UN along the East River.
The three-block, 6.7-acre empty space that is now named Freedom Plaza, and which is already home to the Field of Light art installation, is owned by the Soloviev Group, the company run by Stefan Soloviev, son of developer Sheldon Solow, who died in 2020. (Soloviev uses an older spelling of the family name.) The Soloviev Group is the successor company to the Solow Building Corporation, which bought numerous parcels, including these the three blocks, from Consolidated Edison in 2000; the power company was decommissioning its power plant on the site, a process that took more than half a decade, so the plant was gone and the three blocks were graded by 2007. Put another way, the three-block site south of the UN has sat empty, fenced-off for fourteen years — no wonder it is being eyed for the lucrative casino bid.
Casinos are seen by proponents as tax generators that help fund schools and other public institutions, but opponents see them as places that generate traffic, entice already impoverished people to spend what little money they have, and encourage gambling addicts. Either way, a casino just steps from the United Nations, an organization that explicitly exists to “find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity,” is highly questionable; quizzical at best. Seeming to anticipate the expected naysayers, the Freedom Plaza team is proposing a long list of buildings and programs unrelated to the casino, which goes by the less loaded term “gaming facility” in a press release and would be practically invisible, buried beneath a 4.77-acre public park designed by OJB Landscape Architecture.
The other pieces of the development, all designed by BIG–Bjarke Ingels Group and comprising the bulk of the development, are:
- Two residential towers, 50 and 60 stories, that would include 1,325 apartments, nearly 40% of them permanently affordable;
- Two 51-story hotel towers (a Banyan Tree hotel and a Mohegan hotel)
- A conference and entertainment center; and
- The Museum of Freedom and Democracy.
The proposed Museum of Freedom and Democracy is the most overt attempt to align the development with its famous neighbor. Bjarke Ingels says in a statement that it “celebrates the origin and evolution of one of the most impactful inventions of mankind and our continuous struggle to build, maintain and protect the institutions that uphold it.” Anchoring the park, the museum takes the shape of a Möbius strip, providing walking paths atop it and sitting above a similarly shaped amphitheater “as a symbol of unity.” The form of the amphitheater “takes cues from the traditional Greek theater as a nod to those who created democracy thousands of years ago.”
Resorts World puts in a bid.
Resorts World New York City is among a crowded bidding pool trying to land one of New York’s three downstate casino licenses. That would that permit Las Vegas-style slot machines, table games, and sports betting.
Resorts World NYC is a racino that operates slot-like video lottery terminals (VLTs) and electronic table games. For the Genting-owned and operated property to secure slot and live dealer table game privileges, plus sports betting, the casino must win one of the three full-scale downstate casino concessions. Those are set to be issued by the New York Gaming Facility Location Board late this year or in 2025.
Companies pursuing the coveted downstate casino permits are willing to not only fork over the $500 million that each license costs, but also pitch the state substantial projects. Those, the developers say, will improve the community in which the casino would operate.
Genting’s plan unveiled this week includes not only an expanded casino space with major updates to the facility and many new hotel rooms. but also the construction of a 7,000-seat concert hall. Located at the Aqueduct Racetrack in the Queens neighborhoods of Ozone Park and Jamaica, Genting says if RW New York Citysecures one of the full-scale casino permits, it will additionally build an “innovation campus” with a sports academy for high school student-athletes.
That project would come at a major cost.
Expansion Details
Genting has already invested more than $1 billion into its Queens property. If it receives a full gaming license, company officials said Thursday they would pour another $5 billion into the resort to greatly expand the destination that’s near JFK airport.
When we stood here more than a dozen years ago to break ground on Resorts World New York City, our vision extended well beyond that already-ambitious original plan. Today, that vision can soon become a reality,” Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting America East, said Thursday.
The proposal includes 1,600 new hotel rooms, 30 new restaurant and drinking concepts, the 7,000-seat concert venue, and 3,000 units of employee housing offered at affordable rates.
The casino would balloon to 350,000 square feet. A 50-acre outdoor park was also detailed in Thursday’s project revelation.
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