Related Amends Hudson Yards Casino Proposal to Include 4,000 Housing Units

Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group put more chips on the table to help their proposal to build a casino complex at Hudson Yards with Wynn Resorts hit the jackpot.

The developers announced Friday they plan to increase the number of housing units at Hudson Yards West from 1,500 units to as many as 4,000 units, all thanks to an “innovative financing mechanism” proposed to the New York City Council.

If the plan is approved, the developers’ $12 billion casino complex proposed along the High Line pedestrian park — which would include a gaming resort, housing and 5.6 acres of green park space — would be “among the largest additions to Manhattan’s housing stock in decades,” according to the announcement.

The expansion would be made possible through a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) program to “leverage incremental property taxes,” the announcement said. The program would allow Related and Oxford to “overcome financial challenges of the site” including the “necessary construction of a $2 billion platform over the existing railyards.”

In addition to financing the construction of the platform, the PILOT program would “make it viable” to replace a previously planned office tower on the Hudson Yards property with the developers’ two proposed residential towers.

“Over the last few months, we met with the community and heard consistent calls to add more housing to Hudson Yards West, even as many acknowledge the unique financial hurdles of developing the site,” Related CEO Jeff Blau said in a statement.

“We tried to think outside the box and identified a historically successful funding model that would allow us to increase the amount of housing at the site to up to 4,000 units, while still preserving the other critical benefits of the project,” Blau added. “This is the type of creative solve the community has been asking us to find, and we look forward to discussing it with the City Council.”

A spokesperson for the City Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The PILOT program, which provides property tax breaks ranging from 15 to 40 percent, has often been used by developers for properties in Hudson Yards and Times Square for tax reductions and to win millions of dollars in tax appeals, The City reported.

Related and Oxford have used the program in the past for their luxury shopping mall development at 20 Hudson Yards, which includes retailers Tiffany, Cartier and Bulgari. The property received a total of $78 million in city property tax breaks from 2020 to 2024, The City reported.

In addition, the property received cuts in its assessed value totaling $467 million as a result of New York State’s constitution giving property owners the right to challenge their assessments, according to the outlet.

In total, the number of tax breaks and other government assistance in Hudson Yards has reached nearly $6 billion, the New York Times reported. Proponents of PILOT argue they’re required to help get pricey developments off the ground, and that the loss in property taxes is more than made up for by the benefits gained by job creation and community benefits.

However, many New York City community officials and lawmakers — including Community Board 4 and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine — have spoken out against Related and Oxford’s use of the PILOT program, claiming wealthy businesses should “pay their own way” and not take advantage of government incentives, according to the Times.

Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and an early critic of PILOT, has since changed his tune on the program, though, saying he “got it wrong” about its use for Hudson Yards in a 2023 interview.

Still, the developers’ Hudson Yards West proposal is in the final stage of the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and will be voted on in the coming months, the announcement said.

The project also secured support from the city’s Department of City Planning earlier this month, bringing it one step closer to winning one of the city’s three coveted downstate casino licenses, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.