Steve Cohen’s Metropolitan Park Casino Gets Nod From Key Committee

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock Entertainment are among the New York casino applicants who are on a heater, as they say.

The Community Advisory Committee (CAC) for Metropolitan Park voted unanimously in favor of sending the Queens casino proposal to the next stage of approval with the New York State Gaming Commission. It marks the final CAC decision on the eight proposals vying for three downstate gaming licences. Four have now advanced to the gaming commission. 

Cohen has planned an $8 billion project next to the Mets’ Citi Field in Willets Point, Queens, where vacant land could be redeveloped into a 286,000-square-foot gaming facility with lodging. Plans also call for a giant infusion of 2,500 affordable apartments to be developed by Slate Property Group.

The deal Cohen and Hard Rock worked out with community stakeholders also includes a $1.75 billion investment in infrastructure, parks and other forms of open space on the 50-acre plot.

A 5,650-seat entertainment venue would also be built alongside 18 food and beverage spaces and 20,000 square feet of retail space.

State Sen. Jessica Ramos refused to introduce legislation in the state Senate allowing parkland to be converted in exchange for building new parkland within the complex, seemingly killing the project. Then state Sen. John Liu — whose neighboring district also falls within the scope of the development — took up the cause and got the approvals necessary from the legislature.

Ramos’s appointee to the CAC, George Dixon, however, voted in favor of the project at the Tuesday meeting.

Meanwhile, state Assemblymember Larinda Hook and City Councilmember Francisco Moya, also CAC members, have been vocal supporters of the project. Lin Zeng, who was appointed to the committee by Mayor Eric Adams, voted in line with her fellow mayoral appointees on CACs for other proposals and with an affirmative vote.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. also voted in favor, just as he did with Resorts World New York City in southeast Queens.

Other proposals that have advanced to the next phase with the New York State Gaming Commission include Bally’s proposal for a resort near Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, which was approved Monday morning, and proposals from Resorts World New York City in Queens and MGM Empire City in Yonkers, both of which were approved last week.

Applicants that have been blocked from proceeding to the next phase include all three Manhattan proposals — Freedom Plaza, Caesars Palace Times Square and The Avenir — and one in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.