Mets owner asks for Queens’ vision for Citi Field as casino bid looms
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Owner of the New York Mets Steve Cohen solicited feedback from the Queens community about what they want to see built on 50-acres of city-owned parkland currently being leased to the team and being used as parking lots during a “visioning session” at Citi Field on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
For fans of the New York Mets, the off-season is a time to dream of an improbable break from decades of mediocrity. Steve Cohen, the owner of the Queens club, is dreaming too – but not about baseball.
The hedge fund-billionaire’s eyes are instead fixed on the parking lot that surrounds Citi Field, a 50-acre stretch of city-owned land leased to the ball club but designated as parkland.
Over the weekend, around 450 Queens residents, civic leaders and elected officials took a rare January trip to the ballpark to share their thoughts on what they want to see built on the tract of land. It was the fourth such “visioning session” to be hosted by Cohen and his new group, Queens Future – the first three sessions were not publicly announced and a spokesperson for Cohen declined to share the names of the people and organizations in attendance.
Around a dozen stations were set up around the rotunda of the Piazza 31 Club, a private section of Citi Field that overlooks the stadium’s parking lots and the 7 train subway station. Participants made their way from station to station answering different prompts – “What changes would have the most impact for the Citi Field area,” “Year-round entertainment priorities,” “What would improve your day at the ballpark,” among others. Shortly after the start of the Saturday event, the room was filled with hundreds of suggestions written on sticky notes.
Looming over the event was the prospect of a casino in the corner of Northeast Queens. Cohen, who bought the team in 2020, has quietly been lobbying city and state officials about a potential bid to secure one of New York’s three downstate casino licenses, which will likely be granted at the end of the year. The parking lot and neighboring Willets Point – which is undergoing a development of its own – have been suggested as possible landing spots for a gambling establishment.
But talk of the casino was downplayed by most in attendance and was rarely reflected in the responses they placed on the dozen boards and video displays, some of which prompted attendees with questions about gaming facilities. The Eagle spotted only one sticky note displayed on a board from a previous visioning session that suggested a “casino, hotel [and] help bring tourists to Flushing.”
“It's all hypothetical but my from my point of view, I think they're looking for what the community is interested in,” said Hersh Parekh, who serves as the director of Government and Community Relations with the Port Authority but who said he was at the visioning session in his capacity as a Queens resident.
“Seeing the boards, [a casino is] one of the options, certainly, but I think they really want to hear what the community is interested in,” Parekh added. “And it's great to see them taking that very seriously.”
Queens residents gave ideas about what they want to see built on 50-acres of city-owned parkland currently being leased to the team and being used as parking lots during a “visioning session” at Citi Field on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
Though the area has been viewed with an aspirational eye in the past, local elected officials, civic leaders and residents haven’t discussed changing its use in recent years.
Citi Field’s parking lot is built on public land and efforts to build on it in the past have been struck down in court because of the area’s designation as parkland.
In 2013, the former owners of the Mets attempted to build a shopping mall in the area as part of their larger effort to develop Willets Point, the crumbling neighborhood located across the street from the stadium. But in a 2017 Appellate Court decision, the developers were told the project would violate the parkland’s “public trust doctrine,” which requires that any project built on the land serve an explicit public good.
“Obviously, we're talking about public land that belongs to everybody, that doesn't belong to the Mets, that doesn't belong to Steve Cohen,” said State Senator Jessica Ramos, who represents the area and who attended the visioning session. “So making sure that everybody who lives in the surrounding community has a say is really important.”
Though Ramos applauded the effort to bring Queens residents into the planning process, she said that she was reluctant to believe that their voices would be factored into any final decisions made for the area.
“The feedback isn't necessarily binding,” the lawmaker said. “That being said, I think that we are at a juncture where, especially in our community, we really want more economic opportunity, and an opportunity for good jobs – I think that is really welcomed.”
Because of the land’s official designation and its ownership, any effort to build there would require some sort of permission from the city or state.
Ramos said that rather than introduce legislation that would change the area’s parkland designation to a designation that allowed for whatever it is that Cohen decides to pursue, she’s planning to introduce legislation “that says, ‘Whatever happens here in this area actually should have a better public review process and that has binding opportunities for the community.”
“This is good intentions, this shows good faith, this shows collaboration and I respect it, I appreciate it, I welcome it,” Ramos added. “But a public review process – a binding one – there's no replacement.”
Several days before the visioning session, a group of civic organizations rallied near Citi Field and expressed opposition to any effort Cohen may make to bid for a casino license. They accused the Mets owner of holding the visioning session to sway lawmakers to support the potential project.
“We believe that Steve Cohen is trying to create a perception of public support for a vague concept of an ‘entertainment venue’ – but that he may later misrepresent that as support for a casino to be built on the parkland,” Jena Lanzetta, a Bayside community activist, said in a statement. “He’s soliciting public opinion, without disclosing that his plans impact public parkland, or that his true ambition is a casino.”
Cody Hermann, a member of Queens Community Board 7, which has for decades heard proposals to redevelop nearby Willets Point, said that she was “hesitant right off the bat” about the intentions of the community event.
“It feels like the same kind of rhetoric from the 2013 [shopping mall] plan, which was shot down in court already,” Hermann said. “Why are we talking about things that are not legal?”
Citi Field’s parking lots are built on public land that is designated by the city as parkland. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
Hermann said she that would prefer the land to be reverted to its intended use – a public park – but added that she was more concerned about the impact of development in the area.
“It's going to have a huge, huge injection of wealth,” Hermann said. “What does that mean for the working class, mostly immigrant communities of Flushing and East Elmhurst, Corona and Elmhurst?”
Cohen was seated in the final area in the feedback session. He spoke directly with participants, many of whom were eager to share their thoughts with the billionaire.
When asked about pushback against his plans for a casino, Cohen said that he’d be open to subjecting any proposal to a public review.
“We don’t expect everyone to support our ideas, and that’s what the discussion is about,” Cohen told reporters. “We’re going to follow the rules and regulations of the processes of the city and state, and if there are issues along the way, we are going to try and figure out how to solve them.”
If he decides to pursue a casino license and build one on the parking lot of the stadium, Cohen will have supporters.
Steve Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets, speaks with former City Councilmember Costa Constantinides during a “visioning session” held at Citi Field on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
Mayor Eric Adams hasn’t outright said he supports a bid for a casino next to Citi Field, but he hasn’t shot it down either.
“As the mayor has said many times, he is willing to talk to anyone who is committed to boosting our economy and helping our city recover from COVID-19,” a spokesperson for Adams told THE CITY in April. “He is willing to consider any idea that would help achieve that goal.”
Adams – like several mayors before him – has also been a major booster of the effort to redevelop Willets Point, which, like the Citi Field parking lot, is primarily owned by the city. In November, Adams announced that Willets Point, which has historically been home to a number of auto repair shops, will soon be home to the New York City Football Club’s soccer stadium. The stadium, which will be the first stadium dedicated to soccer in the city, will be neighbored by over 1,000 units of 100 percent affordable housing, according to the proposal.
Officials said Citi Field’s parking lot would also serve as the parking lot for the soccer stadium – it’s unclear how a casino, or any other venture on the parking lot, would impact that plan.
Plans for a casino would also have support from Queens officials. Tom Grech, the president and CEO of the Queens Chambers of Commerce, told the Eagle that Resorts World, which currently operates a casino in Jamaica, has been an ally in the borough’s economic goals and he believes any new casino would bring similar opportunities.
“We're the fourth largest city in America and we have one casino,” Grech said. “I think there's room for more.”
