Queens pol intros bill to pave way for Citi Field casino
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The parking lot of Citi Field could technically be home to a casino should a new bill from Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry pass both houses of the legislature. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
A Queens lawmaker introduced legislation on Wednesday that would allow Mets owner Steve Cohen to build a casino, hotel, entertainment facility, retail space and other developments on Citi Field’s parking lot.
Queens Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry introduced the bill to allow the Mets owner’s lobbying group, New Green Willets, to lease the city-owned land currently used by the ballclub as a parking lot – and technically designated as parkland – and build a casino atop it.
The legislation, which was first reported by THE CITY, was not introduced in the State Senate, raising questions about its future. State Senator Jessica Ramos, who represents the Northwest Queens area in the Senate, was not consulted on the legislation and has no immediate plans to introduce a companion bill, according to her spokesperson.
Aubry did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday afternoon.
The legislation, if passed in both the Senate and Assembly, would be one of the earliest steps taken toward realizing Cohen’s ambition to bring a casino to Citi Field.
Cohen is competing with around a dozen other developers for one of three downstate casino licenses to be granted by the state’s Gaming Commission in the next couple of years.
The billionaire hedge fund manager who purchased the Mets in 2020 began holding a number of “visioning sessions” toward the end of last year. The sessions, which were held at both Citi Field and a number of community facilities across Northern Queens, were attended by local residents, business leaders, elected officials and Mets fans, all of whom shared ideas about how to develop the 50-acres of parking lots surrounding the stadium.
And while a vast majority of visioning session attendees told Cohen and his team that they want to see something built on the city-owned land, they were less clear about their wishes for a casino. A spokesperson for Queens Future, the new group Cohen created to spearhead the development of the lot, said less than 4 percent of attendees explicitly said they did not want to see a casino built on the site. The spokesperson did not share how many attendees explicitly were in favor of building a gaming facility.
“The local community and Mets fans have told us emphatically that they want more from the 50 acres of asphalt around Citi Field,” a Cohen spokesperson said in a statement in response to Aubry’s bill on Wednesday.
“Steve Cohen and his team are committed to delivering a vision with dedicated green space, year-round entertainment and good-paying local jobs,” the spokesperson added. “We are supportive of efforts to create a process that does this the right way and makes it possible to expand use of the area beyond just parking lots.”
The 50-acre lot surrounding Citi Field was first leased to the team by the city in the 1960s. Though the land is currently used as parking lots, it is designated as parkland – a designation that comes with a host of restrictions about what can and cannot be built on top of it.
A previous effort by the former owners of the Mets to build a shopping mall on the lot was shot down in an Appellate Court in 2017, after it was ruled that the mall plan didn’t meet the land’s “public trust doctrine,” which requires that any project built on the land serve an explicit public good.
But a number of the complications to building on the land could be eased by the passing of Aubry’s legislation.
The bill would allow for the land to be leased to New Green Willets for an undetermined amount of time and would allow for the development of “a gaming facility and, in conjunction with such facility, commercial, retail, entertainment, recreational, hotel, convention, and/or community facility uses, parking, and/or roadways.”
The legislation also requires Cohen and his development group to either build replacement parkland or make capital improvements to existing parks in Queens. If the group choses make improvements to existing parks, it will be required to dedicate at least 20-acres of the project on the parking lot to open space or make improvements to “adjacent” parkland.
But a casino is central to the bill – and likely to any development that may or may not take place on the land. The last section of the legislation states that the lease with New Green Willets will be terminated “if construction of a gaming facility on the parklands…is not commenced within fifteen years of the effective date of this act.”
It also stipulates that the lease will be terminated if the developers build a facility not already described in the bill.
Left out of the legislation is any stipulation that the lease will be terminated if the developers don’t foot the bill for new or improved parks.
Queens Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry introduced a bill this week that would allow MEts owner steve Cohen to build a casino on top of Citi Field’s parking lots. File photo via Aubry’s office
Though Ramos previously told the Eagle that she’d consider introducing a similar bill in the Senate, she said that her legislation would likely include requirements for public input.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Ramos said she was caught off guard by Aubry’s introduction of the bill.
“I have yet to review the legislation in full,” the lawmaker said. “The process required to reassign the parkland requires a uniform bill in both the Senate and Assembly.”
“Clearly, I need to have conversations with my colleagues to ensure that whatever is introduced reflects our shared goals of prioritizing community input,” she added.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards expressed a similar desire for public input.
“I’m encouraged to see this legislative process beginning under the leadership of Assemblymember Aubry, but the most critical facet of this and any proposal for wide-scale development in Queens will continue to be community engagement, community feedback and community benefits,” Richards said.
“Creating a live, work and play environment here in Queens — while also uplifting the surrounding communities via economic opportunities, infrastructure improvements and more — continues to a top priority, and I look forward to reviewing the merits of this project, should it come to fruition, while ensuring the many needs of the communities surrounding Citi Field are met,” he added.
Earlier this month, a group of Flushing residents rallied in opposition to the plan to bring a casino to the area. The group included older Chinese American residents who said they were tired of casino operators marketing to them, younger Flushing residents who expressed concern that a casino would invite future development to Flushing and environmental activists who have long fought for improvements to nearby Flushing Bay, one of New York City’s most polluted bodies of water.
“The proposed City Field casino is an environmental injustice,” Rebecca Pryor, the executive director of the Guardians of Flushing Bay, said at the March protest. “It is a 50-acre public parkland land grab for the commercialization of a casino project that will only benefit the pocket of a billionaire. It is situated in the middle of multiple communities of color who are low and middle income and experience flooding on a regular basis and high levels of air pollution.”
“Our communities deserve neighborhood projects…that prioritize environmental justice communities rather than preying upon them,” she added.
But a number of Queens elected officials and business leaders have said they welcome the prospect of a casino, even if only as a means to further develop the area.
Tom Grech, the president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said Wednesday that he felt Aubry’s bill was a “very exciting development.”
“[Developing the land] is long, long overdue,” Grech said. “I understand how people call it a park, but it's 50 acres of asphalt and it's been that way for 50 years.”
Also competing for a casino license is Genting Group, the Malaysian-based resort company that owns Resorts World Casino in South Ozone Park.
If it were up to Grech, both Cohen and Genting would be the recipients of the state’s newest casino licenses.
“I just think there's plenty of room in the fourth-largest city in America for two casinos,” Grech said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the requirement Cohen and his group would have to improving or building parks under the bill.
