Citi Field casino not coming any time soon, lawmaker says at town hall

Supporters and opponents of a proposal to bring a casino to Citi Field’s parking lot sit side-by-side during a town hall on the proposal hosted by State Senator Jessica Ramos. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

By Jacob Kaye

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen may be all in on his desire to bring a casino to Western Queens – but the house is going to make him wait on his pay out.

State Senator Jessica Ramos said on Friday that if she is going to introduce a bill to help pave the way for New York Mets owner Steve Cohen to build a casino in Citi Field’s parking lot, it won’t be coming any time soon.

The lawmaker, who represents parts of Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, held a town hall meeting on Friday on Cohen’s plans to secure one of three downstate casino licenses to be issued sometime within the coming year by the state’s Gaming Commission. For the lawmaker, the meeting served as a way to gather public sentiment on what would be a necessary element of any plan to bring the casino to Citi Field’s lot – a piece of legislation known as a parkland alienation bill.

The land beneath the stadium’s parking lot is owned by the city and leased to the Mets. It’s technically designated as parkland. Among the long list of Cohen’s casino-related to-dos, the Mets owner would have to convince Ramos and Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry to introduce a bill that would specifically allow for him to build a gaming facility there. Aubry introduced a bill that does just that in March – and has received pushback for doing so. Ramos has not.

During the town hall meeting, Ramos said that she doesn’t plan to introduce a parkland alienation bill until at least the next legislative session, which begins in January 2024 – if she is to introduce one at all.

“I will not be prepared to introduce legislation during this legislative session,” Ramos said. “There is still a lot of work to do if this project were to proceed.”

Even if Ramos were to introduce the bill during the current legislative session – which comes to a close on June 8 – approval for a potential casino at Citi Field would still be a ways away.

Ramos said that she was told by the Gaming Commission that none of the dozen casino projects currently being proposed will get final approval until at least 18 months from now. In order for Cohen to get his project approved, he’ll need support from local City Councilmember Francisco Moya and will need to put the project through the city’s full Uniform Land Review Procedure, in addition to the bills from Aubry and Ramos.

“There are so many hurdles for all of these developers to have to jump through in order to become viable and be approved for the casino license,” Ramos said. “It's actually really extensive and complicated.”

State Senator Jessica Ramos, left, holds a town hall on the plan to bring a casino to Citi Field’s parking lot. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

In response to Ramos’ comments on the parkland alienation bill, a spokesperson for Cohen said that they have “been working closely with Senator Ramos from the beginning and her input has been an important part of our approach.”

“We will continue to partner with her and our neighbors in Queens as we incorporate their feedback and have an open dialogue with the community and a transparent process on how best to reimagine the 50 acres of asphalt around Citi Field,” the spokesperson said. “Based on the input we have received across 15 listening sessions, hundreds of meetings and over 20,000 door-to-door conversations, we believe that both Mets fans and the surrounding community will like what they see when we unveil a vision anchored in new public green space, thousands of new and permanent jobs and entertainment that brings people to the area every single day of the year.”

Unlike Ramos, Aubry introduced his version of the parkland alienation bill without holding a town hall meeting. Aubry, along with all other local elected officials, were invited to Friday’s town hall – only one, Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, showed up.

Aubry’s bill would allow for the land to be leased to New Green Willets, the group Cohen created for the casino project, 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.”

New Green Willets has said that in addition to the casino, they are pitching a project that also could include green space, a food hall, community athletic fields, nearby bike paths, new connections to the waterfront, community space, a hotel and improvements to public transit. Unlike a number of other developers pitching casino projects, Cohen has yet to release renderings of his proposal.

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.”

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. Also left out are any plans to create a binding community benefits agreement, which is often attached to large-scale development projects.

Ramos, who was not consulted prior to Aubry’s introduction of the bill, said on Friday that she didn’t feel “comfortable” with the bill’s current form.

“We haven't sat down and gotten the community benefits agreement,” Ramos said. “We haven't been able to figure out exactly how to make those things a lot more binding.”

Weighing the odds

Ramos’ town hall was originally scheduled to be held in a recently-opened food pantry in Elmhurst. After over 200 people signed up to attend, the event had to be moved to an elementary school located about five minutes away from where the potential casino would be built.

Around 400 people ended up signing up for the town hall, according to Ramos, but only about half as many showed.

“I was happy with the turnout,” Ramos said. “We had a full room.”

“It seemed pretty evenly split and a lot of people had questions,” she added. “My goal was always to make sure that everybody was informed and at least had a common understanding about what was being proposed, because no renderings have been made public.”

As attendees were being let into the town hall, a group of around a dozen supporters held signs paid for by New Green Willets and chanted about the project’s potential to bring construction and casino jobs to the neighborhood.

Though the Eagle approached several of the supporters holding signs, all declined to speak to the press.

People protest in support of plans to bring a casino to Citi field’s parking lot during a town hall on the proposal on friday, May 19, 2023. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

Not so tight-lipped about their support of the casino bid was Tom Grech, the CEO and president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

“This is a great opportunity, I think, with somebody with the means and the desire to have a whole new vision and redevelop what's there now, because asphalt is asphalt,” Grech told the Eagle. “I just think that it's one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to build something very unique and something very special.”

Also speaking in support of the project was former City Councilmembers Costa Constantinides, who attended a number of “visioning sessions” New Green Willets held on the proposal, and Elizabeth Crowley, who said she was backing the project in her role as the head of the Building Trades Employers Association.

“We see this as an unmatched opportunity for Queens,” Crowley said.

But a little more than half of those who spoke at the meeting said that they were outright opposed to building a casino in Queens and allowing Cohen – a billionaire hedge fund manager – to develop the city-owned land. Several others expressed serious concern with the project and said that the land should be used to develop a project that had more of a community focus.

“Most people in this city pay rent – but a billionaire is going to take our parkland,” said Nuala O'Doherty-Naranjo, a former Assembly candidate and Jackson Heights resident.

Matthew Walsh, a longtime Flushing resident, said that without any binding community agreement, he worried that the community benefits would not come to pass.

“I’ve seen these proposals before, and time and time again, it never lives up to its promise,” Walsh said.

When asked if the comments made at the town hall had begun to sway her one way or another, Ramos, who said she’d be holding more town halls in the near future, was brief.

“No,” she said.