Cohen’s casino pitch heads to Council for vote, but state approval remains a gamble

Metropolitan Park was approved by the City Planning Commission last week and will head to the City Council for a final vote in the coming months.  Rendering via Metropolitan Park

By Jacob Kaye

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s $8 billion plan to bring a casino to Citi Field’s parking lot will head to the City Council for a vote after the City Planning Commission gave the project their stamp of approval last week.

Metropolitan Park, which would be built on the approximately 50-acre parking lot outside of the Mets’ home stadium, was given the thumbs up by nine of the 11 members present for the Wednesday vote. One member abstained and another, Juan Osorio, voted against the project because he wanted to first see the results of an unfinished Department of Environmental Protection resiliency study at the site.

The project, which would feature a casino, new hotels, a live music venue, a food hall and park space, will now head the Council for a vote in the coming months.

The Council, which often defers land use votes to the member whose district houses the pending project, is expected to approve the casino proposal. Local Councilmember Francisco Moya has long supported Cohen’s casino efforts, calling the project a “positive and transformative economic boon for our community and city” last year.

But while Metropolitan Park appears to be cruising through the city’s land use review process, far more crucial approvals at the state level remain outstanding.

Cohen, and Hard Rock, the hedge fund owner’s partner on the project, are ultimately gunning for one of the three downstate casino licenses expected to be dolled out by the state’s Gaming Commission at the end of this year – Cohen has said he wouldn’t pursue any type of project on the land unless he is given a license. There are currently around a dozen other competitors bidding for a license, including Resorts World New York City in South Queens.

But before Cohen and Hard Rock can get a license, they’ll need to first convince the state to change the designation of the land they hope to build on. The parking lot, which is owned by the city but under a lease to the Mets for the next 80 years, is technically designated as parkland. The designation doesn’t allow for the building of a casino, or anything else that doesn’t “serve an explicit public good.”

In order to skirt around the designation, lawmakers in Albany would need to pass a “parkland alienation bill,” giving Cohen permission to build what he pleases on the land.

While the local assemblymember, freshman lawmaker Larinda Hooks, is a major supporter of the project, her counterpart in the Senate, mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos, is perhaps its fiercest opponent. Ramos decided against introducing a parkland alienation bill last year, and has said in recent months that she doesn't plan to do anything differently this year.

But for the time being, the project has enjoyed support in the city.

"With the City Planning Commission vote, Metropolitan Park moves one step closer to becoming a reality and delivering more than 23,000 union jobs, $1 billion in community benefits, and 25 acres of public park,” Metropolitan Park spokesperson Karl Rickett said in a statement to the Eagle after the CPC’s vote.

“This vote reflects the overwhelming community support and input Steve Cohen and Hard Rock have collected over the past three years,” he added. “We look forward to presenting our community-first vision to Council Member Moya and the City Council."

Metropolitan Park would completely overhaul the area surrounding Citi Field.

Around 65 percent of the project would be parking, which would be spread through several garages and ground-level parking at a number of buildings. The facility that would house the casino, hotel, music venue, restaurants, retail and convention center would take up around 33 percent of the development. Around 20 acres of the project would be turned into open space.

The project would also create around 23,000 jobs – around 16,300 would be temporary, construction jobs, while the remaining 6,700 would be permanent jobs.

Cohen also committed in his proposal to funding improvements to the Mets-Willets Point 7 train station that, under his plan, would connect with Metropolitan Park. However, those changes would first require approval from the MTA.

Metropolitan Park began city review in September. Its developers are seeking approval for two, relatively minor zoning changes – the upzoneing of the parking lot to a new designation created this year by the city specifically for casinos, and the de-mapping of a number of streets in the area they want to build on.

In November, all five of the community boards charged with reviewing the plan voted in favor of Metropolitan Park.

Community Board 7, which covers Flushing, Whitestone, College Point, Willets Point and Malba, voted 36 to 4 to approve Metropolitan Park. Community Board 6, which covers Forest Hills and Rego Park, voted 32 to 6 in favor of the project. Community Board 8, which includes Briarwood, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Holliswood, Jamaica Estates, Kew Gardens Hills, Utopia and parts of Flushing, voted in favor of Metropolitan Park 31 to 4. Community Board 9, which covers Woodhaven, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens, voted 27 to 3 in favor of the casino plan. Community Board 3, which covers East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Corona, voted to approve the project 26 to 8.

Community Board 4, which covers parts of Corona and Elmhurst, was also supposed to vote on the project but postponed their meeting on Metropolitan Park without an explanation. The board’s vote on the plan, which was rescheduled for mid-December, fell out of the timeframe the board had to issue a recommendation on the proposal.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards issued his support of the plan in December.

Richards, whose support of the casino was widely expected, said his approval of the project was not necessarily rooted in the potential economic boost its backers say it will bring to Queens, but instead in the community benefits Cohen has promised to the borough.

“Many recent studies have cited mixed economic outcomes when casinos are built, often not translating to long-term success,” the borough president said in his recommendation. “However, the applicant team has done a commendable job of creating a plan that would enrich local constituents’ lives.”

“As borough president, I will work tirelessly to see that these commitments come to fruition and ensure the applicant team will deliver on every element of their promises to the surrounding community,” he added.

Richards is also a supporter of Resorts World’s plan to expand their current “racino” into a complex featuring a live music stadium, a conference center, open space and new hotels.

“I’m gung-ho on getting both,” Richards told the Eagle in January.

Metropolitan Park isn’t currently the only casino proposal making its way through the city’s land use review process.

A plan from Wynn Resorts and Related Companies – which is behind the massive Willets Point development across the street from Citi Field – to build a casino in Hudson Yards has been widely panned by local officials, including Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.

The Manhattan BP told Crain’s New York Business earlier this month that he felt the project was “not good enough” to earn his approval.