Metropolitan Park casino construction running months behind schedule

Construction of the $8 billion casino dubbed Metropolitan Park is running five and a half months behind schedule. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

By Jacob Kaye

Steve Cohen’s New York Mets are off to a slow start this season – and so is his $8 billion casino project, which is already more than five months behind schedule.

Metropolitan Park, the casino and entertainment complex backed by Cohen and Hard Rock, is running around five and a half months behind schedule before construction has even begun, according to a construction timeline its developers submitted to the New York State Gaming Commission last year.

The project’s backers expected on Jan. 1 to begin testing the foundation of the parking lot that will one day sit beneath the 3.7-million-square-foot development. But the construction work, known as test piling, had yet to begin as of mid-May.

With the hold up in the test piling, construction of the casino, which was expected to begin on April 1, is also delayed.

But while major construction work has yet to begin, workers at the site haven’t been completely idle. Pre-construction work, which includes breaking up some existing curbs, clearing Citi Field’s parking lot, identifying utilities underground, fencing off the site, and obtaining permits and contracts, began earlier this year and is mostly complete, according to Karl Rickett, Metropolitan Park’s spokesperson.

According to Rickett, the early delays will not affect the developers’ plan to open the casino and entertainment hub by 2030. While the spokesperson did not identify what month construction of the casino is expected to be completed, documents submitted to the Gaming Commission say the construction of the casino, a food hall, open space areas, and improvements to the Mets-Willets Point 7 train station will conclude by June 1, 2030. A pair of parking garages that developers planned to begin test piling for in January and begin construction of on April 1 are expected to be completed by November 2027 and April 2028, respectively, according to Gaming Commission documents. Test piling on one of those garages recently began.

“Metropolitan Park is well underway,” Rickett said in a statement.

Pre-construction work on Metropolitan Park has begun, but the start of construction is five and half months behind schedule. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

“As one of the largest, multi-year construction projects in the city, the team has completed significant pre-construction work and is on track to open in 2030,” he added. “Throughout this process we have kept the Queens community and Mets fans at the center of every decision to minimize impact every step of the way.”

Rickett did not explain the reason for the construction delays.

Metropolitan Park was one of three projects in New York City to receive a casino license from the state last year. Also winning one of the coveted licenses were Bally’s, which is planning to build a casino in the Bronx at the foot of the Whitestone Bridge; and Resorts World New York City, the racino in South Queens.

Genting Group, the Malaysian conglomerate that owns Resorts World, cut the ribbon on the first phase of its casino last month. Like Metropolitan Park, Resorts World also appeared to be running behind schedule. Genting told the Gaming Commission that it could open the first of its table games in March, though the first full-fledged casino didn’t open its doors until late April.

Central to Resorts World’s pitch to the Gaming Commission was the fact that it could open a casino quickly, already having much of the infrastructure needed to do so.

Unlike Resorts World, Metropolitan Park will have to be built from scratch, but Cohen and Hard Rock also told the Gaming Commission that construction of their project would move quickly after they won a license.

Citi Field’s parking lot, the future home to Metropolitan Park. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

“The proposal is shovel-ready, meaning that if awarded a license in December 2025, construction would commence in January 2026 with funding from equity on hand,” the developers said in their application under a section titled, “a shovel ready project set to break ground on day one.”

When it’s completed, Metropolitan Park is expected to include a 1,000-room hotel, retail space, a conference and meeting facility, a live entertainment venue, 25 acres of open space, a food hall, and the casino, which will have 5,000 slot machines, 375 live dealer tables, 30 poker tables, and a sportsbook.