New York Mets owner Steve Cohen yesterday revealed more details of his plans to build an $8 billion casino complex in the Citi Field parking lot, and, yep, that looks pretty much like it sounded when he first talked about it last winter:
Sorry, no vaportecture images with smiling gamblers raising their fists in the air while fireworks go off overhead. Gotta save something for the encore!
Cohen has said he — and/or his business partners Hard Rock, who would run the casino — will put up the $8 billion, but there are still a few question marks about the plan. First off, Cohen does not actually own a casino license: He’s hoping to be granted one of three expected to be given out by the state for the NYC area in the next year or three. This, in fact, is a large part of why he’s had this “Metropolitan Park” plan sketched out now, as the state is expected to prioritize projects that seem shovel-ready — to avoid going through the lengthy vetting process and then ending up with a project that can’t actually happen.
“Can actually happen” is up in the air as well, though, as Cohen doesn’t actually own the land he wants to build on, which is city-owned parking lots that are technically public parkland. Courts have consistently ruled that “fun stuff” does not qualify as a legally recognized park activity, so that means the state legislature would have to pass a bill demapping the parking lots as parkland. Jeff Aubrey, the state assemblymember who represents the district, has already introduced a bill to do so; Jessica Ramos, the state senator who represents the district and who also may challenge Mayor Eric Adams for City Hall in two years, has so far declined to introduce a parallel bill, saying she wants to hear more from her constituents and consider other alternatives for the site. “If you look at everybody who spoke, about two-thirds expressed not wanting a casino,” Ramos told me after holding a town hall on the project in May; she has annoucned another one for Monday, November 27.
Of course, Cohen has a hammer, too, which is that as the leaseholder for the parking lots, nothing can really happen on the site without his say-so. There is likely lots of gamesmanship still to come, in other words, not to mention financial details of who will pay what rent and property taxes — if an $8 billion casino development gets deemed tax-exempt because it’s on public land, that’d be a ton of tax breaks. Right now this is just about Cohen getting the ball rolling on building public support (or at least legislative support) for his casino dreams, and trying to make his plan seem less vapory than the ones across town.
Call me cynical but Jessica Ramos wants to hear from her constituents (open for business!) and wants to hold another town hall meeting (she didn’t get the answer she wanted from the first one). She’s open to considering other alternatives (bidding war!).
After all, it takes a lot of campaign donations to run for NYC mayor…..
That’s not how Ramos sounded when I talked to her and her staff in the spring. She genuinely seemed to be trying to plot an all-things-for-all-people course – jobs! parks! no casinos for people who don’t want them! miniature American flags for everyone else! – which is probably impossible, but that was her vision.
That would be great Neil if true,
I certainly hope so. I’ve just been
disappointed too many times I guess…..
He doesn’t have the license, nor the land to do what he wants. All he can do is hold the parking lot hostage for the proposed soccer stadium? For something people don’t want?
I don’t see this happening (the same for the soccer (stadium).
I think he did this so we wouldn’t look to closely at his managerial hire.
He has billions of dollars, so he *thinks* he can do what he wants. Or at least, there’s no downside to him spending a little money on some visioning sessions and overhead maps to see what he can get out of it.
I hate to be a wet blanket on Stevie’s CasinoSuperDream, but isn’t the whole ‘being a convicted criminal’ thing going to be an obstacle to a casino license?
I mean, unlike most other white collar criminals who are allowed to pay a fine, pay the cost of the investigation and terminate the case against them with no admission of guilt (and a total cost that is often a tiny fraction of the money they sto-acquired illegally), our man Stevie actually was convicted.
Or does this kind of thing not really matter anymore?
Asking for a friend.
Mr. Cohen would like it to be noted for the record that he was not convicted of any crime, only the hedge fund he owned was. Totally different thing, and he was shocked, shocked that any insider trading was going on in his establishment.
It’s not a casino. It’s a “gaming facility,” according to the map.
Where is Claude Reins when you need him?
I would mad if I liked to attend Mets games and had to switch to parking in a garage instead of a lot. There’s something about getting out of a garage after a game I can’t stand and has kept me from attending large sporting event a few times. I’d rather walk three blocks and get moving after the game then experience the supposed convenience of the garage. Plus, who wants to tailgate in a garage? I guess that’s only part of the year and it’d be better, but the more garages that pop up between Heinz Field and PNC Park on the North Side of Pgh the more I’d rather watch a game from home…or park somewhere convenient and walk.
Hmmmn. This sounds to me like an opportunity for a phase II publicly funded* and publicly owned garage rooftop party deck!!!!
*all revenues to Mets LLC, natch…
Apparently this land is worth a lot. If this gets done, and the land is not park land, then Cohen purchases the land, and pays taxes on it, or is it going to be another PILOTs scam?
Having experienced Yankee Stadium parking garages I can say it won’t be a good experience. Speaking of garages, will there be another entity building the garages using bonds/going broke, a la Yankee Stadium garages?
If the land is not parkland but is still city-owned, it would still normally be tax-free. The city (or the state, ideally, since it would be the ones alienating the land) could still demand that Cohen make payments in lieu of taxes, of course, if it wanted to in exchange for approving the deal.
As for the garages, that’s all TBD. Cohen hasn’t provided a lot of details beyond what was on the visioning Post-It notes.
I’m confused. I thought they were building a soccer ground on that land. No?
Nope, that’s on the other side, to the east. (You can see it on the map provided.)
Oh, I couldn’t tell what that was. My eyes aren’t great. Having now figured out how to zoom in, I get it.
Yeah, it’s not clear at all on the map. But yeah, the soccer stadium is in Willets Point (former auto body shops), the casino would be “Willets West” (aka the parking lots where Shea Stadium used to be).
It appears that there won’t be much parking left at all, which is a bold strategy.
The parking garages (marked E and covered with solar panels on the map) are going to have to be rather ginormous.
Seventy storey parking garages are perfectly normal (or soon will be). And think of the view from the as yet unbuilt and unfunded rooftop party deck!!! (*yes, this will mean the elimination of the solar panels, but hey, whatcha gonna do?).
The city will have to compensate the Mets owner(somehow) for the loss of revenue/free power from the panels, but it’s a small price to pay for progress ™