{"id":372844,"date":"2026-10-14T11:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/372844\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T11:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:30:18","slug":"the-bronx-is-getting-a-new-casino-and-a-reimagined-ferry-point-park-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/372844\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bronx is getting a new casino and a reimagined Ferry Point Park, too"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bronx community board members on Thursday will get to weigh in on Ferry Point Park’s $160 million makeover, which includes new playgrounds, landscaping, athletic fields and more. Bally\u2019s Bronx<\/a> will sit in the middle of the new-and-improved amenities, as part of a massive redevelopment of the area.<\/p>\n

The park improvements are just one piece of the promises Bally\u2019s has made to the surrounding community as it pursues a $4 billion<\/a> casino development, alongside a golf course previously leased by the Trump Organization. Bally\u2019s has since bought the property for more than $150 million, gaining control of the sprawling area.<\/p>\n

The development represents a major change for a waterfront park that has served Bronx residents since the city acquired the land in 1937. While changes are afoot, the aptly named Ferry Point Park will remain a port for NYC Ferry.<\/p>\n

Bronx Community Board 10 members, whose role is advisory, will weigh in on a face lift developed by landscaping company Hargreaves Jones. The plans were presented to the board\u2019s parks committee last week, where a Hargreaves Jones representative said the plans were drawn from Bronx residents during a community engagement period.<\/p>\n

Some community members have already raised concerns about a lack of public transit to the site from the Bronx and also about the mix of amenities.<\/p>\n

The park would share its footprint with a gambling complex featuring a 3 million-square-foot resort, thousands of gaming machines and an event center that can hold 2,000 people. The project is billed as<\/a> the largest private development in the borough\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis park belongs to the community, and residents helped shape the vision for its redesign from day one,\u201d Jessenia Aponte, the NYC Parks Bronx borough commissioner, said in a statement. \u201cTheir vision is being reflected in our design, especially their wish for a safe, welcoming place to connect with family and neighbors and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bally\u2019s Bronx is one of three downstate casinos<\/a> that the New York State Gaming Commission licensed in December. Last summer, Bally\u2019s issued a statement to investors warning them of potential financial problems and raising questions about the project\u2019s viability.<\/p>\n

The company has since received substantial financing<\/a>. In a statement, Soo Kim, the chair of Bally\u2019s board and the majority stakeholder, said the project remains on schedule.<\/p>\n

The other two recently licensed casinos are both in Queens: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Metropolitan Park near Citi Field, which is in the early phases of construction, and Resorts World, an existing casino at Aqueduct Racetrack, where an expansion is underway.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in the cards<\/p>\n

Hargreaves Jones\u2019 design includes five different development sites \u2013 two facing the Throgs Neck neighborhood, and the others along the waterfront.<\/p>\n

The inland development sites include the addition of tennis and pickle ball courts, sprucing up the existing basketball courts and baseball field, adding shaded lounging areas and new landscaping.<\/p>\n

To make room for more open space, Hargreaves Jones proposes reducing an existing detention basin on the property to about a fifth of its current size.<\/p>\n

Megan Esopenko, a landscape architect with the company who presented the proposal to the community board, said a detention basin is required because the property is on a flood plain, but is larger than it needs to be.<\/p>\n

Some of the proposed improvements along the waterfront are less flashy, like raising the earth up to 10 feet so it’s above the flood line, Esopenko said.<\/p>\n

Other improvements include three new soccer fields, the addition of a scenic overlook, paved walking trails along and around the East River, and a playground that includes a 20-foot slide, a splash pad and climbing structures.<\/p>\n

Esopenko said she hopes her design \u201cbecomes a destination park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community concerns<\/p>\n

One committee member last week raised concerns about the lack of public transit access from other areas of the Bronx to the park.<\/p>\n

The nearest bus stop is nearly a 30-minute walk from the park, and there is no nearby train stop. In 2023, Bally\u2019s announced<\/a> a shuttle service that picks up passengers<\/a> from various points in the neighborhood to the ferry landing, which committee members said may address the transit concerns.<\/p>\n

Esopenko said that public transit to the park was outside of the scope of the landscaping company, as did representatives from the parks department.<\/p>\n

Lucas Bejarano, an MTA spokesperson, said in response, \u201cit is premature to evaluate demand for transportation to a facility that has yet to be built.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ozzie Yon, a liaison from the community group Friends of Ferry Point Park, said he would like to see the addition of a baseball field, which could act as a home field for nearby Herbert H. Lehman High School, which currently has none.<\/p>\n

The lack of nearby home fields is taxing to students and their families, Yon said.<\/p>\n

Baseball, he said, is more important to the community than soccer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, three soccer fields in this area is ridiculous,\u201d Yon said at the community board meeting. \u201cVery few people in this area utilize soccer fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esopenko and representatives from the parks department said that adding a new field would be a drastic change that would be too late in the process to accommodate.<\/p>\n

Katerine Borrome, director of NYC Parks Bronx Borough Commissioners Office, said she wished this guidance could have come sooner in the process.<\/p>\n

A Parks Department spokesperson said that they plan to move forward with the single baseball field currently proposed as the project is nearing the end of the design phase.<\/p>\n

The community board will vote on whether it will provide a letter of support for the design. The city\u2019s public design commission is also reviewing the proposal.<\/p>\n

The next phase of the process includes developing contracts for the project, which will include drawings and additional specifics, the Parks Department said.<\/p>\n

Esopenko said the park improvement project will not break ground until 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bronx community board members on Thursday will get to weigh in on Ferry Point Park’s $160 million makeover,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-372844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}