Three casinos are officially coming to the NYC area, after the New York State Gambling Commission provided a final go-ahead on Dec. 15. None will be located in Manhattan, after local pressure killed an array of proposals by aspiring mega-developers this fall.<\/p>\n
The casinos\u2014two in Queens, and one in the Bronx\u2014cleared their second-to-last hurdle on Dec. 1, when the five-member New York Gaming Facility Location Board provided them with a crucial \u201cyes\u201d vote. There will now be traditional gambling facilities at the Bally\u2019s Bronx golf course (Ferry\u2019s Point), next to Citi Field (Flushing), and at the Aqueduct Racetrack (Jamaica).<\/p>\n
Bally\u2019s will oversee the Bronx casino, which will come with a $115 million payment to the Trump Organization, which used to manage the course. Hard Rock will run the Citi Field site alongside Steve Cohen, the billionaire owner of the Mets, while the casino in Jamaica will be developed alongside preexisting horse-betting infrastructure run by Resorts World. It is thus expected to get off the ground the fastest, within months.<\/p>\n
The Gambling Commission formally signaled that they would grant the three licenses during a meeting held at Riverside State Park, located off Riverside Drive in Northern Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo all three who have been granted this conditional license, congratulations on behalf of the state of New York. We look forward to seeing the jobs, economic development, infrastructure, and gaming revenue come to fruition,\u201d Commission Chairman Brian O\u2019Dwyer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor myself, as a longtime lawyer for labor unions in this city, I am looking forward to the creation of hundreds, if not thousands, of good union jobs in Queens and in the Bronx,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Yet he also seemed to acknowledge the pronounced public pushback that has killed off more than a few license contenders, and noted that the licensees would face regular review from the Commission: \u201cYou all have a difficult charge ahead, important charge ahead of you along with great responsibility and you can be assured that this commission takes our responsibility in keeping your feet to the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
To that end, O\u2019Dwyer continued, a monitor will determine whether the licensees are keeping their \u201cwonderful promises…to our communities.\u201d This will reportedly happen on a quarterly basis, for five years.<\/p>\n
NY Governor Hochul, for her part, issued a supportive statement that called the Commission\u2019s vote \u201cthe culmination of a multi-year, community-driven process.\u201d She said that the licenses \u201cwere only awarded to proposals that had local support, clear community benefits and sustainable economic plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in October, a slew of Manhattan proposals were basically deemed as lacking \u201cclear community benefits\u201d during local review, conducted by politically-appointed CACs (Community Advisory Committees).<\/p>\n
Stymied hopefuls included Silverstein Properties, which hoped to build something called the \u201cAvenir\u201d on 11th Ave., while Soloviev Group was denied their proposal to build Freedom Plaza on 1st Ave., near the United Nations. A Jay-Z endorsed Caesar\u2019s Palace in Times Square also ran aground.<\/p>\n
Another massive proposal put forward by Related Co., which wanted to bring gambling to Hudson Yards, didn\u2019t make it to the CAC stage after sustained local opposition. The developer is now reusing much of its prospective casino blueprint to pursue a controversial housing development there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three casinos are officially coming to the NYC area, after the New York State Gambling Commission provided a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,1459,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-72795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-casinos","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-the-bronx","14":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","15":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72795","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=72795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}