^ The HY towers are full. Then there’s the issue of tenants. None of the current (or likely potential) tenants would want the chaos of a NYC casino in their building. A hotel is another matter, and would be best for a casino.
They could have put one on the pier (behind Javits), but that’s a park now. The larger of the 2 sites the state owns in HY would be a good location, next to the Javits. But they likely want housing there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/02/n...n-nyc.amp.html
5 Things to Know About Casinos That May Be Headed for the N.Y.C. Area
Yonkers, Queens and maybe Manhattan: The sites for three new casinos have not yet been set in stone.
By Dana Rubinstein
May 2, 2022
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Whether New Yorkers are ready or not, casinos will soon be coming to the New York City area.
Precisely how soon and how many remains to be determined. What we know now is that in April, New York State approved the issuance of three new casino licenses intended for the area.
Technically, one or more of the licenses could be issued to a casino operator in another part of the state, but they are widely expected to go to the downstate region.
The state legalized casinos in 2013, but effectively agreed not to place any in the downstate region until 2023. Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature wanted to move faster and included a provision in the recently passed budget to advance the timeline.
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MGM’s electronic gambling facility in Yonkers, just north of New York City, is thought to be one of two locations with a leg up in the process, along with the Resorts World facility at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. Both are already home to “racinos” — horse racetracks that have expanded to include casino-like properties, but with video lottery terminals, not table games.
Given their longstanding community and political relationships and pre-existing infrastructure, they are considered to be favorites for two of the three licenses.
There is a strong possibility that the third would be in Manhattan. While the prospect of a Manhattan casino has bewitched developers from Hudson Yards to the East River, winning permission from local politicians is still considered a heavy lift.
Other parts of the city are also in play, including neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn.
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MGM and Genting, which operate the two so-called racinos in the area, are hoping to upgrade their facilities in Yonkers and Queens to full-scale casinos.
The competition for the presumptive third license is a free-for-all. The matchmaking between real estate developers and casino operators eager to take part in a bid is something like speed dating — with casino operators freely consorting with several developers.
Among those who have considered participating are developers like SL Green, Related Companies, Vornado Realty Trust in Manhattan and the Citi Field owner, Steven Cohen, in Queens. Joseph J. Sitt, the chairman of Thor Equities, is also planning a bid for a site on Coney Island.
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There will also most likely be bids from Long Island.
The field of casino operators eyeing the opportunity includes Bally’s Corporation, Las Vegas Sands and Hard Rock, which just opened a hotel in Midtown.
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If the bureaucracies were a Russian nesting doll, the biggest, outermost doll would be the New York State Gaming Commission.
The commission will have a say on who gets the three new licenses and where the new casinos will be situated, but others will have a voice, too.
The first step is for the commission to fill a five-member Gaming Facility Location Board; its responsibilities include creating and managing the application process for casino developers and recommending the winners. State law requires that at least three members be in place by Oct. 6; once that occurs, the commission will have 90 days to issue requests for applications for the casino licenses.
The applications will then be reviewed by the location board, which will make a final recommendation to the Gaming Commission. The commission’s makeup would seem to give Governor Hochul some control: All seven members are appointed directly by the governor, one on the recommendation of the New York State Assembly, and another on the recommendation of the New York State Senate.
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A glut of casinos unquestionably exists in the United States, as well as a wealth of other gambling options, and that has put a damper on economic projections for many new casinos.
But New York City is different.
It is affluent, it is dense and any casino here is likely to be successful — albeit at the possible expense of nearby gambling locales, like Atlantic City.
“ You have access to a huge local population that already has been fueling a lot of gaming revenue for a couple decades now in the broader geographic region, but it’s also a huge international destination as well,” said Colin Mansfield, an analyst at Fitch Ratings.
For further evidence, look no farther than Resorts World at Aqueduct, which despite having no table games like blackjack or roulette, claims to be both “the highest-grossing slots casino in the world” and “the largest single property taxpayer in New York State.”
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In order to put a casino anywhere in New York City, a developer may have to persuade the New York City Council to rezone the land in question, according to the New York State Gaming Commission.
At present, land regulations in New York City do not allow casinos. But that may not be a blanket prohibition: The commission has yet to determine if the state-owned land at the Aqueduct, in Queens, or the land near Penn Station (which the state plans to redevelop using a process that typically overrides local land-use regulations) would require rezoning.
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“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
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