Posted Jul 1, 2025, 2:26 PM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 56,199
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https://therealdeal.com/new-york/202...-and-saved-2b/
Related’s $2B card trick
How Jeff Blau played city government and Wynn
By Erik Engquist
July 1, 2025
Quote:
There’s an old saying in poker: If you don’t know who the fish is at the table, you’re the fish.
I can’t shake the feeling that Related Companies played the latest Hudson Yards rezoning brilliantly, at the expense of its former partner in the planned development, Wynn Resorts, and city officials as well.
Wynn had joined Related on the project because it initially included a casino, but that proved to be a no-go for the local City Council member, Erik Bottcher. Because the casino and rezoning needed Council approval, Bottcher had the ability to kill them on behalf of the entire Council, thanks to the chamber’s tradition of “member deference.”
Predictably, Bottcher nixed the casino, which he didn’t even have to do to Wynn executives’ faces because they weren’t in the room during negotiations. Only Related was.
Related, which builds residential and office buildings, not casinos, willingly sacrificed the gaming venue (which might not have won a state license anyway) to get approval for the rest of its project. That left Wynn with no role.
Wynn promptly blasted the city’s rezoning process as if surprised at how it works. Really? It’s not plausible that such a large, experienced company would have pursued a multi-billion-dollar project without fully understanding the Uniform Land Use Review Process.
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