https://w42st.com/post/chips-down-stakes-high-west-side-casinos-place-their-bets-and-bids/
Chips Down, Stakes High — West Side Casinos Place Their Bets (and Bids)
by Catie Savage and Phil O'Brien
June 27, 2025
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It’s a high-stakes Friday on the West Side. By 4pm today, June 27, developers hoping to win one of three downstate New York casino licenses must submit their final applications to the State Gaming Commission.
Each bid, running up to 10,000 pages, marks the culmination of years of lobbying, deal-making and community courting. The developers behind the two West Side bids — Silverstein Properties’ Avenir and SL Green’s Caesars Palace Times Square — shared the executive summaries of those voluminous submissions with W42ST, offering a window into their final play for one of New York’s most sought-after development prizes.
Each bidder will be required to submit a nonrefundable $1 million application fee to the New York State Gaming Commission.
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On Manhattan’s West Side, the competition is intense. Silverstein’s Avenir promises to transform a vacant lot across from the Javits Center into a gleaming new neighborhood anchor, while Caesars Palace Times Square aims to reinvent an existing office building in the heart of the Theater District with glitz, celebrity partnerships and what backers describe as a “halo effect” for local business. Both are now betting big on the neighborhood’s future — and hoping local leaders see the value.
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After today’s deadline, each project must win over a six-person Community Advisory Committee (CAC) composed of appointees made by Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, Councilmember Erik Bottcher, Assemblymember Tony Simone, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (or Liz Krueger, in the case of the Times Square bid). Only proposals receiving a two-thirds majority vote by September 30 will proceed to final evaluation by the Gaming Facility Location Board, which is expected to award licenses by the end of 2025.
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Silverstein say they will pledge $400 million over 20 years to West Side nonprofits like Covenant House, which supports unhoused youth; WIN, which provides shelter and services to homeless families; and Rethink Food, which will open a second kitchen at Silver Towers to transform surplus food from casino restaurants into up to one million meals a year. The team says this support will begin even before a license is awarded. “We’re not waiting until ribbon-cutting day,” said COO Dino Fusco. “We want the community to feel the benefit immediately.”
The Avenir says they place a strong emphasis on social investment and housing. In addition to a pledge to fund the creation of more than 2,000 new apartments through office-to-residential conversions — at least 500 of which would be permanently affordable, in partnership with Metro Loft — Silverstein has also promised more than 100 off-site apartments that will be permanently affordable. While specific sites for these off-site homes have not yet been disclosed, the developer has pointed to its track record in Hell’s Kitchen, including the nearby Silver Towers and River Place buildings, as proof of follow-through.
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Just a few blocks east, a very different pitch has been playing out in the media spotlight. Caesars Palace Times Square — an alliance between SL Green, Caesars Entertainment and Roc Nation — unveiled its final bid with a series of high-profile endorsements and rallies. The project would convert the 1515 Broadway tower into a 992-room, five-star resort casino with a rooftop SUMMIT observatory, celebrity-chef restaurants, a spa, theater and nightlife venues, all linked through the Caesars Rewards loyalty program. The bid’s backers say the location, infrastructure and brand power give it an unmatched revenue potential — and a rapid four-year timeline to opening.
“This is the only casino bid that actually amplifies what’s already here,” said Marc Holliday, SL Green’s chairman, in a statement. “We’re not trying to create a new destination — we’re enhancing the one that already exists.” The executive summary promises $5.4 billion in direct investment, 3,800 permanent jobs, $7 billion in tax revenue over 10 years and more than $26 billion in projected spillover business to Times Square’s theaters, hotels, restaurants and retailers.
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In its executive summary, the Times Square proposal highlights its adaptive reuse of existing infrastructure as a major environmental advantage. It also points to the site’s proximity to 16 subway lines, Penn Station, Grand Central and the Port Authority Bus Terminal as a uniquely low-impact, high-access location.
With all materials due by today’s 4pm deadline, the State Gaming Commission will announce the names of bidders and begin publishing redacted versions of their applications in the coming week. But for now, the focus turns to the CACs. Local panels that hold the cards — and will decide whether these bets pay out or get busted.
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NEW YORK is Back!
“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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