Billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is now just one more final step away from being cleared to build his $8 billion, casino-anchored Metropolitan Park development on 50 acres of parking lots around Citi Field.
The New York State Gaming Facility Location Board today recommended that all three proposals seeking casino licenses in New York City receive them. This sends Metropolitan Park, plus Resorts World New York City in Jamaica, Queens, and Bally's Bronx in the Throggs Neck area of the Bronx, to the New York State Gaming Commission for a final decision on licensing.
The State Gaming Commission is expected to issue the final licenses by December 31st, 2025, with the three final bids matching up neatly with the maximum number of licenses long said to be up for grabs during this years-long "downstate" casino search process.
Casino license bidders in New York City once numbered in the double digits, whittled down to a final four once local Community Advisory Committees voted to advance or kill proposals in early October. Four finalists went down to just three in mid-October when the bid to bring a full casino license to Yonkers, New York and the existing Empire City "racino" dropped out of consideration.
MGM Resorts International, the corporation behind the aborted Yonkers bid, said that the four casino proposals being in close geographic proximity "challenges the returns we initially anticipated from this project" as part of their reason for dropping out of the running.
Metropolitan Park promises the biggest numbers of any of the finalists, from the billions invested to build the new entertainment megaplex, to the sizable projected revenues and promised "community benefits" that will accompany the opening of the new Willets Point destination.
The development is a joint venture between Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International and it would encompass a casino, sportsbook, 2,300-room hotel, restaurants, bars, a music venue, and 25 acres of new green space, on what was all green space in Flushing Meadows Corona Park once upon a time before it became parking lots.
NYCFC points of interest
There will still be plenty of parking spots in the area once the casino-plus mega-development rises on the Citi Field lots, lots which nearby neighbors New York City FC signed an agreement to lease and utilize on their matchdays at Etihad Park, the club's soccer stadium opening in 2027.
Oliver Strand
Metropolitan Park promises to offer 13,750 parking spots, a 6,000-spot increase on what currently exists outside Citi Field, an increase accomplished by building multiple new parking garages as part of the new construction.
Another change pertinent to NYCFC match-goers: Promised improvements and renovations made to the Mets-Willets Point 7 subway stop as part of constructing Metropolitan Park, with elevators and ADA accessibility set to be brought to the subway station steps from the entrance to the new casino.
While there's no concrete plans to add new access points, even though adding a new ferry servicing the area has been floated by Steve Cohen during the casino approval process, improving the existing 7-train infrastructure would be a boost given how many more people can be expected to utilize the station in the years to come.
Late hurdles cleared
The development caught a break when the field of finalists went down to three with Yonkers dropping out, but Metropolitan Park's plan to bring "365 days of entertainment" to what was once game day parking lots did face late obstacles.
That came in the form of a lawsuit filed by the United States Tennis Association, operators of another major sports venue in Willets Point, Queens, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the US Open. The USTA's lawsuit centered on promises of event exclusivity and "US Open superiority" made by the City of New York in the USTA's own 99-year lease for the land that comprises the National Tennis Center, with the USTA claiming the city wasn't honoring the lease by continuously allowing nearby events to overlap with the US Open, and now by allowing a new 365-days-a-year venue to open steps from the tennis hub.
That lawsuit, though, didn't stop New York City from signing a lease with Metropolitan Park, which happened on November 17, smoothing over any concerns that the suit could hold up the progress toward final approval and casino construction. The USTA, in statements released after the lease agreement, said it was satisfied that language was in the Metropolitan Park lease with New York City that addressed their concerns, so it seems the US Open-Steve Cohen beef has been squashed, for now.
While the USTA and Metropolitan Park made nice, there have been community protests and actions aimed at opposing the new casino. Hundreds of protestors gathered outside the Queens Public Library in Flushing on November 16 to call on local politicians to pull support for the casino and join them in opposition, the second sizable anti-casino protest held following one in early October when Metropolitan Park received Community Advisory Committee approval.
Future of Willets Point getting clearer
It wasn't a given that Metropolitan Park would reach this stage, even if Steve Cohen is the richest bidder with the biggest number on the table in every financial category being used to evaluate these would-be casinos.
Metropolitan Park managed to get around all possible legislative and political hurdles – like the parkland alienation bill it needed, and like the vociferous opposition the plan consistently faced from influential local State Senator Jessica Ramos.
The developers got the rest of the local elected officials on their side, navigated through the city's Uniform Land Use and Review Procedure (ULURP) and through the Community Advisory Committee approval process, and managed to sign a lease with New York City in the closing days of now-lameduck Mayor Eric Adams to use the 50 acres of land as Metropolitan Park intends. All that's left is the issuing of the final casino license by the State Gaming Commission, which comes with a cool $500 million license fee.
Assuming the Gaming Commission gives Metropolitan Park the final stamp of approval on or before New Year's Eve, the development will then start the clock toward a possible 2030 opening. In the nearer-term, the first wave of new apartments built in Willets Point, dubbed the Willets Point Commons, is set to be ready to open by April 2026, with 880 affordable apartments coming online as part of Phase I of the Willets Point redevelopment.
Phase II of that development brings with it, in part, Etihad Park, the 25,000-seat soccer stadium and home to New York City FC that's opening in 2027. There are also thousands more units of affordable housing set to be built steps away from this new Hard Rock casino, meaning the Willets Point area has even more radical transformations in front of it across the next decade.
The area once used as an ash dump and then turned into a home for auto-body shops now turns into one of the city's more dense entertainment districts. Adding a new professional sports venue and a new multi-faceted entertainment facility in Metropolitan Park creates an even bigger playground for those with disposable income, a somewhat incongruous reality given how many thousands of people will also soon live in affordable housing steps away from all these shiny new structures.
