Two More Developers Unveil NYC Casino Bids

The field of contenders keeps growing for one of the most coveted economic development prizes in years—one of three casino licenses in New York City that will be awarded early next year in a bidding contest that is drawing local developers who are partnering with Vegas gaming giants.

Two more proposals were made public this week, one involving a vacant site near to the United Nations and the other a beachfront property in Coney Island. Both projects are configured as entertainment districts.

Soloviev Group announced plans to build a casino and 1,000-room hotel on a waterfront site just south of the United Nations building on Manhattan’s East Side. The proposal, known as Freedom Plaza, includes a Ferris wheel and a Democracy Museum.

Stefan Soloviev’s father, the late developer Sheldon Solow, acquired the six-acre site for the proposed casino from Consolidated Edison in 2000 for $600M. A century-old steam plant that produced electricity originally occupied the land.

Soloviev Group is in discussions with several Las Vegas-based gaming firms to partner on the casino bid, CEO Michael Hershman told Bloomberg.

Thor Equities also has announced a casino bid in partnership with Saratogo Casino Holdings and the Chicasaw Nation. The partners are proposing a beachfront casino in Brooklyn’s Coney Island that would feature a roller coaster that loops beneath the boardwalk, an indoor water park with glass walls and “multiple hotels and museums.”

The two newest entries already have a bevy of competitors. Last month, SL Green Realty and Caesars Entertainment announced a partnership to redevelop 1515 Broadway in Times Square as a casino.

The partners said Caesars Palace Times Square will be designed to include a Broadway theater that will be home to The Lion King. They also promised “significant security and traffic improvements” in Times Square.

In September, Related joined forces with Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts to put forward a plan to build a casino on the undeveloped western half of Hudson Yards.

The plan calls for a new betting palace to be erected on a 10-acre platform that will be built over active rail lines, effectively connecting the 18M SF eastern half of Hudson Yards with the Hudson River waterfront. Related developed the eastern half, which opened in 2019, with Oxford Properties.

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, a hedge fund billionaire, also is reported preparing a bid for a casino that would be built next to Citi Field in Queens.

In April, state officials authorized up to three casino licenses for NYC, Westchester County or Long Island. Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed a three-member Gaming Facility Location Board, which will review the NYC casino applications and make recommendations to the state’s Gaming Commission, which will make the final picks next year.

Two entries that currently have partial gambling on site—slot machines but no table games—are widely believed to be frontrunners for two of the three licenses.

One facility, Yonkers Raceway and the Empire City Casino, was purchased by MGM Resorts for $850 million in 2019. While VICI Properties Inc. subsequently became the owner of Empire City Casino in a $17B acquisition of MGM Growth Properties, MGM Resorts will still conduct the casino operations at the facility.

The second proposed site with existing gaming is Resorts World Casino New York City at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, now owned by Genting Group, a Malaysian resort company.