RXR Partners with Sands on Long Island Casino Bid

Long Island-based RXR Realty and Las Vegas Sands are joining forces on a bid to redevelop the Nassau Coliseum into a casino and hotel, the latest venture teaming a gaming giant with an NY real estate firm in the contest to win one of three NYC-area casino licenses.

Sands has agreed to buy a long-term lease for the 80-acre site in Uniondale, NY, which includes the 40-year-old arena that was the former home of the NY Islanders NHL franchise, for an undisclosed price. Last year, the Islanders moved into a new arena next to the Belmont Park racetrack.

In what it said would be a “multibillion-dollar” bid, Sands said the proposal would include a five-star hotel, a live-performance venue, convention space, a spa, health club and swimming pool, outdoor community spaces and a casino. RXR, which said it has been working the for past two decades to redevelop the Coliseum site, will be the master developer of the project.

Earlier this month the New York Gaming Facility Board formally kicked off the bidding process for three licenses that will be award to NYC-area casinos, establishing a minimum fee of $500M for each license.

While it didn’t put a specific price tag on the development in its Long Island bid, Sands noted in its release that casino “is planned to represent less than 10 percent of the project’s square footage.”

In what appears to be a trend in the casino bids thus far, developers are emphasizing the economic development aspects of their proposals rather than the size of planned casinos.

Related Companies, which is partnering with Wynn Resorts on a bid to put a casino in the western half of its mammoth Hudson Yards development told the NY Times that the proposed casino will encompass “less than 10%” of what the developers said will be “a pre-eminent convention and entertainment district” at the site.

Soloviev Group, which is bidding to put a casino on a tract of undeveloped land next to the United Nations headquarters, has included in its proposal one of the world’s largest Ferris wheels and what the company is calling a “Democracy Museum,” which will display slabs of the Berlin Wall.

Related CEO Jeff Blau recently told Bloomberg he wants to build “the highest-end casino probably ever built,” along with a 1,500-room hotel, 20 restaurants and a nightclub, at Hudson Yards.

The original plan for the western half of Hudson Yards called for six residential buildings, including a percentage of below-market rate apartments and a new public school. A spokesperson for Related told the times that the casino bid will still include the school and affordable housing.

Brad Hoylman, a state senator whose district includes Hudson Yards, expressed concern about putting a school next to a casino. “My foremost concern is: who in the neighborhood wants a casino?” Hoylman told the NY Times.

Among other casino bids, a partnership including Thor Equities, Saratoga Casino Holdings, the Chickasaw Nation and Legends is proposing to build a gaming palace on the boardwalk at Coney Island in Brooklyn; New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is partnering with Hard Rock on a bid to build a casino next to Citi Field in Queens; and SL Green, Caesars Entertainment and Jay-Z have proposed a casino in Times Square.