Civic leaders say the city is making a losing bet with a planned $12 billion casino for Hudson Yards – sacrificing promised housing for a flashy gaming complex.
Manhattan’s Community Board 4 sent a scathing letter to Related Companies/Wynn Resorts over the planned facility, saying the developer hasn’t fulfilled a 2009 pledge to build apartment’s on the West Side.
“MCB4 remains mystified how the Department and Commission of City Planning could review and consider such a plan which erases years of sound city planning and community efforts to replace it with such an anti-urban and anti-New York vision,” the board said in the April 1 letter.
The ambitious casino proposal features an 80-story tower overlooking the Hudson River that would house a gaming facility and hotel.
Office buildings, apartment towers and a spacious 5.6-acre park would surround the gleaming skyscraper.
“MCB4 must note it cannot support the proposed project’s drastic shift from residential to commercial use designed around casino use,” board members said in the 12-page letter to Related Cos. CEO Andrew Rosen and Department of City Planning Director Dan Garodnick.
“MCB4 raises the following question to both the Related Companies and the City of New York. Why should communities around the City of New York work with the real estate industry and the City government to respond and agree to zoning changes with detailed site plans and Points of Agreement when such plans and agreements can be discarded at a later date?”
CB4 said the existing plan for Hudson Yards Special District, which was “exhaustively negotiated” in 2009, is mostly residential, calling for 5,700 apartments and one commercial building integrated into the neighborhood with open public open space that connects to the Highline Park surrounding the site.
The proposed casino project slashes the number of planned apartments to 1,507.
“Now, the applicant, Related Companies, solely in pursuit of casino dollars as a means to fund the platform over the WRY [Western Rail Yards], proposes to amend that plan out of existence in favor of 2 oversize commercial towers, one of a hotel with 1,750 keys, sitting on the equivalent of a 20-story base containing a casino,” said the CB4 letter, signed by chairwoman Jessica Chait and co-land use chairs Jean Daniel-Noland and Paul Devlin.
“Streets connecting the community will be eliminated… The result will be an inward looking, protected enclave for an inward focused casino, disconnected from the surrounding community.”
In the very least, the developers should consider shrinking the casino project to one hotel with the balance of the project dedicated to apartment buildings instead of office towers, CB4 board members said.
A Related Companies spokesman said, “We are looking forward to continuing to work with the Community Board as this process moves forward – and we are specifically excited to unveil our full community benefits package which is centered around investment in this neighborhood.
“We are proud that our project on the Western Yards will deliver on all of the pledges made in the original zoning including affordable housing, 5.6 acres of green open space, and a public school.”
The housing eliminated to make way for the casino project was planned to be market rate or luxury units — though CB4 officials said Related Companies has tapped real estate tax exemptions in the past to generate “20% to 25%” affordable housing in its developments.
Neighborhood support will be crucial in determining which bidders win the right for up to three state casino licenses to be awarded n the New York City/downstate region.
State gaming regulators are expected to award licenses by the end of 2025.
Any casino bid must get sign off from the state Gaming Facility Location Board.
The review board in a particular area where a casino is being proposed includes the local council member, state senator and assemblyman, borough president and the mayor and governor.
The Wynn proposal and a few other projects must also first go through the rigorous and lengthy Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure, starting with the community board through the City Council, because they have to win approval to change their zoning use to accommodate a casino.
Aside from the Hudson Yards proposal, other casino projects include Mets owner Steve Cohen’s bid for a project near Citi Field, the Thor Equities consortium in Coney Island, Bally’s at Ferry Point in The Bronx, and the Silverstein Properties in Hell’s Kitchen.
The Cohen and Bally’s proposals also need a state law approved to convert use of their properties from parkland to commercial use.
Other community boards have expressed opposition to casinos in their backyards, including Brooklyn Board 13 covering Coney Island.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas Sands has pitched a casino at the old Nassau Coliseum site in Uniondale, which has the support of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and the local legislature — but faces some local opposition, notably from neighboring Hofstra University.
