{"id":1043,"date":"2025-09-30T18:56:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T18:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2025-10-06T11:51:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T11:51:34","slug":"four-new-york-city-casino-bids-remain-after-metropolitan-park-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/30\/four-new-york-city-casino-bids-remain-after-metropolitan-park-approved\/","title":{"rendered":"Four New York City Casino Bids Remain After Metropolitan Park Approved"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Four casino bids remain for downstate New York&#8217;s three available licenses<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>MGM, Genting, and Hard Rock are the favorites<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Bally&#8217;s is the underdog<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Once expected to be a difficult process for the New York Gaming Facility Location Board (GFLB) to determine where three downstate casino licenses would be awarded in a crowded bidding pool featuring most of the world&#8217;s largest and most influential gaming operators, state officials now only need to eliminate one of the four remaining bids.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_363994\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-363994\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-363994 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"New York casino bids\" width=\"858\" height=\"644\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/photo-collage.png-858x644-1.jpg\"><figcaption>Four bids remain for the New York City area. They are Bally&#8217;s Bronx, MGM Empire City, Hard Rock Metropolitan Park, and Resorts World NYC. Only three will receive a casino license from the New York Gaming Facility Location Board. (Image: <em>Casino.org<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In what began with more than a dozen project proposals, only eight bids for the three downstate New York casino concessioners were confirmed when the state&#8217;s Request for Applications (RFA) period concluded on June 27, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Prior to the RFA deadline, companies that had prepped bids only to terminate their pursuits before the application period culminated included Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts. They respectively cited concerns about iGaming and local opposition. The eight gaming companies that submitted RFAs in partnerships included MGM Resorts, Genting Group, Bally&#8217;s Corp., Hard Rock, Caesars Entertainment, Mohegan, Saratoga Casino Holdings, and Rush Street Gaming.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Since the June deadline, each bid&#8217;s community advisory committee (CAC) has determined whether the proposal should move to the final review stage before the New York GFLB. The eight CAC outcomes trimmed the bidding pool in half.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Fourth Bid Approved<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This week began with CACs for Bally&#8217;s Bronx and The Coney in Brooklyn determining their fates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Bally&#8217;s plan, backed by NYC Mayor Eric Adams, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-4-billion-bronx-casino-bid-wins-cac-approval\/\">approved with a 4-2 vote<\/a>, meeting the three-fifths majority needed. The Coney CAC went the other way, with a 4-2 vote against the project to revitalize the seaside community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Bally&#8217;s and Coney CAC votes followed earlier CAC approvals of MGM Empire City in Yonkers and Resorts World New York City in Queens. CACs for The Avenir in Hell&#8217;s Kitchen, Caesars Palace Times Square, and Freedom Plaza in Midtown East terminated those applications.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">On Tuesday morning, the eighth and final CAC voted on Metropolitan Park, Hard Rock&#8217;s pitch with New York Mets owner and private equity billionaire Steve Cohen. As expected, the scheme garnered unanimous 6-0 support to send the state GFLB a fourth downstate casino to consider.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The vote was good news for Cohen after his Mets failed to make the MLB postseason despite having the second-highest payroll in baseball. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cohen and Hard Rock have proposed an $8 billion investment near Citi Field to transform Willets Point into a Las Vegas-like casino resort destination. The would-be developers have sweetened the deal with a 25-acre public park, community athletics facilities, and affordable housing units.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Can Bally&#8217;s Compete?<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">By most accounts, including the opinions of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mgm-empire-city-resorts-world-and-hard-rock-will-likely-win-new-york\/\"><i>Casino.org <\/i>newsroom<\/a>, the New York GFLB&#8217;s job is all but done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The longtime frontrunners &#8212; MGM and Resorts World &#8212; are almost sure things at this point. With Sands, Wynn, and Caesars no more, the board is expected to issue the third and final gaming license to Metropolitan Park.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cohen&#8217;s bid for a casino has benefited from the billionaire&#8217;s lobbying clout in Albany and his ability to spend seemingly whatever it takes to get his way. Last year, casino bidders fueled record lobbying spend in New York.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Even if Cohen wasn&#8217;t behind Metropolitan Park, the Hard Rock bid would presumably be favored above the Bronx scheme due to its ties with Bally&#8217;s, a company that has encountered financial struggles of late. There are money concerns that Bally&#8217;s is overleveraged with its multibillion-dollar projects in Chicago and Las Vegas.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The New York GFLB is expected to decide the three winners by Dec. 1, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/four-new-york-city-casinos-remain-bids-forwarded\/\">Four New York City Casino Bids Remain After Metropolitan Park Approved<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four casino bids remain for downstate New York&#8217;s three available licenses MGM, Genting, and Hard Rock are the favorites Bally&#8217;s is the underdog Once expected to be a difficult process for the New York Gaming Facility Location Board (GFLB) to determine where three downstate casino licenses would be awarded in a crowded bidding pool featuring most of the world&#8217;s largest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1046,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions\/1046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}