"Barring any back-room high jinks or an act of God, we should soon see a casino at the Queens Aqueduct, the Bally's golf club in the Bronx, and Steve Cohen's megaproject next to Citi Field, where parking lots will be turned into parklets; concert halls; and a glassy, Hard Rock-branded tower. The results were a bit anticlimactic - there were three licenses to give, and only three contenders remained by the time the gaming board met on Monday, giving them all the green light."
"The Bronx casino will be welcome news to the president, who leased the land to Bally's and is on track to get a $115 million bonus when the casino gets its full license. (Bally's shares rose by 11.5 percent, per Bloomberg.) And Cohen, a hedge-fund manager and Mets owner, is another smiling billionaire this morning; his Metropolitan Park fended off an 11th-hour lawsuit from the organizers of the U.S. Open."
"No slots will be played in Manhattan, where zero casinos won approval in earlier rounds of the licensing process, and Brooklynites will just have to dip over to the Aqueduct after a Coney Island project, which faced intense local opposition, also flopped. This isn't the last vote - but the full state commission is "expected to follow the board's recommendations" when that vote happens later this month, per the New York Times."
Three projects received board approval for casino licenses in New York City: a casino at the Queens Aqueduct, Bally's golf club in the Bronx, and Steve Cohen's megaproject beside Citi Field featuring parklets, concert halls, and a Hard Rock-branded tower. The three remaining contenders each received one of the three available licenses after a largely anticlimactic vote that included a brief protest. The Bronx site’s lessor is poised to receive a $115 million bonus upon full licensing and Bally's shares rose. Manhattan received no approvals and a Coney Island proposal failed amid local opposition. The full state commission is expected to affirm the board, with one-time licensing fees projected to bring $1.5 billion to the state, while claims of future tax windfalls and job benefits remain uncertain.
Read at Curbed
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