New York Metropolis is poised to get three casinos.
The state Gaming Facility Location Board on Monday really useful that the Gaming Fee award on line casino licenses to the three remaining proposals in Queens and the Bronx.
The proposals embrace Steve Cohen’s Metropolitan Park, an $8 billion facility deliberate close to Citi Discipline; the proposed $4 billion complicated at Bally’s Golf Hyperlinks at Ferry Level; and Resorts World’s $7.5 billion enlargement of the Queens Aqueduct.
The board assessed the proposals primarily based on 4 completely different categories, giving probably the most weight to “financial exercise and enterprise growth,” which included numerous components, together with complete deliberate funding, jobs probably created and every crew’s capacity to finance the undertaking.
The proposals now go to the fee, which is predicted to subject the licenses by the tip of December.
The fee won’t second-guess the evaluation of the board, however will ensure the on line casino proposals meet statutory requirements, lots of which have been a part of the board’s evaluate, a spokesperson for the fee informed TRD in October.
Throughout a press convention after the board’s assembly, Chair Vicki Been rejected the concept that the fee’s determination can be a “rubber stamp.”
“Having now spent many, many hours with the Gaming Fee crew, they’re an extremely onerous working, devoted, thorough, exacting and difficult group to get by means of,” she mentioned. “And so they ask the proper questions.”
A reporter requested Been whether or not the board thought of former accusations of insider buying and selling at Cohen’s former hedge fund, and the settlement with federal officers that adopted. She mentioned that didn’t fall inside the board’s purview.
“The job of figuring out the character and health and the integrity of the candidates falls to the Gaming Fee,” she mentioned. One other subject that is perhaps thought of is Resorts World’s agreement this 12 months to pay Nevada $10.5 million to settle allegations that it did not adjust to federal anti-money laundering legal guidelines.
The three winners have been the one remaining rivals within the years-long race for one among three state licenses up for grabs.
The board’s announcement comes after Neighborhood Advisory Committees eradicated 4 groups from the competitors, together with every Manhattan proposal. In a shock transfer final month, MGM Resorts dropped its bid to show its Yonkers facility right into a full-blown on line casino. On the time, the corporate blamed the choice on “a newly outlined aggressive panorama,” pointing to the truth that the remaining proposals have been clustered in a “small geographic space.”
MGM additionally wished an preliminary 30-year license, however primarily based on guidelines issued by the state in October, the corporate’s Yonkers proposals would solely qualify for 15 years.
Beneath the principles, to be able to qualify for 30 years, an applicant would want to take a position at the very least $10 billion. Resorts World pegs its funding at $7.5 billion, and Cohen estimates $8 billion for Metropolitan Park, which might imply a 20-year license for every. The projected funding at Bally’s is $4 billion, which implies it qualifies for a 15-year license.
The board’s consultants estimate that the three casinos might generate $7 billion in incremental gaming tax income from 2027 to 2036. The tasks are additionally anticipated to generate $5.9 billion in different native and state taxes.
The consultants projected completely different income estimates than the bidders. They thought Resorts World, particularly, overshot its annual tax income projections. The corporate estimated that its facility would generate greater than $1 billion in income annually, whereas the consultants projected that income would complete greater than $4 billion over 10 years.
“We requested our consultants to be extraordinarily looking out and thorough, and we requested them to be very conservative,” Been mentioned. “They disagreed with some estimates by the candidates, and thought that they have been fairly excessive.”
Plans for Metropolitan Park would flip 50 acres value of parking tons subsequent to Citi Discipline right into a on line casino complicated with a Arduous Rock resort, a 5,650-person stay music venue, eating places and 25 acres of inexperienced area. As a part of their on line casino bid, Cohen and Hark Rock Worldwide have additionally teamed up with Slate Property Group to construct 450 inexpensive housing models at 54-19 a centesimal Road in Corona, roughly two miles from the deliberate on line casino.
The Bally’s on line casino can be constructed on 16 acres of parking tons and observe inexperienced space at Bally’s Golf Hyperlinks at Ferry Level. The undertaking would come with 500 resort rooms and a 2,000-seat leisure venue.
The deliberate enlargement of the Queens Aqueduct would add gaming area (6,000 slot machines and 800 desk video games), in addition to 2,000 resort rooms and a 7,000-seat enviornment. Resorts World has additionally agreed, by means of an settlement with Cirrus Real Estate, to put money into 50,000 workforce housing models citywide.
Within the lead-up to Monday’s announcement, Gaming Fee Chair Brian O’Dwyer has emphasised that the state might subject as much as three licenses and will choose to award fewer. Throughout a September assembly, he referred to as the competitors a “tabula rasa.”
Nonetheless, Resorts World, and MGM earlier than it dropped out, appeared to have a leg up within the contest, on condition that they have been already working as slot parlors.
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