Just weeks after eight groups of developers and casino operators officially submitted applications to vie for a commercial casino license in and around New York City, one contender was dealt a likely fatal blow.
The City Council voted 29-9, with four abstentions, against gaming giant Bally’s request to rezone parkland for commercial use at the Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point property it operates in the Bronx. The move effectively ended Bally’s shot to secure the required land use and other zoning approvals needed for winning a casino license. The motion to disapprove of Bally’s request was put forward by Bronx Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato.
Bally’s didn’t immediately respond to a CoStar News request seeking comment on whether it has any recourse to advance its bid against the setback.
The proposed $4 billion Bally’s Bronx hotel and casino resort, totaling more than 3 million square feet, was planned for roughly 16 acres of parking lots and the practice green area at Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point. The complex’s design includes a 500,000-square-foot casino with 3,500 gaming machines and 250 table games, a 500-room upscale hotel and a 2,000-person event center.
Bally’s, in its official application filed in late June with the New York State Gaming Commission, called Bally’s Bronx a “once-in-a-generation” investment. “This development represents an audacious vision to develop a former landfill and transform it into an economic engine for the Bronx — the borough’s single largest private development.”
Bally’s, citing gaming industry consultants Victor Strategies and Klas Robinson, said its integrated resort would draw an estimated nearly 9.2 million annual visitors “at stabilization” and generate more than $1.2 billion in net economic output each year. Bally’s projected the casino resort to generate over $1 billion in gross annual gaming revenues and $1.5 billion in total revenues.
Golf course has ties to Trump, Nicklaus
Bally’s involvement with the site came after it reportedly bought what was previously known as the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point Park in September 2023. The Trump Organization, President Donald Trump’s namesake company, opened the 18-hole course designed by Jack Nicklaus in 2015 on the city-owned land. Bally’s was set to pay the Trump Organization $115 million if it were to win a coveted casino license, according to media reports.
Without Bally’s in the running, the field of New York casino contenders narrows to seven. Three developers previously ended their plans, including the $12 billion Hudson Yards West casino proposal from Related Cos., Oxford Properties and Wynn Resorts. The group dropped its bid following strong community opposition.
Three casino licenses are available for the downstate region that includes New York City. A viable bidder would have to secure a two-thirds majority vote from a community advisory committee before a proposal could advance to the next round and be considered by the state’s Gaming Facility Location Board, which will make its final decision by Dec. 1. In addition to a $1 million filing fee, the teams selected would each have to pay a $500 million license fee while also meeting the requirement of a $500 million minimum capital investment.
If none of the bids secures enough committee votes, the state will not issue any licenses.
The state Legislature “put into the statute difficult hurdles to get over so that there wouldn't be a gaming facility that's imposed on a location that clearly doesn't want that and gives that local location an ability to reject it,” Robert Williams, executive director of the New York State Gaming Commission, told CoStar News, adding the state wouldn’t “want to impose a casino on any location that's patently opposed to it.”
Other bids
The remaining contenders include the Caesars Palace Times Square bid at 1515 Broadway in the tourist and entertainment hub from Manhattan’s largest office landlord, SL Green Realty, Caesars Entertainment and rapper Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
The other two in Manhattan are The Avenir just north of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center by developer Silverstein Properties along with its joint-venture gaming partners Rush Street Gaming and Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment. Soloviev Group and Mohegan propose to build the $11.1 billion Freedom Plaza mixed-use gaming, hotel and residential complex just south of the United Nations headquarters on the far east side.
In Queens, Steve Cohen, the New York Mets owner and billionaire hedge fund investor, and his partner, Hard Rock International, are proposing the $8 billion Metropolitan Park bid that seeks to transform some 50 acres of parking lots around the Citi Field baseball stadium. Malaysia’s Genting Group has offered a $5.5 billion expansion of Resorts World New York City Casino, billed as the city’s first and only casino-hotel at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.
In Brooklyn, developer Thor Equities and a gaming business entity of the Chickasaw Nation, Saratoga Casino Holdings and Legends, have proposed the Coney, a $3.4 billion, 1.4 million-square-foot entertainment complex in the beachfront neighborhood of Coney Island.
In the New York suburb of Yonkers, MGM Resorts International is proposing a $2.3 billion transformation of the historic Empire City Casino site into a commercial casino and entertainment destination.