A $4 billion Bally’s hotel and casino resort bid is back in business after getting a lifeline from New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Adams on Wednesday vetoed the New York City Council’s recent disapproval of Bally’s request to rezone parkland for commercial use at the Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point property it operates in the Bronx, where Bally’s proposes to build Bally’s Bronx casino. The rejection from the council at the time all but killed its bid because securing land use and other zoning approvals are needed for winning a casino license.
The veto “will re-level the playing field and allow the Bronx to have a seat at the table, rather than give an unfair advantage to the other bidders and boroughs,” Adams said Wednesday in a statement. “A casino in New York City would bring good-paying union jobs and an economic boost to the surrounding community, which is why I have long advocated for a fair process with as many competitive bids as possible.”
The veto doesn’t mean his “endorsement or expression of support giving a leg up to any casino bid over the others,” Adams said.
Bally’s didn’t immediately respond to a CoStar News request seeking comment.
“Mayor Adams has issued the first and only land use veto during his tenure for a casino applicant, not housing,” Mara Davis, a spokesperson for the council, said in a statement, adding the city will consider its next steps on the land use application.
The council now has 10 days to act on the veto, a separate city spokesperson told CoStar.
The proposed 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, has 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.
Field of casino bids
With Bally’s in the running, the field of eight New York casino contenders will compete for up to three licenses the state will give by the end of the year in and around New York.
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.