As the competition for three downstate New York casino license heats up in advance of regulatory and licensure hearings in July, a proposal including a Wynn-branded casino, to be built in the under-construction Hudson Yards complex in midtown Manhattan on the Hudson River's eastern shore, has emerged as one of the likely favorites.
A recent New York Post report offers some detail on the proposal, which is headed by venture-development firm Related Companies. Related would partner with Wynn Resorts on the casino portion of the ongoing Hudson Yards development. The 28-acre site is already home to several new and under-construction office towers in addition to space planned for the proposed casino.
The revised bid for one of the three licenses also includes plans for a 1,700-room skyscraper hotel, which would also serve venues such as the nearby Jacob Javits Convention Center, and it's part of a $10 billion project being pitched to the state.
Two of the three NYC-area licenses that New York's regulators will award are expected to go to existing racino operations in Yonkers and at Aqueduct. (Genting/Resorts World and the MGM-controlled Empire City operate those two properties, respectively.) That leaves other groups battling to put together attractive development packages for the remaining license. According to the Post, the Wynn-branded casino shares the inside track with Venetian owner Las Vegas Sands Corp., which hopes to build a casino on Long Island near the Nassau Coliseum.
Two other groups' proposals have faced stiff local-neighborhood opposition of late. Those include a plan by New York Mets' owner Steve Cohen to build a casino near Citi Field, where the Mets play, and a plan by Bally's Corporation to build a casino on the Trump Links golf course in the Bronx, which Bally's would acquire and transition if its bid is accepted.
The Related/Wynn proposal already includes plans for a poker room, which would be a first if its kind for the Big Apple, where the underground poker scene is legendary. Whichever bids are accepted, the three new New York City metro casinos will reshape casino demand throughout the region. Collectively, the casinos will almost certainly siphon significant traffic from casinos in neighboring states that draw business from the New York City area.
