NEW YORK — A community advisory panel on Monday allowed a proposal by Bally’s Corp. for a casino in the Bronx to move forward, the second instance in which a company that owns a casino in Atlantic City may get the right to compete against itself in New York for many of the same customers.
The panel approved Bally’s plan to build a $4 billion resort spanning 16 acres of parking lots and practice green areas at Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point.
“We are happy to have completed this important process of gaining community feedback and concerns,” said Soo Kim, chairman of Bally’s Corp. “The affirmative vote is a signal that we have been able to address many of those concerns, and now we look forward to the next steps of state selection.”
The company also owns Bally’s Atlantic City, which it has promised to keep open if it receives permission to build a casino in the Bronx.
Last week, a different community panel approved a plan by MGM Resorts International to upgrade its slots facility at the Empire City Casino in Yonkers into a full-blown casino resort.
MGM owns Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which it also has pledged to keep operating even if it gets approval for its New York project.
One more proposed New York casino with Atlantic City ties is up for a community panel vote Tuesday.
Hard Rock International and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen plan Metropolitan Park, an $8.1 billion development including a casino, hotel, live entertainment venue, restaurants and 25 acres of new park space on land next to CitiField, the Mets’ home stadium.
Community panels in New York recommended Thursday that racetrack slots operations in Queens and Yonkers should become full-blown casino resorts, bringing new clarity to potential competition for Atlantic City’s casinos.
Hard Rock owns the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.
Atlantic City is keeping a close eye on the New York casino approval process, widely expecting as many as three competitors in an adjacent state to eat into its own gambling market, which is still struggling to return to business levels it last saw before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020.
The Bally’s project would take a former landfill and transform it into the Bronx’s single largest private development.
If a casino were ultimately built on the site, it would result in a $115 million payment to The Trump Organization, President Donald Trump’s private real estate company, which previously owned the land.
The proposal advanced despite a vote in July by the New York City Council rejecting zoning changes needed for the project to be built.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams intervened and revived the project, making it eligible to be considered by the committee Monday.
The committees weigh the pros and cons of each proposal against the level of community support for the project, and make a yes-or-no determination on whether it should advance.
The project will go before New York state gambling regulators later this year, who will award up to three licenses for new casinos in or near New York City by the end of the year.
The last remaining proposal to build a casino in Manhattan was rejected Monday by a community panel in New York City, further winnowing the pool of potential competitors to Atlantic City’s casinos.
In its pitch to community panel members, Bally’s said the project “will serve as a ‘place-maker’ for the Bronx and give millions of patrons from Long Island, Connecticut, Westchester and northern Jersey a reason to come to the city, and to do so much more than merely gamble but also to dine, shop, and stay in the Bronx.”
The facility is projected to generate over $1 billion in gross gambling revenue, $1.5 billion in total revenue and more than $200 million in direct gambling taxes annually.
It would include a 500-room hotel, 3,500 slot machines, 250 table games including a poker room, an array of dining and entertainment venues, and a 2,000-seat event center. It also includes the Jack Nicklaus-designed Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point.
Later Monday afternoon, another community panel will vote on a proposed casino in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood.
Thor Equities, the Oklahoma-based Chickasaw Nation tribe, Saratoga Casino Holdings and the Legends hospitality provider propose The Coney, a $3.4 billion casino project with a 500-room hotel, a 2,400-seat entertainment venue, 20 restaurants and a rooftop pool overlooking the ocean.
But barring a last-minute change of heart, the proposal appears headed for defeat: four of the panel’s six members have already announced their intentions to vote “no” on the project.
So far, three projects have advanced: racetrack slots operations in Yonkers and at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, along with Bally’s. Three Manhattan-based projects, including one by Caesars Entertainment, have been rejected, and first-round votes remain on two more.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Wayne Parry:
609-272-7000
wparry@pressofac.com
X @WayneParryAC
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