NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Mets owner Steve Cohen’s dreams of building an $8 billion casino complex next to Citi Field in Queens are coming closer to fruition after a community-advisory panel allowed the bid to be considered for a state-issued license.
The panel — made up of representatives chosen by Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and local elected officials — voted unanimously to advance the project. The bid will now be reviewed by the New York Gaming Facility Location Board, which plans to award as many as three licenses in December to build full-scale casinos in the New York City area.
Becoming a gambling mogul would open a major new chapter for Cohen, who became one of the most successful hedge fund managers in history before his firm was caught up in an insider-trading scandal more than a decade ago. A casino would also give him a potential financial bonanza next to the home of the Mets even as the team’s disappointing on-field performance has complicated his drive to win a World Series championship.
His success in the local casino vote came weeks after three proposals in Manhattan were defeated by community-advisory panels, ending any hopes of a project in that borough. By contrast, three other proposals — by Genting Group in Queens, MGM Resorts International in Yonkers and Bally’s Corp. in the Bronx — won local approval in recent days and will also be considered for the three available state licenses.
Queens borough President Donovan Richards, who voted to advance the project, called the vote “truly an historic moment for the world’s borough.”
Cohen partnered with Hard Rock International on his proposed casino complex, named Metropolitan Park. The project would be built on a 50-acre (20.2-hectare) parking lot adjacent to Citi Field and include park space, athletic fields, a renovated mass transit station and a food hall with local vendors.
According to estimates contained in bid documents submitted to the state earlier this year, the complex will generate more than 17,000 construction jobs and over 6,000 permanent casino positions, with average salaries for permanent employees projected at $140,000 annually. Cohen’s application also includes 450 new units of affordable housing.
A casino in Queens would generate $1.9 billion in annual revenue, according to an analysis by Spectrum Gaming Group, a consulting firm.
Cohen’s victory at the community level represents the culmination of a years-long charm offensive to win local support for the casino. Documents he submitted to the state earlier this year also show that he and his partners in the venture have hired an array of lobbyists and consultants to help with their proposal, including firms with significant ties to current and former elected officials.
His team held hundreds of community meetings in recent years to shore up support for the proposal. He has donated heavily to local institutions, including a $116 million grant last year for LaGuardia Community College from the foundation Cohen runs with his wife, Alexandra.
Entities associated with the bid have spent more than $6 million on lobbying since 2022, city and state records show.
In addition, Cohen, his wife and dozens of Point 72 employees have collectively donated more $6.5 million to state and city-level candidates, Queens elected officials and committees since 2018.
The tally includes more than $1 million for the New York State Democratic party, $155,000 for Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz’s campaign committee, almost $190,000 for Hochul’s campaign committee and more than $300,000 for the state Assembly and Senate Democrats’ campaign committees, public campaign-finance records show.
Among the minority stakeholders in Cohen’s bid’s is a firm whose senior leadership includes former New York City comptroller Bill Thompson, Jr. and Henry Cisneros, the former secretary of housing and urban development under Bill Clinton.
Cohen, who has a net worth of $17.4 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, purchased the Major League Baseball team in 2020 for $2.4 billion. While he set a goal of winning a World Series within five years, the Mets failed even to qualify for the playoffs this year when they lost to the Miami Marlins on the last day of the regular season.
The billionaire’s previous hedge fund firm, SAC Capital Advisors, pleaded guilty in 2014 to securities fraud and paid a record $1.8 billion in fines. Although Cohen wasn’t charged personally, he was barred by the Securities and Exchange Commission from trading outside money for two years, and rebranded the firm as Point72 Asset Management. He resumed trading outside capital in 2018, and Point72 now manages almost $40 billion across a variety of funds and strategies.
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