East Side casino plan falls as Manhattan proposals go zero for three with community panels

There will be no casino in Manhattan after a local screening board on Monday declined to back a proposal on the borough’s East Side near the United Nations.

In a meeting lasting less than nine minutes, the Community Advisory Committee voted 4-2 to oppose a bid headed by the Soloviev Group and Mohegan Sun that called for a casino, entertainment complex, affordable housing units and waterfront park along FDR Drive between 38th and 41st streets.

A negative vote by the panel effectively terminates the project, blocking it from being considered by the state board that will determine license winners in December.

All three Manhattan projects — East Side, West Side and Times Square — now have been squashed by local screening panels, as many insiders and casino lobbyists had predicted.

This leaves five competitors: in Yonkers, Ferry Point (Bronx), Citi Field (Queens), Aqueduct Racetrack (Queens) and Coney Island (Brooklyn).

The local board votes for Yonkers and Aqueduct are slated for Thursday.

All three Manhattan proposals lost by 4-2 votes. In each instance, appointees of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams voted to advance the project to the next round while appointees from the State Senate, Assembly, City Council and Manhattan borough president — the four locally elected officials — opposed.

After the East Side vote, opponents issued a joint statement.

 "Our neighbors on the East Side of Manhattan have communicated to us, and to the [committee], through hours of public hearings, significant concerns regarding increased congestion, public safety and the quality of life concerns this project would introduce into our community. For this reason, we support the CAC’s decision today to not advance the casino proposal at Freedom Plaza," read the statement jointly issued by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, City Council member Keith Powers, Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and Assemb. Harvey Epstein.

Since casino bidding opened, a number of Manhattan elected officials had cast doubt on community support for any gambling expansion in the borough. Supporters and opponents often clashed verbally at state-mandated public hearings. 

The East Side project — dubbed Freedom Plaza — drew mixed reaction, though multiple reports said supporters seemed to be a majority. 

After the vote that killed the project, Soloviev CEO Michael Hershman said the project was backed by unions, civic groups and neighbors and would have "revitalized" the East Side.

"Manhattan is the undisputed capital of the world, and it deserved a fully integrated resort that would have attracted visitors while serving the needs of its community," Hershman said.

Analysts of the process had often said winning local support might be the highest hurdle for any Manhattan proposal.

"They had to convince four locally elected people a casino is good for their neighborhood," Bennett Liebman, a government law professor at Albany Law School of Union University who has closely monitored the bidding process, told Newsday last week.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy