Community panels vote down proposed Times Square, West Side casino projects

A Times Square casino plan backed by entertainment impresario Jay-Z and another planned for Manhattan's West Side both failed to make it past community screening panels Wednesday, dramatically slimming the field for three casino licenses the state will award this year.

With almost no comment in a 10-minute meeting, a Community Advisory Council voted 4-2 against advancing the Times Square project to the Gaming Facility Location Board. About an hour later, a similar panel quashed the Silverstein Properties/West Side bid (dubbed "The Avenir"), also by a 4-2 vote.

One of the developers of the Times Square bid was livid after the vote, berating the panelists as they exited the meeting, video of the proceedings showed.

"This was a despicable display of cowardice, a complete lack of consideration for all the people who would benefit from this," said Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green, the real estate company working with Caesar's and Jay-Z's company, Roc Nation.

Every casino bidder must receive a positive vote from its local community council to advance to the next round. Wednesday's votes mean the projects on the West Side and at Times Square — the latter of which some insiders said could be the most lucrative for the state because of its location — cannot advance, a state official confirmed.

The panels are composed of appointees of state and New York City leaders. In each vote Wednesday, appointees of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams voted to advance the casino bids but designees of the State Senate and Assembly, City Council and Manhattan borough president opposed.

That leaves six competitors who are proposing casinos at Coney Island (Brooklyn), Aqueduct Racetrack (Queens), Citi Field (Queens), East Side (Manhattan) near the United Nations, Ferry Point (Bronx) and Yonkers Raceway. All must receive a "yes" vote by Sept. 30 to advance. 

Las Vegas Sands put in work and money to prepare to bid for a casino at the Nassau Coliseum but dropped out before actually submitting a proposal.

The two projects killed Wednesday faced vocal opposition at public hearings earlier this summer.

Broadway opposition

The Times Square vote was a big win for Broadway theaters and labor unions, who strongly opposed the casino. They said it would ruin Manhattan's Theater District.

"This was a vote to protect the magic of Broadway for the 100,000 New Yorkers who depend on it for their livelihoods, and for the tens of millions who come from around the world to experience it," said Jason Laks, a member of the No Times Square Casino Coalition.  "A casino can go anywhere, but Broadway only lives here."

 The losing bidders weren't happy.

"The benefits you denied this community and state — you have to live with that history forever," Holliday said. He, Jay-Z and other partners said a casino, which would have been built at the current Minskoff Theatre, would have complemented, not hurt, Times Square.

A hasty vote?

Appointees of Hochul and Adams protested holding the votes Wednesday, noting the panels had until Sept. 30 and pointing out that each competitor had submitted a slew of amendments this week promising to build more housing in Manhattan and other benefits.

"I believe that this vote should have been postponed," said Angel Vazquez, Hochul's appointee to the Avenir panel. "There are 13 days remaining till the deadline. There are nine full business days till the deadline. And we were in conversations about the housing proposal up until last night."

Richard Gottfried, a former Manhattan assemblyman appointed to both casino councils, said the competitors have had years to develop projects before submitting them to the state last spring.

"This is a process that, actually, has been going on several years," Gottfried said. "Our process has gone on, I guess, a couple of months. It has been as open and involved as I've seen in decades ... And I think we're ready for a vote."

With Associated Press

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy