Long Island firms can still benefit from casino bids — in Queens

Daily Point

RXR's involvement in Cohen's Metropolitan Park bid could keep it out of potential VLTs in Nassau

If gaming again surfaces at the Nassau Hub, it could mean that at least one developer, long associated with efforts to build on the property, might not be involved.

The Point reported yesterday on the possibility, but by no means a sure bet, of Nassau’s 1,000 state-allotted slot machines currently at Resorts World in Queens being located at the Nassau Hub if Resorts World were to win one of three available downstate casino licenses.

RXR, the Uniondale-based real estate developer led by chief executive Scott Rechler, is part of New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s downstate casino license bid, a proposal known as Metropolitan Park, which would be built in the Citi Field parking lot.

RXR is one of 85 promoters and sponsors listed in Metropolitan Park’s materials and is one of 39 designated "project firms." RXR, the filing said, is involved in "managing and executing development and construction projects," along with acting as a "source of information regarding construction and development costs, project timeline, project feasibility and other key assumptions to help make informed investment decisions."

The RXR division called RXR Development Services will provide lobbying and will receive a fixed fee for those services. According to registration files in the state’s Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government database, RXR is being paid $5,000 a month for its lobbying.

And even though Las Vegas Sands dropped out of the bidding, leaving Long Island without a contender, the region has several other businesses besides RXR that have gotten involved in the process.

Among Metropolitan Park’s other promoters and sponsors are GDB Geospatial, a Melville-based civil engineering and land surveying firm, and Lemma Strategies in Bayville, which is providing government affairs and community engagement work.

According to the gaming applications, three other casino applicants are utilizing the services of Long Island companies. The Coney — Coney Island’s bid — includes Control Point Associates in Melville as a land surveyor for its project. Freedom Plaza, pitched for Manhattan’s East Side, lists PCL Advisors in Massapequa as providing development and construction advisory services. And MGM Empire City lists three Long Island companies as involved with its effort: Gensinger Fire Protection, a Selden civil engineering firm doing fire protection and hydrant flow test work; Fort Salonga-based B. Laing Associates, which is providing air and noise quality analysis; and EW Howell Co., a Plainview construction firm.

But it’s Rechler’s involvement with the Citi Field bid that is most prominent. And it’s tinged with a bit of irony. After all, it’s been 20 years since Rechler first tried to develop the Nassau Hub, dating back to when he partnered with former New York Islanders owner Charles Wang to propose the $3.8 billion Lighthouse Project — a years-long effort that ultimately failed.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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