Manhattan casino proposals have been rejected by local boards

As many as six developers at one point considered or pursued casino plans in tourist-rich neighborhoods of the nation’s biggest city. But staunch objections from Manhattan residents, and the politicians who represent them, proved too difficult to overcome, even as developers dangled lucrative incentives in front of community leaders and elected officials.

Freedom Plaza, a plan from real estate developer Soloviev Group and gaming firm Mohegan to build a casino near the United Nations, became the latest Manhattan casualty Monday after a panel of local representatives voted it down.

“The last thing we needed was a casino in our midst,” said Tania Arias, one of the local opponents of the project.

Two other formal bids — in Times Square and on the far west side near the Lincoln Tunnel — were shot down last week.

A total of eight applicants were vying for up to three casino licenses in the New York City market. The surviving applicants will face another round of consideration by a state body before the winners are chosen, with the final decision expected by the end of this year.

New Jersey officials are also celebrating after fearing a new casino would steal more customers from Atlantic City, which once held a monopoly on East Coast gambling.

“We don’t want to have direct competition from Manhattan taking customers away from our casinos and revenue out of the state’s economy,” Sen. Paul Sarlo, a powerful North Jersey Democrat, said in a statement.

Sarlo, who earlier this year introduced a constitutional amendment to allow Garden State casinos to open outside of Atlantic City, said a plan for a casino in Queens at Citi Field would pose the least threat to the Garden State. Indeed, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s pitch to put one there seems increasingly like a shoo-in.

Putting a casino in Manhattan was always going to be an uphill battle, as even some developers conceded in the midst of the process.

The CEO of Caesars Entertainment said during a call with investors this summer that any Manhattan casino was an underdog, but he was confident if one did get approved, it would be the company’s project in Times Square. Instead, that proposal was the first to be voted down last week by one of the six-member advisory panels created to gauge local sentiment.

One of the developers involved in the project, Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green, the city’s largest commercial landlord, called the outcome “despicable” and lambasted members of the Times Square committee immediately after their vote.

Another project by Silverstein, a major real estate player in the city, was shot down the same day.

One of the remaining contenders, a casino pitched for Coney Island, is almost certain to fail too, after several members of its local board have come out publicly against the project, including Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

Two other Manhattan bids — Related Companies’ plan at Hudson Yards, and a pitch from Saks Fifth Avenue for a casino atop its Midtown flagship store — were scrapped before applications came due in June. Vornado Realty Trust had additionally considered pursuing a casino near Penn Station, but decided against it.

“I am delighted,” said state Sen. Liz Krueger, whose district includes the Times Square bid and who negotiated the local input requirement into the casino licensing legislation. “I was confident that public input would be far more relevant with these [local committees] rather than massive casino lobbying all aimed at the governor and her appointed gaming board. These worked out exactly as I hoped.”