By Jacob Kaye
A Senate committee played their cards close to their chest this week when they narrowly voted to advance a bill that would allow New York Mets owner Steve Cohen to build a casino on Citi Field’s parking lot.
The legislation, which was introduced by State Senator John Liu in a controversial move last month, was passed by the Senate’s Committee on Cities on Tuesday, though none of the seven senators on the committee voted in outright favor of the bill.
Four lawmakers voted to advance the bill without a recommendation, while the remaining three lawmakers on the committee voted against the bill.
The bill, known as a parkland alienation bill, will now advance to the full Senate for a vote without the full-throated support of the committee that sent it there.
The piece of legislation is needed for Cohen’s plan to bring a casino to Citi Field. The billionaire Mets owner has proposed building what he’s dubbed Metropolitan Park on the plot of land that is owned by the city, leased to the Mets and technically designated as parkland.
If passed, the bill would give Cohen permission to build the complex, including a casino, hotel, food hall, live music venue, open space and more, if he is granted one of the three downstate casino licenses expected to be handed out by the state’s Gaming Commission at the end of the year. Cohen is one of a little less than a dozen developers hoping to snag one of the three licenses.
The legislation was introduced in the Assembly by freshman Assemblymember Larinda Hooks earlier this year after her predecessor, retired lawmaker Jeff Aubry, introduced the bill the year prior. The Assembly version of the bill has yet to be brought up for a committee vote.
Though support for the bill appeared tepid during Tuesday’s meeting, the vote now puts the bill on the floor of the Senate a month after it appeared as though Cohen’s dream of parkland alienation in Albany’s upper house was a pipe dream.
“For decades, these 50 acres of asphalt have only been parking lots,” Karl Rickett, a Metropolitan Park spokesperson told the Eagle in a statement on Tuesday. “Today’s committee approval brings us one step closer to delivering 25 acres of actual public park space, 23,000 union jobs, new entertainment options, and over $1 billion in community benefits for Queens.”
Cohen and his partners, Hard Rock, had to find an alternative route to parkland alienation after the Senate’s typical process of winning over the lawmaker whose district includes the land eyed for alienation went south.
The local lawmaker, State Senator Jessica Ramos, said last year that she wouldn’t introduce a parkland alienation bill after her constituents told her they didn’t want a casino in their district, which includes parts of Corona, Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. Ramos, who held several town halls on the project in 2023 and 2024, will likely still loom large over the bill when it comes up for a vote in the Senate. The legislature has a tradition of deferring to a local lawmaker regarding land use decisions within their district.
“I have consistently voiced the will of the majority of my constituents and I will continue to do so,” Ramos said in a statement to the Eagle. “We do not want a casino in our backyard. The costs far outweigh the benefits.”
After Ramos, who is running for New York City mayor, turned down Cohen’s casino bid, the Mets owner turned to Liu, whose district includes 12-acres, or around 20 percent, of the proposal.
“The site in question is primarily not in my district, but a fair amount of it is in my district,” Liu told the Committee on Cities on Tuesday. “Notwithstanding the precise boundaries of my district, or really any one district, the size and magnitude of what’s being proposed will clearly have very strong impacts on my district. It’ll have impacts, I dare say, even on your districts, just because it’s a very large New York City downstate project.”
“The reality is that it also directly affects my residential and my commercial areas in Downtown Flushing,” Liu added. “It’s a hop and skip away.”
In late March, Liu and Cohen together announced that they had reached an agreement over the project. In exchange for a parkland alienation bill introduced by Liu, Cohen agreed to explore building “Flushing Skypark,” a vague proposal to build a pedestrian bridge over Flushing Creek linking Downtown Flushing to Willets Point.
The bridge project, which is not mentioned in the parkland alienation bill, is a long shot. Details on the proposal are scarce. Neither Liu nor Cohen have given an estimate for how much it would cost. Perhaps an even bigger question – Cohen doesn’t own the land either side of the bridge would sit on.
Given the skypark’s potential complications, Cohen agreed to donate $100 million over 10 years to Flushing Meadows Corona Park if he decides the bridge can’t be constructed.
Liu touted the skypark deal on Tuesday.
“I believe this Flushing Skypark will become a destination unto itself, much like the High Line [in Manhattan] has become a major attraction,” Liu said.
The Senate committee’s passage of the parkland alienation bill comes around a week after the City Council voted in overwhelming support of a resolution calling on the state legislature to grant Cohen permission to build on the parking lot.
Like all other developers vying for a casino license, Cohen will submit his final proposal to the Gaming Commission in the coming months and will need the parkland alienation bill passed by both the Senate and Assembly in order for his pitch to be viable.
Hooks told the Eagle in a statement that she was in “active conversations” with Assembly leadership about the bill.
“I’m encouraged by the Senate Cities Committee’s passage of Senator Liu’s parkland alienation bill and appreciate the continued engagement around the future of the Citi Field parking lot,” Hooks said in a statement. “While this site is technically designated as parkland, it has functioned as a parking lot for decades — and any redevelopment must reflect the needs and vision of the surrounding communities in East Elmhurst and Corona. That means real community input, a strong and enforceable Community Benefits Agreement, and development that builds on, rather than displaces, the investments and improvements we’ve already fought for.”
Also submitting a proposal to the Gaming Commission will be Genting New York, which owns and operates Resorts World New York City in South Queens.
The separate casino proposal has received the backing of a number of officials in South Queens, including State Senator Joe Addabbo, whose district once included the racino.
Addabbo, who is on the Senate Committee on Cities, voted to advance the Metropolitan Park bill without a recommendation on Tuesday.
Addabbo did not respond to the Eagle’s request for comment before press time.
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