NEW YORK CITY-After Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that a $4 billion plan for a new convention center and casino in Eastern Queens has fallen by the wayside, the city’s commercial real estate industry is weighing in about alternative locations within the five boroughs that could support casino gambling and new mixed-use development surrounding it.
“Basically, if you are going to allow casino gaming in New York City, it should be used as a carrot to lure private investment to create some beneficial public amenity space,” says Bob Knakal, chairman at Manhattan-based sales brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services, who tells GlobeSt.com that Governors Island could emerge as a potential destination instead of the Aqueduct. “You’d create jobs, create much-needed infrastructure, public amenities, create additional tax revenue for the city – it is a complete win-win,” he says.
The idea comes on the heels of Mayor Bloomberg’s recent announcement to invest $260 million in the island’s economy over the next two years. The city’s capital program calls for infrastructure improvements, new public and park space and the addition of electric and telecommunication systems on the 172-acre site. And based on its proximity to Manhattan, Knakal says a bridge or the implementation of a ferry service could help transform the island into a year-round community as opposed to a summer destination.
“You could be there in 20 minutes, and that, I think, is a very different proposition than putting the convention center out in Aqueduct,” he says. “The people that say you can’t do it because of the deed restrictions are not taking into the fact that the federal government who imposed the deed restriction is in dire need of money and you could work out a transaction with them where they got an annual payment, whether it is in the form of rent or some kind of compensation to lift the deed restriction, that would be in everyone’s best interest.”
According to the New York Times, the Genting proposal was expected to create 10,000 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs, but critics slammed the proposal for being too far from tourist attractions like Times Square and Central Park. Others speculated that the negotiations faltered based on Genting’s supposed ability to get exclusive rights to have a casino instead of a competitive bid process.
Recently, the state legislature OK’ed an agreement that calls for no more than seven privately-owned commercial casinos throughout New York State; it faces a public referendum in 2013. New York is already home to five Native American casinos, nine racinos and 29,000 electronic gaming machines, but it is surrounded by rivals in Atlantic City, southern Connecticut and Canadian provinces – all locations with legalized casino gaming.
Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, previously told GlobeSt.com that while casinos ultimately create some jobs and activity where they are located, he is undecided if it makes sense to add casinos within Manhattan.
“I don’t necessarily think that they [casinos] will by and of themselves have a dramatic change on real estate,” he says, noting that creating ‘destination locations' is what makes an impact. “It is a number of hotels, a convention center and so forth, and when you put in that kind of money, you have a really positive impact on the real estate in that neighborhood and beyond.”
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