And then there were six.
Two Manhattan casino proposals on Wednesday were eliminated from the state’s casino licensing competition. Six others await votes that will determine if they compete in the final round.
Two Community Advisory Committees rejected SL Green Realty and Silverstein Properties’ respective casino proposals, both with a vote of 4-2 against.
After the vote, SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, who was seated in the front row, did not sashay away before taking a parting shot.
“What you did here today was a despicable display of cowardice, lack of leadership, lack of consideration for all the people who would benefit from this proposal,” he said as the committee members exited the room.
“The only one with courage to stand up was the governor and mayoral appointees, and everybody else runs and hides,” he continued, referring to the sole yes votes.
“The benefits you’ve denied this community and this city and state, you have to live with that history forever,” he said, before leaving.
It was a rare example of an emotional, in-the-moment reaction from a CEO whose statements usually get filtered through press relations. It is nice to have real-life humans react and comment on things! Sadly, I was turned down for a follow-up interview, but the casino team sent over a diplomatic statement lamenting all the benefits Times Square is losing without their casino.
This whole approval process is somewhat unusual. The state’s Gaming Facility Location Board is supposed to assess the casino proposals based on several specific metrics. But the committees tasked with culling the competition were given much broader criteria for considering whether these proposals should even be presented to the board.
The CACs were instructed to “issue a finding either establishing public support approving or disapproving the application.” But there doesn’t seem to be a uniform metric for establishing support or lack thereof, aside from the two public hearings held by each CAC on the casino proposals.
I asked Assembly member Tony Simone if there was a consistent way of measuring public sentiment around these proposals.
“We clearly look at the folks, the families who live in the district first. And overwhelmingly they were opposed to having these casinos in the district,” he said.
The members of these CACs, however, voted pretty much as expected, based on the elected officials who appointed them. Does this mean the fates of the proposals were set from the beginning of the CAC process? We may never know. Elected officials would of course say no.
“This is not a decision I took lightly,” Council member Erik Bottcher said in a statement, referring to his decision to instruct his appointees to vote against both proposals. “All economic development opportunities deserve strong consideration.”
More than a year before the vote, Simone, whose appointee Matthew Tighe sat on both the SL Green and Silverstein CACs, had said he was “philosophically opposed” to a casino on Manhattan’s west side, though he was referring to Related Companies’ Hudson Yards proposal. Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Sen. Liz Krueger, who both appointed Richard Gottfried to represent them on the Silverstein and SL Green proposals, respectively, were also vocal about their opposition to casinos in Manhattan.
Bottcher and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine opposed Related’s casino plans, which the developer abandoned in May.
Adding to the intrigue around this process: Silverstein Properties COO Dino Fusco said the CAC considering its application sent the casino team a last-minute (Tuesday night) request to add $1 billion worth of housing to their proposal. Unsurprisingly, Silverstein didn’t agree to that — such a promise would have been dubious given the lack of time to figure out where this housing would go and how the firm would pay for it. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development apparently is responsible for this request, hoping that the CAC would delay the vote and give Silverstein more time to consider it, according to a source familiar with the talks. Simone indicated that such a promise likely wouldn’t have swayed the CAC anyway.
Some of the remaining proposals awaiting a CAC vote will need, to belabor the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” references, to lip-sync for their lives. As today certainly proves, getting the necessary “yes” votes will be a challenge.
Like the two rejected casinos, the remaining Manhattan proposal, pitched by Soloviev Group, is at the mercy of a CAC that includes members appointed by casino-naysayers. But when I spoke to Soloviev COO Michael Hershman last week, he said he was “feeling pretty positive” about his team’s chances. That vote is scheduled for Sept. 22, according to Hershman. The remaining votes have not yet been publicly announced.
“Despite the defeat today of two formidable applicants, we remain confident that one license should be awarded in Manhattan,” Hershman said in a statement on Wednesday. “Attracting more tourists than any other borough, the city should have a fully integrated resort that is fitting of its position as the global capital of the world.”
What we’re thinking about: What will become of the SL Green and Silverstein properties now that the companies’ casino dreams have been dashed? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Continuum sold its development site at 970 Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights for $54.3 million, my colleague Elizabeth Cryan reports. The sale follows a tortuous rezoning fight over the site.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander’s cross endorsement during the mayoral primary was seen as a “progressive bromance”, but behind the scenes, cracks are allegedly forming, Gothamist reports. Lander had been signalling that he expected a top role in a potential Mamdani administration, but Mamdani shut down the speculation, telling Lander he had not yet made any personnel decisions.
— A new City Council bill would ban fluoride in NYC’s drinking water, a position aligned with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” movement, according to City and State. The bill’s sponsor, Council member Jim Gennaro, said that while he’s friends with RFK Jr., he did not suggest introducing the legislation.
Closing Time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Wednesday was $8.2 million for a 3,038-square-foot townhouse at 262 West 12th Street in the West Village.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $19.6 million for a portfolio of nine apartment buildings, including 632-644 Wales Avenue, 785-795 East 151st Street and 786-792 152nd Street in Woodstock. The portfolio included 209 residential units and is 163,428 square feet.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $21 million for a 4,183-square-foot condominium unit at 111 West 57th Street in Midtown. Nikki Field and Benjamin Pofcher with Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.— Matthew Elo
