Outsiders Project Future of Failed Manhattan Casino Sites

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For three developers, it may be too soon to talk about what’s next at their failed casino sites. For everyone else, it’s open season.

SL Green, Silverstein Properties and the Soloviev Group all received a death knell for their proposed gaming facilities in the last few weeks. While all three pushed all their chips in on casinos — staying noncommittal about alternatives — the future of their respective sites could still prove to be jackpots, observers told Crain’s.

SL Green wanted a casino at 1515 Broadway in Times Square and chair Marc Holliday made his feelings known to the community advisory committee after its vote. The real estate investment trust did not respond to the publication’s request for comment regarding the site’s future.

The office property could have a brighter future as Manhattan’s high-end office market in Manhattan recovers, Piper Sandler’s Alex Goldfarb wrote in an investor note. A residential conversion or an upgrade into more premium office space could be among the possibilities.

Silverstein’s chief operating officer said its Far West Side site would remain vacant for years following the casino bust. Not everyone is convinced, however, as residential properties spring up nearby, including one being developed by Silverstein itself.

“My guess is that the Silverstein site is going to go residential, most likely apartments,” Walker & Dunlop’s Aaron Appel told Crain’s. “It’s a fantastic piece of real estate.”

Then, there’s Stefan Soloviev’s site near the United Nations property. The company, which did not comment to the outlet, has been harboring a vacant property for years since the late Sheldon Solow acquired the site for $284 million from Con Edison in 2005.

Aspirations for the site once included a trio of condo projects, but those never took shape. Soloviev didn’t appear to value the site too highly when he took the reins of the firm from his father.

A sale is a possibility, but others — including Appel — predicted a residential project to rise from the ashes of the Freedom Plaza’s casino ambitions.

Outside of Manhattan, other developers may need to start filing away Plan Bs for their sites in the back of their minds as critical votes approach for proposals in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

— Holden Walter-Warner