Steve Cohen has finally found a state senator willing to introduce the all-important bill he needs to have a shot at building his Queens casino complex. The reversal of fortune for the billionaire Mets owner comes months after local lawmaker Jessica Ramos dealt Cohen a seemingly fatal blow by refusing to take up the legislation.
State Sen. John Liu announced Sunday that he would sponsor a bill allowing Cohen to build on the parking lot west of Citi Field — which, through a quirk of history, is technically city parkland, requiring a change in state law in order to be redeveloped. Liu, whose district borders the 50-acre site, said that he was won over after Cohen’s team committed to building an elevated, High Line-style park on the opposite side of Citi Field that would span Flushing Creek and connect to Downtown Flushing.
“The new Flushing Skypark will greatly enhance recreational and transportation options, and I am heartened by the sincere commitment of Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International to making it happen,” said Liu, the former city comptroller elected to the state Senate in 2018, referring to Cohen’s partner in the venture.
The new commitment comes with question marks: Cohen does not own the land East of Citi Field where the park would be built, and his casino team acknowledged in a statement that he will need government approvals and “public and private funding.” If that fails, Cohen and his casino bid partner Hard Rock have signed a binding contract with the nonprofit Waterfront Alliance promising to fund $100 million in infrastructure improvements to nearby Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Cohen’s team said.
Liu’s willingness to sponsor the bill marks a departure from Albany tradition, in which lawmakers typically defer to the local member — Ramos, in this case — on land-use decisions within their districts. Local Assemblywoman Larinda Hooks has already introduced a parallel bill in the lower house, meaning Cohen appears poised to get his bill passed before the Legislature adjourns in June.
For Cohen and Hard Rock, that can’t happen soon enough: applications will be due June 27 for three lucrative downstate casino licenses, and each of the 11 known contenders must first sort out any local land-use issues to have a chance of being chosen. Ramos’s refusal last May put Cohen on the clock, and the hedge-fund magnate has enlisted a massive contingent of 13 different lobbying firms to make his case to city and state officials in 2025.
Three of those firms — Tusk Strategies, Lemma Strategies and Dickinson & Avella — have directly lobbied Liu’s office this year on the casino project and the “parkland alienation” bill, public records show. Liu himself co-wrote a Daily News op-ed last year in which he critiqued casino bidders for targeting Asian-American communities where gambling is common.
Ramos, a progressive who is also running for mayor, previously said she would not look kindly on any attempt to go around her — telling reporters last year she would be “surprised and offended” if Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins let another senator sponsor the bill. In a statement on Sunday, Ramos said that “my position has not changed.”
“I cannot support a casino in Corona and am a definitive no on any alienation bill that goes against my neighbors’ wishes,” she said.
Ramos announced her opposition last year after months of gathering community feedback, saying she believed a casino would extract wealth from the already low-income residents of Corona who live nearby. She said she was willing to introduce a bill allowing Cohen to build other parts of his proposed complex, including a convention center, hotel and park, but Cohen’s team called such a project not economically viable.
Cohen had another positive step earlier this month, when the City Council gave him a matching green-light on the parkland issue. That outcome was never in doubt, since the local councilman, Francisco Moya, had vocally supported the project.
With his parkland problem seemingly resolved, Cohen regains his status as a front-runner for a casino license — a virtual money-printing permit that could generate $2 billion in yearly revenues by some estimates. Two of the three licenses are likely to be won by the existing small-scale racetrack casinos at Resorts World in Southeast Queens and Empire City in Yonkers, leaving just one license truly up for grabs.
“As an organization based in Willets Point, we shared the community’s concerns around connectivity, and recognized that the Skypark would be a great way to bring Queens together,” Cohen said in a statement. “Metropolitan Park is committed to working to make Flushing Skypark a reality. And if for any reason we cannot, then we will still follow through on our commitment to the community by dedicating $100 million to the betterment of Flushing Meadows Corona Park.”
State officials will award the licenses based on a formula weighing each project’s economic development potential and job creation. Cohen’s project is a leading contender thanks to its sheer size and promise of creating 23,000 jobs — which has helped endear it to the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, a powerful casino workers’ union. Its chief rivals include the Related Cos.’ $12 billion Hudson Yards proposal, although that project faces its own political hurdles.
Besides the casino, Cohen’s proposal includes a hotel, live music venue, food hall and 20 acres of public park space, which would also provide for a new connection between Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to the south and the Flushing Bay waterfront to the north.
If approved, Cohen’s casino complex would rise alongside the separate city-led development at Willets Point, the former auto-shop mecca to the east of Citi Field. That project, which is being built in two phases, will ultimately consist of 2,500 homes, a 250-room hotel, a public school and a new 25,000-seat soccer stadium for Major League Soccer’s New York City Football Club.
