Actual Property Tycoon Larry Silverstein Joins NYC On line casino Bidding
Larry Silverstein, 92, whose Silverstein Properties assisted the Huge Apple in redeveloping Decrease Manhattan and the World Commerce Middle following the 9/11 assaults, desires his subsequent wager in NYC to be a on line casino.
An artist’s rendering of the Avenir, an built-in resort and on line casino resort deliberate for Manhattan’s West Facet. The venture is being pitched by Silverstein Properties along side the mother or father proprietor of Parx On line casino close to Philadelphia. (Picture: Silverstein Properties)
In 2013, New York lawmakers and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) licensed as much as seven business brick-and-mortar casinos within the Empire State. The gaming act included 4 casinos allotted for upstate, and the opposite three for the downstate space.
The 2013 legislation supplied a 10-year moratorium on the state issuing the downstate licenses to permit the upstate properties to open with out downstate competitors. The availability was designed to permit the upstate casinos to ascertain their buyer bases and entice downstate residents north.
The moratorium is over and state officers are readying the appliance course of for the three coveted downstate licenses. Already there’s a crowded bidding pool. Silverstein joins many well-known gaming builders and operators, together with MGM Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, Genting, Caesars Leisure, Wynn Resorts, Mohegan, Onerous Rock, and Bally’s.
Silverstein’s Pitch
In an announcement supplied to On line casino.org on Friday morning, officers with Silverstein Properties say the agency has a super, 2.1-acre website of undeveloped land situated at forty first St. and eleventh Avenue on Manhattan’s West Facet. The property is simply throughout eleventh Avenue from the Javits Middle, town’s main conference and exhibition facility, and is totally owned by Silverstein Properties.
Silverstein is proposing a on line casino and resort resort complicated known as the Avenir. The property would come with two 46-story towers linked by a sky bridge, with 1,000 luxurious resort rooms. The on line casino would occupy eight tales with 600,000 sq. toes of gaming, which might make it one of many largest on line casino areas on this planet.
The highest ground of one of many towers can be a 1,000-seat efficiency corridor. Silverstein mentioned the event would moreover embrace about 100 reasonably priced housing items situated in or across the venture website that options a mixture of unit varieties and sizes.
Not like lots of the different on line casino pitches for downstate, Silverstein officers say their bid wouldn’t displace any residents nor require public infrastructure investments. Silverstein can be a newcomer to gaming, which is why the corporate has introduced on the mother or father firm of Parx On line casino, Greenwood Gaming and Leisure, to function the on line casino ought to the venture be greenlit.
Parx is situated simply north of Philadelphia and generated extra gross gaming income final yr than another on line casino in Pennsylvania.
Silverstein appeared to counsel his enthusiasm for a on line casino license has extra to do with benefiting New York than himself or his firm.
Our metropolis and state face a confluence of historic challenges proper now. These embrace a housing disaster, public security challenges, price range shortfalls, and a business actual property market in transition. We have to work with state and native leaders to do every thing we will to make New York the perfect place to stay, work, and go to,” Silverstein mentioned.
“We’ve completed it earlier than, and I’m assured we will do it once more. I’ve all the time mentioned it’s best to by no means wager towards New York. This metropolis and state will come again larger and higher than ever earlier than,” Silverstein added.
West Manhattan Bids
Silverstein’s on line casino bid infringes on one other presentation being offered by fellow billionaire Stephen Ross. Whereas Silverstein didn’t counsel a price ticket for his potential on line casino funding, Ross’ Associated Firms has acknowledged it will spend as a lot as $10 billion to convey an built-in on line casino resort to Hudson Yards, which is simply south of the Javits Middle.
Ross, who owns Hudson Yards, an actual property growth between the Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen neighborhoods, has teamed with Wynn Resorts for the initiative.
