A $12 billion proposal to build a casino over the train storage area west of Hudson Yards would include three skyscrapers and over 5 acres of public open space, new filings with the city reveal as the competition to secure permission to build one of three casinos in the New York City area heats up.
Related Companies, the developer behind Hudson Yards, filed a rezoning application with the Department of City Planning on Tuesday that includes long-awaited details of its casino plans.
If Related manages to secure the requisite state gaming license, the firm hopes to develop the 13-acre site it owns above the MTA’s West Side Yard between 11th and 12th Aves. with a casino, hotel, offices, housing, public school and open space.
The proposal comes as the state is expected to open up applications for three downstate casino licenses any day now to the approximately 10 bidders around the Big Apple who have expressed an interest.
Related was the first developer to publicly enter the casino race in 2022 with partner Wynn Resorts, but has largely kept mum on the specifics of its proposal.
But the new City Planning filings detail how Hudson Yards could be transformed if Related wins the license jackpot.
“We are excited to continue engaging with stakeholders across the local community as part of the city land-use process for the undeveloped railyards,” Jon Weinstein, a spokesman for Related, said in a statement.
“The opportunity to bring a world-class resort to Hudson Yards will catalyze the master plan for the broader Western Yards and $12 billion in total investment. As the state’s parallel process moves forward, we look forward to unveiling our full proposed plan which will provide thousands of jobs, billions in revenue and community benefits, a new park, affordable housing, a school and more.”
Related will have to construct a platform above roughly two-thirds of the rail yard, currently used by the Long Island Rail Road.
The development site west of the existing Hudson Yards is bounded on the north and south by W. 33rd and W. 30th Sts. and on the west by 12th Ave.
If Related gets its way, the project will include a 2.6 million-square foot casino and 1,750-room hotel resort complex by W. 33rd St. featuring a ballroom and conference space, amenities, retail, eateries and about 500 parking spaces. The casino itself would take up five stories of a “gaming/resort facility podium” with a maximum of 80 stories built above it.
The southern part of the site would include an 80-story, 1.2 million-square foot building with ground-floor retail and over 1,500 apartments, approximately 324 of which would be designated as affordable. The third facet of the site would feature a 74-story office building with space for retail, a day-care center, a public school and a “local cultural institution.”
Construction would take around five years and would likely be complete around 2030.
But for Related’s gamble to pay off, the firm would have to get lucky twice over — at the state level by securing a hotly contested casino license, and at the city level by winning its rezoning request.
While the rezoning documents also include an “alternative scenario” without a casino, Weinstein said that under current market conditions, the version with the casino is the only “viable” development for the site that would also deliver the promised public benefits.
Those benefits, including the school, were baked into the 2009 rezoning of the site Related is now trying to modify through the rezoning. That version called for a mixed-use development with six residential buildings being constructed above the western rail yard by 2025.
Related will be going up against at least eight other development teams across the five boroughs hoping to secure a lucrative license when the state starts accepting casino license applications.
One of those competitors is Silverstein Properties, which also hopes to bring a casino to Hudson Yards. Their proposal, dubbed the “Avenir,” would be further north, at W. 41st St. and 11th Ave. in Hell’s Kitchen.
Construction for Related’s plan would not interrupt LIRR passenger service, according to the docs, though some tracks might temporarily be removed. The southern section of the development site also includes a “below-grade tunnel casing” currently under construction as part of Amtrak’s Gateway Program.
