Broadway, unions and real estate bigs battle over NYC casino proposals as deadline to submit bids approaches
Mega-developers are vying for the chance to build the Big Apple’s first casino as Friday’s bidding deadline approaches — and everyone from Broadway aficionados to union workers has an opinion.Both supporters and opponents of some of the eight different proposals for a downstate casino held rallies across the city Thursday ahead of the deadline to submit their bids.Hundreds of Local79 union members rallied in Times Square alongside local businesses in support of a Caesar’s Palace proposed by rapper Jay Z’s RocNation and developer SL Green, which has vowed to work with union construction.“The developer has a track record of working with Union Laborers,” said Local79 member Noel Holliday.“That’s why we need this project.”But the renderings have drawn pushback from the Broadway community just a stone’s throw away.“We don’t need a casino to bring this neighborhood back.A casino in the heart of Times Square would only set this area back,” said Jason Laks, President of the Broadway League, at a separate rally against the project.At a swanky office in Midtown, developer Soloviev’s CEO Michael Hershman touted renderings for “Freedom Plaza,” a massive metropolis to be built on an empty lot in Kip’s Bay along the East River in partnership with Mohegan Casinos — that he said would also bring union jobs.The complex “will uniquely deliver what New Yorkers need most.
Accessible green space, housing that working families can afford, and well-paying union jobs,” Hershman said.Freedom Plaza would boast two residential towers with over 1,000 apartments — almost half of which would be affordable housing — along with a museum and a sprawling public park, with the casino underground.But laborers pointed out that the area sits close to a public school and residential neighborhoods.“You’re going to build affordable housing next to casinos, schools next to casinos, I don’t know about you but I don’t want my sons and daughters going to s...