Developer SL Green, vying to win approval for a casino in Times Square, is offering an unusual incentive to nearby residents: a cut of the action.
The developer has offered tenants of nearby Manhattan Plaza, iconic residential towers with deep ties in the local theater and arts scene, some $22 million in benefits. The housing development, which includes a large number of designated affordable units, would also get 0.5% of casino profits in perpetuity, according to the proposal filed with the state.
The Caesars Palace Times Square project, proposed for 1515 Broadway, is one of eight vying for a gaming license from the state, which is scheduled to award three downstate licenses by the end of the year. All proposals are currently being reviewed by their own respective community advisory committees, comprising appointees of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, as well as other local officials.
Each casino proposal promises benefits to the local community, but the Times Square proposal is unique in offering benefits to local artists and residents of a particular residential complex as well as a dedicated share of future proceeds.
The Manhattan Plaza charitable trust would be administered by a three-person board of trustees, including two residents of the complex and one person from a designated financial institution, which would decide how to use the money.
Nonetheless, many Manhattan Plaza residents voiced skepticism on Thursday.
“ It’s a buyout. I totally don’t agree with that,” said Pat Hooper, a resident of Manhattan Plaza who was walking outside the West Side complex with her husband, Enoch. “I love Manhattan Plaza, but we don’t need that kind of money.”
The Manhattan Plaza Tenants Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the agreement.
The $250 million in community offerings, reported earlier by Crain’s New York, are but a small fraction of the revenues the developer expects to see if the project is approved.
The developer expects to earn $23.2 billion in gross gaming revenues in the first 10 years of operation, according to documents shared by SL Green, generating approximately $7 billion in taxes and other fees for the city and state. The projections also estimate that the casino would generate nearly $27 billion in new revenue for neighboring businesses.
The spillover effect is by design, according to the developer, which emphasized the benefits of the casino for existing hotels, restaurants, stores and Broadway theaters.
Brett Herschenfeld, an executive vice president at SL Green, said Caesars Palace Times Square would deviate from the traditional model of casino development – the Vegas model, as he referred to it – wherein “ you go inside the four walls and you spend three days, two nights, you never come out.”
“All we are doing is providing world-class gaming,” Herschenfeld said, with “minimal hotel rooms.”
A spokesperson added that the project would include 992 rooms onsite, with a projected demand of 3,400 hotel rooms daily, resulting in casino patrons filling 2,500 rooms at other area hotels daily.
Additionally, the project would have four restaurants on site, far fewer than what it could accommodate, according to SL Green, resulting in many visitors patronizing existing restaurants in the neighborhood.
Herschenfeld said the project would also “uplift Broadway,” rather than compete with the theater industry, but the Broadway League has come out against it, along with other groups who have joined the No Times Square Casino Community Coalition.
Jason Laks, the president of the Broadway League, said in a statement that the casino would “drain the life and vitality from Broadway and the surrounding community.”
“This casino will bring crime, congestion and chaos to Times Square, threatening the 100,000 jobs that depend on Broadway theaters and shows,” Laks said. “The benefits they are offering are just a small fraction of what they will take from this community, which is why the vast majority of people who live and work here oppose it.”
Assemblymember Tony Simone, who represents the area, said in a statement that he was “listening to West Side residents” and eager for the community advisory committee process to proceed.
“The vast majority of residents who have reached out to my office have voiced strong opposition to either casino proposal in my district,” Simone said. “Personally, I am opposed to a casino anywhere in Manhattan.”
Manhattan Plaza opened in 1977, soon before the onset of the AIDS epidemic, and in the 1980s and 1990s had the “highest per-capita concentration of AIDS-related deaths in the world,” according to the New York City LGBT Historic Sites Project. Nearly 400 residents of the complex died of AIDS by 1996, according to researcher Marieta LaFargue.
Over the years Manhattan Plaza has served as home to a number of actors and other artists: Timothée Chalamet, Alicia Keys, Larry David, Mickey Rourke and Angela Lansbury.
The community benefits include $81 million for a public safety plan designed by former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, $15 million for a civil rights museum and $20 million in Broadway tickets for “economically disadvantaged families.”
Herschenfeld said the benefits would extend to a job fair “exclusive to Actors Equity,” allowing performers who are “in between performances” to have access to casino jobs paying $50 an hour, namely in front-of-house roles and guest services.
John Bonk, a retired actor who lives at Manhattan Plaza, laughed at the idea that his residential complex would potentially benefit from the casino.
“ They’re desperate, aren’t they?” said Bonk.
“ I just think that it’s going to bring a lot more congestion and traffic and craziness to that area that’s already crazy and congested,” he said. “So I don’t really see how it’s benefiting anyone in the acting community, really.”
Marissa Redanty, a resident of Manhattan Plaza, said the casino proposal itself was “terrific” but strongly opposed the arrangement with the tenants association.
“ They have kept all of the residents in the dark about this money, and no vote was ever taken by the residents of Manhattan Plaza,” said Redanty, who said she served as tenant president for 10 years.
Jasper McGruder, a theater director who has resided at Manhattan Plaza since 1993, said a casino would contribute to “blight” in the neighborhood and scoffed at the proposed investment in his community.
“$15 [million] or $20 million sounds like a great amount, but how much are they really taking in?” he asked. “They could probably double or triple that amount.”
However, some residents said they looked forward to a casino.
William Alonso said he’d closely followed the competing casino proposals and was focused on “the positive aspects” of the Times Square project. These included the possibility of additional work for entertainers and actors such as himself, and the economic benefits that would come from additional visitors to the neighborhood.
“They’re going to have to stay somewhere, they’re going to have to eat somewhere,” Alonso said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
