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Silverstein Properties, a Manhattan real estate firm, detailed plans Friday for an ambitious gambling, hotel and housing complex that would put a casino beneath two 46-floor skyscrapers at a currently boarded-up plot in Hell’s Kitchen.
The eye-popping blueprint is one of at least 10 new proposals in a state-run process that could deliver up to three coveted downstate casino licenses.
Silverstein’s bid, which until Friday had been rumored but not publicly confirmed by the firm, is one of at least six blueprints in Midtown Manhattan, where community pushback to casino plans has been fierce.
Silverstein said it aimed to build a nearly 2 million square-foot project on a plot between 40th St. and 41st St., and 11th Ave. and Galvin Ave., near the gleaming Javits Convention Center. Local officials were briefed on the bid Wednesday.
Project Site (Credit Silverstein Properties) (Silverstein Properties)
The proposal, dubbed the Avenir, includes a 1,000-seat performance venue at the top of one of the towers. The twin skyscrapers would be connected by a skybridge, and a 600,000 square-foot gambling and restaurant complex would sit at ground level.
The real estate firm is partnering on the bid with Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc., which runs two Parx casinos in Pennsylvania and operates a significant horse racing business.
The project would include 1,000 hotel rooms and 100 affordable apartment units, Silverstein said, noting that the local community board, Manhattan Community Board 4, aims to grow the low-cost housing stock in the area.
But it was hardly clear the housing pledge could win over the community board, which has been hostile to casino bids in the area. The board did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
The Jacob Javits Center (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)
“Our City and State face a confluence of historic challenges right now,” said a statement from Larry Silverstein, the chair of Silverstein Properties and a major player in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site after 9/11.
“We need to work with State and local leaders to do everything we can to make New York the best place to live, work, and visit,” said the statement. “We’ve done it before, and I am confident we can do it again.”
The state launched the sweepstakes for three $500 million downstate casino licenses in January. Two permits are expected to go to existing so-called racinos in Yonkers and southeast Queens, leaving the remaining developers angling for the final license.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said he viewed Silverstein’s plan as a “serious proposal” but that he continues to receive negative constituent feedback.
“I feel like we’re kind of frozen in the pregame show until we know exactly which applicants submit,” he told the Daily News.
Locations where bidders seek to plant casinos include the Citi Field parking lots in Queens, the Trump Golf Links in the Bronx and Coney Island in Brooklyn.
In Manhattan, developers have drawn up plans for casinos tucked into several bustling spots. They include the Hotel Pennsylvania site near Penn Station, a plot near the UN building, a tower in Times Square and the Saks Fifth Avenue store.
Separately from the Silverstein blueprint, Related Companies and Wynn Resorts have pushed a bid for a casino next to the Javits Center.
And on Long Island, Las Vegas Sands aims to build a casino at the Nassau Coliseum site.
The bidding is expected to play out over at least the next year and a half, and the state has centered community buy-in in the selection process.
City bids require two-thirds approval from panels with representatives of Mayor Adams, Gov. Hochul, the local Assembly member and state senator, the local City Council member and the local borough president.
Adams has said he wants the final license to land somewhere in the city. But it would seem an impressive feat for any developer to get to four votes in Manhattan, where competing interests collide block-by-block.
Assemblyman Tony Simone, who represents the site where the Silverstein towers would rise, said in a Friday text that local input he had received so far underscored the steep hill facing the bid.
“I have long been against the concept of a casino in Manhattan,” Simone wrote. “I approach each of the now three proposals in our district skeptically.”
State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who also represents the area, has said it “would be a dubious political distinction” to bring a casino to Manhattan.
And the local city councilman, Erik Bottcher, said Friday that he looked forward to community members seeing the proposals and providing public feedback.
“All of these proposals are long-shot bids,” Bottcher said in a statement.
Copyright © 2023, New York Daily News

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