The House Doesn’t Always Win: NYC Casinos Face Tough Odds

This week, New York’s casino race dealt two high-profile proposals a losing hand. Both Silverstein Properties’ Avenir project on the West Side and the Caesars/SL Green bid for Times Square were rejected by the Community Advisory Committee. On paper, these weren’t just casinos—they were ambitious mixed-use visions promising thousands of new apartments, hotels, cultural venues, and jobs. In practice, community opposition and cultural pushback proved stronger than the developers’ best pitches.

As you may recall, this past Spring, Wynn Resorts and Related Companies withdrew their $12 billion proposal to build a casino at Hudson Yards, due to the overwhelming community opposition and rezoning complexities. So it seems that any NYC casino proposals that come to the table may experience the same challenges and may want to give serious consideration to investing the time and effort to put a proposal together. 

The casino proposals highlight a broader trend. In New York, gambling licenses were never just about gaming floors. They became financial engines for mega-developments, pitched as solutions for two of the city’s thorniest challenges—stubborn office vacancies and a deepening housing shortage. Silverstein’s Avenir, for example, tied its casino to 2,000 new apartments, 500 of them permanently affordable. The Times Square plan leaned on repurposing 1515 Broadway, an office tower struggling in a hybrid-work era, into an entertainment anchor.

So why did both fall flat? For one, community sentiment was resoundingly negative. Local residents voiced fears over congestion, crime, and quality of life. The Broadway League and theater stakeholders bristled at the idea of a casino competing for tourist dollars in the heart of their district. Politically, it became a nonstarter. Few elected officials were willing to gamble with neighborhood character, even with housing and job commitments on the table.

For Midtown real estate, the implications are mixed. Without the Times Square casino, 1515 Broadway remains an office building looking for a new identity. It’s just another reminder that office-to-entertainment conversions are easier said than done. Hotels, too, lose a potential anchor to drive tourism spending at a moment when recovery remains uneven. Retail and restaurants, however, may quietly breathe a sigh of relief; foot traffic will stay status quo, without a gaming hub siphoning dollars from existing businesses. And perhaps most critically, the city loses one of its largest proposed housing commitments in Silverstein’s plan—a setback in the broader effort to boost residential supply.

The rejections underscore a lesson developers can’t ignore … even with enticing sweeteners like affordable housing and cultural amenities, projects that threaten neighborhood identity face an uphill climb in New York. Mixed-use innovation is still possible, but success may lie in more incremental strategies—office-to-residential conversions, targeted cultural partnerships, and adaptive reuse that strengthens rather than reshapes district character.

In the end, the casino bids were bold bets on the future of mixed-use development in New York. Their rejection shows that in a city where culture and community identity carry as much weight as square footage, not every gamble pays off.

Serj Markarian