Operator News
Wynn’s casino plans for NYC’s Hudson Yards criticised for reducing housing plans
By Phil - 23 April 2024
Wynn Resorts’ $12bn bid for a casino in New York City’s Hudson Yards is facing opposition from a community group who has slammed the project for seemingly squashing housing plans that had been promised for the area.
An agreement negotiated by Manhattan’s Community Board 4 in 2009, should have brought 5,700 apartments and a single commercial building to the neighborhood. Wynn and its partner in the project Related Companies have reduced that figure to just 1,507 alongside an 80-story tower, office buildings and apartment towers overlooking the Hudson River.
In a letter sent to Andrew Rosen, Related Companies’ Chief Operating Officer of Hudson Yards, and Department of City Planning Director Dan Garodnick, Manhattan’s Community Board 4 (MCB4) stated: “MCB4 remains mystified how the Department and Commission of City Planning could review and consider such a plan which erases years of sound city planning and community efforts to replace it with such an anti-urban and anti-New York vision. MCB4 cannot support the proposed project’s drastic shift from residential to commercial use designed around casino use.”
“MCB4 raises the following question to both the Related Companies and the City of New York. Why should communities around the City of New York work with the real estate industry and the City government to respond and agree to zoning changes with detailed site plans and Points of Agreement when such plans and agreements can be discarded at a later date?”
“Now, the applicant, Related Companies, solely in pursuit of casino dollars as a means to fund the platform over the Western Rail Yards, proposes to amend that plan out of existence in favor of 2 oversize commercial towers, one of a hotel with 1,750 keys, sitting on the equivalent of a 20-story base containing a casino.”
A Related Companies spokesman responded: “We are proud that our project on the Western Yards will deliver on all of the pledges made in the original zoning including affordable housing, 5.6 acres of green open space, and a public school.”
