Mets owner Steve Cohen’s $8 billion casino push draws him deep into New York’s local politics

Queens, New York – On Tuesday, September 9, a state-appointed Community Advisory Committee will gavel in at Queens Borough Hall to take public testimony on whether an $8 billion casino-and-entertainment complex should rise from the expanse of asphalt that surrounds Citi Field. Their vote—due by September 30—won’t award a license, but it will decide if the bid advances to the panel that will.

At the center of the fight is Steve Cohen, the billionaire hedge fund manager who bought the New York Mets in 2020 and is now trying to transform the team’s neighborhood into a destination he calls Metropolitan Park. In partnership with Hard Rock International, Cohen’s plan would convert roughly 50 acres of parking lots west of Citi Field into a new district featuring a casino, a 2,000-plus-room hotel, a concert venue, restaurants and a 25-acre public park. Supporters cast it as a once-in-a-generation reinvestment in Queens; critics see it as a privatization of parkland that would intensify congestion and prey on vulnerable residents.

For Cohen, the casino bid has meant stepping squarely into local politics. Over the past two years, his camp has built a formidable ground game—hiring a small army of lobbyists under the banner Queens Future LLC; hosting town halls and ‘listening sessions’; and backing splashy community events that have made the Mets owner a ubiquitous presence far beyond the ballpark. His foundation’s pandemic-era gifts, including a $17.5 million donation that seeded Queens’ small-business grant program, established a benevolent profile now central to the sales pitch for Metropolitan Park.

The politics are unusually personal. The parking lots Cohen wants to remake sit on land mapped as Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, which meant he needed Albany to approve so-called ‘parkland alienation’ before any non-park use could be considered. State Sen. Jessica Ramos—whose district includes the site—refused for more than a year to sponsor the bill, citing what she described as broad opposition among working-class constituents worried about gambling harms and displacement. In late May, however, the State Senate advanced a version sponsored by neighboring Sen. John Liu after the Assembly passed companion legislation; Ramos voted no but was outflanked. The maneuver, while legal, hardened neighborhood fault lines and ensured that Cohen’s project would be judged not only on economics but on process and power.

Even with the parkland issue addressed, winning one of the three downstate casino licenses remains a multi-gate marathon. Applicants must first secure a positive vote from their Community Advisory Committee before submitting final materials—including proposed tax rates—to the state’s Gaming Facility Location Board. Under the current timeline, that board aims to select winners by December 1, with formal licensure by December 31, 2025. Cohen’s team submitted its application in late June, keeping pace with a field that also includes an expansion of Resorts World at Aqueduct, MGM’s Yonkers racino upgrade, proposals in Times Square, Coney Island, the South Street waterfront, Midtown’s West Side and the Bronx.

What sets Cohen apart is the breadth of his outreach. Public records show Queens Future retained 14 lobbying firms last year—more than any other single client in New York City—and spent nearly $2 million on City Hall influence efforts alone, according to multiple tallies. Cohen’s allies have leaned into labor endorsements, touting the promise of union construction and hospitality jobs; Local 3 IBEW, among others, has urged members to rally ahead of Tuesday’s hearing. The development’s backers also stress co-benefits that aren’t strictly about gaming: a renovated Mets–Willets Point 7 train station; a 30,000-square-foot ‘Taste of Queens’ food hall spotlighting local vendors; and athletic fields and wetlands that, on paper, would open long-paved waterfront to neighbors for the first time in decades.

Opponents have been just as organized. The FED‑UP coalition—a network of immigrant- and worker-led groups that coalesced around prior land-use fights—has rallied behind a counterproposal dubbed ‘Phoenix Meadows,’ which would restore the paved lots as parkland without a casino. Advocates point to research from the Urban Institute and academic studies linking proximity to casinos with increases in problem gambling, as well as concerns about rising rents and small-business displacement in nearby Flushing, Corona and Elmhurst. Environmental groups warn the project could worsen traffic and air quality in a neighborhood already encircled by highways and flight paths.

Queens politics have further complicated the battlefield. Borough leaders, including the borough president, have publicly backed Metropolitan Park, and the City Council advanced local land-use approvals earlier this year. At the state level, the parkland vote exposed a rift within Queens’ Democratic caucus—some seeing the project as a rare chance to deliver tens of thousands of jobs and amenities, others viewing it as a giveaway of public land that would export social costs to working-class residents. With the CAC process now underway, those debates have migrated from City Hall to community rooms where the power of persuasion is measured in hand-raising, not headlines.

Cohen’s selling points are straightforward: economic development and civic pride. His camp estimates Metropolitan Park would create roughly 23,000 jobs, including construction and permanent union positions. They have pledged more than a billion dollars in community benefits ranging from workforce training to open-space investments. And they argue that Queens—home to Citi Field and, soon, New York City Football Club’s soccer stadium in nearby Willets Point—deserves a true sports-and-entertainment campus that can compete with destinations in Las Vegas or Singapore.

Yet the very features that make Cohen a potent bidder also animate critics: his wealth, his Wall Street pedigree and his ability to shape the terms of the debate. Supporters describe philanthropy; detractors see a velvet-gloved pressure campaign that can overwhelm grassroots concerns. The last two years have featured a string of listening tours, neighborhood giveaways and pro‑Metropolitan Park canvasses that—depending on one’s vantage point—look like enlightened civic engagement or the soft politics of a hard sell.

In the background is the larger casino competition, where momentum has shifted with the news-cycle. Developers have scrapped plans in Hudson Yards amid community blowback; Times Square’s bid faces rising opposition from theater owners; other suitors are pitching the Bronx waterfront and Coney Island. Against that fluid map, Queens’ bid stands out for the outsized role of a single protagonist. If Cohen wins, he gains the rarest of New York assets: a monopoly on leisure time in the country’s most diverse county—from ballgames to blackjack to big‑ticket concerts—wrapped into one address at the end of the 7 train.

If he loses, the saga will still have changed Queens politics. It has tested how far state lawmakers are willing to go to reclassify public land. It has accelerated civic conversations about who benefits from mega‑projects and who pays the hidden costs. And it has shown the limits of big‑money persuasion in a borough where neighborhood groups have grown adept at translating hyperlocal worries into citywide causes.

For now, Cohen’s fate rests with a handful of Queens stakeholders—community board chairs, local officials and labor and neighborhood representatives—tasked with distilling hundreds of public comments into a single up‑or‑down vote this month. Should Metropolitan Park clear that hurdle, the decision shifts to state regulators, who have promised a verdict by December 1. Between now and then, Cohen will keep doing what he has done since he arrived in Queens: spend, charm, cajole—and bet that the house, eventually, pays out.

What comes next: The Metropolitan Park Community Advisory Committee holds its first public hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 9, from 4–7 p.m. at Queens Borough Hall. The committee must vote by Sept. 30 on whether to advance the application to the state Gaming Facility Location Board, which expects to select up to three winners by Dec. 1, with licensure by Dec. 31, 2025.

Sources (selected)

• NY State Gaming Commission – Downstate Casino process & timeline (nycasinos.ny.gov).

• NY State Gaming Commission – Metropolitan Park CAC hearing notice, Sept. 9, 2025 (nycasinos.ny.gov).

• City & State New York – coverage of parkland-alienation bill and casino bids (May–Feb 2025).

• QNS / Queens Eagle – reporting on Assembly/Senate votes and CAC review (Mar–Aug 2025).

• Commercial Observer / Eater NY – project partners and hospitality plans (Aug–July 2025).

• Urban Institute – analysis of potential displacement risks (Apr–May 2025).

• Guardians of Flushing Bay / FED‑UP Coalition – opposition statements and Phoenix Meadows plan (2024–2025).

• Official project sites: metropolitanpark.com and Hard Rock’s Metropolitan Park page.