Hudson Yards Casino Picks Up Big Union Support, Friends of High Line Object

It looks like such a lovely stroll. The sun glints off the apartment tower as you walk along the High Line from the shadow of the massive office building into the sunlight, first heading west toward the Hudson River and then north as the old railroad trestle loops around the sparkling new development of Hudson Yards West.This imagined meander comes courtesy of the developer, Related Companies, in a video that is the modern version of what used to be called an architect’s rendering.

But whether you see this rendering as a reasonable representation of what the hotel with casino could be or a rank piece of propaganda has a lot to do with which side you have taken in one of the nastiest fights yet triggered by the state’s decision to offer three new casino licenses in the New York City area.

The licenses won’t be awarded until the end of next year. But the maneuvering is already fierce. Related has partnered with Wynn Resorts to propose that one of the licenses be awarded to a casino and resort that would be part of the long-delayed development of the western half of the Long Island Rail Yards on the west side.

The city approved a plan in 2009 to deck over the western portion of the rail yard and build offices, 5,000 units of luxury and affordable housing, a school and a park. But Related never built it, and now says this is a better idea and, importantly, “economically viable.”

But Friends of the High Line, that wildly successful linear park on the reclaimed railroad trestle, say the plan would crowd the park, thrust it into shadows and “threaten the High Line experience.”

Alan van Capelle, executor director of Friends of The High Line, argued that the 2009 plan called for reducing the scale and bulk of building over the western compared to the eastern part of Hudson Yards, which was completed in 2019.

But that resistance from Friends of the High Line stirred a fierce backlash from the city’s labor unions, principal supporters of the construction of new casinos in general, and of the development of the eastern Hudson Yards, specifically.

Thousands of construction workers rallied on W. 18th St. near the site on Oct. 23 and heard the President of the Building and Construction Trades Council, Gary LaBarbera, denounce the opponents of the Related/Wynn development plan as Manhattan elitists.

“The project they’re trying to stop is a $12 billion project over seven years that will employ 30,000 building trades members,” LaBarbera told the rally. “That’s what they’re trying to take away from us. Thirty thousand jobs is what they’re trying to kill. We can’t let them do that, brothers and sisters, because again, it’s your futures.”

While the High Line has been a huge boon to local business, a group of local merchants joined the construction workers in defending the casino development project.

“It is our firm belief that our city can’t afford to turn down opportunities for new business and economic growth,” wrote the ten small business owners, who ranged from Roman Mosher’s Manhattan Barber Shop to Sam Joseph’s Joe’s Pizza shop.

“The proposed development at Hudson Yards West would be vitally important for our community, creating the economic opportunities many of us need.”

Community reaction is baked into the approval process for locating the three new casinos. A community advisory board must review and approve any license application before the state gaming commission considers it. The advisory board is made up of the local elected officials from that neighborhood as well as the Borough president, the mayor and governor.

For Hudson Yards, that would be State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assembly Member Tony Simone and Council Member Erik Bottcher.

A poll conducted by Friends of The High Line at the end of September found that just over half of the constituents of the three legislators said they would be less likely to vote for their local legislators if they supported the casino development project. One in ten said they would be more likely to vote for them and a quarter said they were not sure.

Two of the applicants for casino licenses already house gambling, at Yonkers Raceway and Aqueduct Park, and thus may have an easier time with community reaction. There are several proposals for a casino in Manhattan and all have provoked some level of community resistance.

Broadway theaters, for example, are fighting a proposal for a casino in Times Square.

All of the 11 casino proposals would, presumably, generate construction and permanent jobs.

But few are quite on the scale of Hudson Yards East (although perhaps close is the Soloviev group’s plan to partner with Mohegan Sun to build on its vast open property just south of the United Nations).

The heart of the criticism from the Friends of the High Line is that Related already had an approved plan for the eastern part of Hudson Yards.

“The 2009 plan allowed for up to 5,700 much-needed housing units,” Van Capelle said in comments repeated by Related so it could attack them. “The new plan has only about 1,500. That’s right—in the middle of a housing crisis, the developers are asking to slash the amount of housing they would build.”

Related called this “extremely disingenuous” because the abandoned housing units “were all ultra luxury condo units, which are no longer an economically viable option to pay for the $2 billion required platform over the railyard.”

The new plan, with 1500 units of housing, “still maintains our affordable housing commitment” as well as “the basic test of economic viability,” Related said.

Notably, while the new plan is centered on pursuit of one of the three new gaming licenses, Related soft-pedals the casino. “Gaming is only 3.6% of the total development,” the company said.

The video stroll takes the viewer right around the base of the proposed hotel and casino. There is no signage suggesting there is gambling going on.