Manhattan has just about everything a resident could want. Everything but a casino.
The final plan for a casino in Manhattan that was still in the running for a coveted gambling license was rejected on Monday, assuring that no gambling house would open in the heart of New York City.
The groups behind the proposed site, known as Freedom Plaza, offered numerous sweeteners to win over opponents and skeptics, including an 11th-hour offer to build more than 1,000 affordable housing units on the plot, but the plan still met the same fate of two other doomed Manhattan proposals.
The decision on Monday, made by a community advisory committee that took into consideration local support for the project, leaves five gambling facilities in the running for up to three licenses that will be awarded by the end of the year. Four are in the other boroughs of New York City, with another in Yonkers.
The Freedom Plaza casino, which would have been operated by the gambling company Mohegan, would have risen on the largest undeveloped tract of land in Manhattan, more than six acres just south of the headquarters of the United Nations. The property owner, Stefan Soloviev, is the son of the billionaire developer Sheldon H. Solow.
The proposal, which was voted down by a measure of 4 to 2, had only the support of the members nominated by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Their delegates were also the only supporters of the two other failed Manhattan bids, one in Times Square and another on the Far West Side.
Councilman Keith Powers, whose representative on the committee voted against the plan, said that residents near the site had legitimate concerns about the project, including increased congestion, especially during a week like this, when the U.N. General Assembly is happening.
The five remaining proposals will be considered by their advisory committees before the end of the month. The approved applicants will be voted on in December by another board, the Gaming Facility Location Board, before licenses are awarded.
Matthew Haag is a Times reporter covering the New York City economy and the intersection of real estate and politics in the region.
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