Unanimous rejection highlights concerns over ‘Las Vegas-style monstrosity’ near midtown.
While not a death knell for Wynn Resorts and its partner Related Companies’ plans for a midtown Manhattan hotel and casino complex, it’s certainly not a ringing endorsement.
Community Board 4, which represents the Hudson Yards neighbourhood where the planned $12 billion (£9.6 billion/€11.6 billion) casino would be built, unanimously voted against the plan on 6 January.
And while their vote is advisory in nature, it will obviously be noted by the future Community Advisory Committee. That is part of the red tape that will – theoretically – bring up to three casinos to downstate New York.
NYC isn’t Las Vegas
“A carefully planned mixed-use neighbourhood is wiped out for a garish Las Vegas-style monstrosity that has no place on Manhattan’s West Side,” said Joshua David, a former CB4 member who testified Monday, according to the New York Post. “If we wanted to live in Las Vegas,” he said, “we would live in Las Vegas.”
One major sticking point for the board members was the very literal shadow the proposed 80-storey Hudson Yards hotel and casino would cast over The High Line, which is a popular park built atop an old freight train line in the neighbourhood.
According to the Post, Friends of The High Line executive director Alan van Capelle was thrilled with the decision by the community board, noting the building would “do permanent damage to the High Line experience”.
Over the last year, there has been plenty of vocal opposition to the project, including from state lawmakers.
And while the board’s outright hostility to the idea of the Hudson Yards complex is noted, it is not, in any way a new development – they have been against the proposal from the word go.
In fact, the community board and Related Companies have not seen eye-to-eye for decades.
In 2009, the proposed casino site was set to be turned into a residential property by Related. Clearly, that never happened.
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