And then there were three.
A number of New York casino license bids, coupled with architecture proposals, have bit the dust these past few months. In September, community boards shot down competing casino proposals by BIG and CetraRuddy in Manhattan, and a bid by Thor Equities for a casino on the Coney Island boardwalk.
Now, the three remaining casino contenders are MGM Empire City in Yonkers, Resorts World New York City at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, and Metropolitan Park at Willets Point, also in Queens. While Queensbridge rapper Nas is throwing his clout behind the Aqueduct Racetrack bid, SHoP Architects, Field Operations, and others are behind the Citi Field casino proposal.
The proposed casino in Queens near Citi Field, dubbed Hard Rock at Metropolitan Park, is backed by Mets owner Steve Cohen. In addition to an Integrated Resort—with a casino, entertainment facilities, live music venue, food halls, and dining options—there are new plans to make significant improvements to the public realm surrounding Citi Field.
SHoP Architects and Field Operations first shared renderings of the casino complex in September 2024, and Cohen received unanimous approval from the Community Advisory Committee on September 30, 2025, for the casino proposal. The design team more recently shared updated landscape architecture renderings and project information with the Public Design Commission Committee for preliminary review, in a document dated October 21.
Still, despite the Community Advisory Committee’s unanimous approval, the $8 billion project has been met with stiff opposition. Just this weekend, over 200 people attended an “anti-casino town hall” in Flushing, Queens, to vocalize opposition to State Senator John Liu’s support for the project.
“Even though I’m sure [Cohen] and his team think they have it in the bag, they absolutely do not,” State Senator Jessica Ramos said at this weekend’s town hall. “There is no reason why the Gaming Facilities Board has to do three licenses. They can say they will only do two licenses. We can stop this altogether. I think there can be a world where no casino licenses are granted.”
Renderings show verdant green areas and pedestrian corridors paved with permeable precast concrete, lined with park furniture. In the heart of the campus will be Shea Lawn, a shared space that pays homage to Shea Stadium, where the Mets previously played ball. A main promenade will unite the mixed-use campus into a unified whole, the architects said.
“The planting design is proposing a rich variety of planting typologies across the park, with a focus on seasonal interest, specimen plantings, and colorful perennial gardens,” designers said. “The density of the planting, therefore, varies depending on the type of garden. Where sightlines are critical, trees will be planted accordingly and the shrub layouts will be carefully shaped to accommodate them.”
A triangular plant bed in what the proposal calls the South Gateway will funnel visitors exiting the 7 Train either to the casino or Citi Field. Pinstripes in the pavement echo Mets uniforms, while other materials in the palette emulate the 1939 World’s Fair held at the site decades ago. A massive New York Mets logo could be embedded into the plaza just outside the subway station and in front of the baseball stadium, because LFGM.
“The inclusion of the New York Logo in the plaza design at the Mets–Willets Point MTA station directly responds to PDC direction to reflect the team’s legacy in the city; limited to the station frontage at Citi Field, the design was supported by commissioners as an important placemaking and wayfinding element,” the design team said.
New public bathrooms will flank the plaza that faces the subway station.
As part of the redevelopment scheme, there are also plans to rethink access to the site, starting with the Mets–Willets Point subway station, which has several non-ADA compliant ramps and is often plagued by overcrowding on game days. According to the architects, the station redesign “reconfigures ramps to be code compliant and provides elevators to/from the train platform and the paid platform.”
“The proposed design reconfigures ramps to be code compliant, opens up the unpaid concourse to connect to the passerelle directly, and provides elevators from grade and to the paid platform,” architects elaborated.
As for the casino’s design, its facade takes cues from Citi Field’s curvature and makes for clear wayfinding from the subway. The building facade was updated from previous design plans to feature more pronounced fluting. In the submission material the design team noted that cladding “abstracts musical frequency displays.”
Renderings show the resort facility fronted with a large elevated porte cochère entry. A Hard Rock logo is shown emblazoned on a glided, art deco–inspired board, that crowns the resort tower.
Along Roosevelt Avenue, which runs to the south of the complex, new bike lanes, sports facilities, greenery, and other amenities will populate the bustling thoroughfare. Adjacent to the reimagined streetscape the design team envisions a slew of new sports fields and lawn space, with exact programming to be determined with the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Opposition leaders are planning a “Community Rally Against the Casino” protest outside the Queens Public Library’s Flushing branch on November 16.
Licenses are expected to be awarded by December 31.
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