Despite a letter from Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent out Tuesday urging lawmakers to back his plan, uncertainty and some optimism is still swirling around a proposed 3.8-million square-foot convention center at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park. It would be the biggest in the nation.
The governor first unveiled the idea in his State of the State speech on Wednesday, Jan.4, and response has trickled in from local politicians and residents, but nobody knows quite what to think yet.
“People are still digesting this,” said Betty Braton, chair of Community Board 10,which surrounds Aqueduct.
Cuomo’s letter Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver urging their
support gives a glimpse at the project broken up into two phases.
“While the discussions are preliminary and conceptual, at this point the first phase would include construction of 1,000 hotel rooms, theater and entertainment components, approximately 3 million square feet of convention and exhibition space…” Cuomo said.
He also notes that Genting New York LLC, who operates the Aqueduct racino, already has the exclusive lease on the land used in phase one and is an approved virtual gaming operator in New York.
“The second phase would require additional land beyond the 67 acres currently under lease to Genting,” Cuomo writes.“The Port Authority controls an adjoining 22 acres which Genting is considering for an additional 2,000 hotel rooms and approximately a half million more square feet of convention and meeting space.”
Genting has said Phase 1 of the project could be open as soon as 2014 but detailed plans are still being laid.
“We can build this [phase] at its size on the current property that is in Aqueduct,” Stefan Friedman, a Genting spokesperson said.
That second phase is most likely where Cuomo is asking for the most support when he gets into transferring the land and setting up MTA transportation to the convention center.
Cuomo wrote that he may have authority to unilaterally alter the state’s current agreement with Genting but intends to go through the legislature for any alterations to the contract already inked for Aqueduct.
Zoning and local land use laws are only briefly mentioned, but Cuomo said Genting is prepared to work with local powers on those issues, and that’s an area where Braton said the community is comfortable working with Genting.
Genting opened the virtual-gaming casino at Aqueduct in October, and throughout the process, Braton said they worked well with local powers and residents.
“Over the course of the last year, we have certainly discovered that they are responsive; they listen,” she said. “We may not always agree, not all things are always fixable to everyone’s satisfaction, but the attempts are there.”
Those areas they disagree on are often quality-of-life issues such as traffic, which has come up as a complaint about the current racino. Until more detailed plans appear, it will be hard to foresee what the impact of new construction will be though, Braton said.
Cuomo’s letter pushes another pillar of his speech as well, a constitutional amendment legalizing full casino gaming in New York. Genting, however, seems less concerned about the amendment, saying it would be nice but is in no way essential to their plans.
“If I have a challenge it’s to disaggregate those two things,” Friedman said.
Both Cuomo and Genting say 10,000 construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs will come to Ozone Park as a benefit from the center, plus any other jobs springing up as restaurants and hotels move in.
Braton said that’s a hard offer to turn down even by people who would be neighbors of the massive complex.
“Everyone’s looking at it optimistically but looking at it with caution,” she said.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
