Broadway says no dice: Times Square and West Side casino plans flop in key votes

Two high-profile Manhattan casino pitches hit a wall Wednesday. Community advisory committees (the gatekeepers for local buy-in) voted down both Caesars Palace Times Square from SL Green/Caesars and The Avenir on the Far West Side from Silverstein/Rush Street/Greenwood—knocking them out of contention before they could even reach the state siting board.

What just happened

• Times Square: The plan to convert 1515 Broadway into a Caesars-branded resort lost 4–2. The only “yes” votes came from reps for Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
• West Side (41st & 11th): Silverstein’s $7B Avenir—casino, 1,000-room Hyatt, restaurants, arts venue—also fell 4–2 after a failed push to delay the vote.

The defeats leave just one remaining Manhattan bid in play for now: Soloviev Group’s Freedom Plaza near the UN, which faces its own committee vote later this month. If that fails, Manhattan could be shut out as New York State weighs up to three downstate licenses.

Support in Midtown never really materialized. Broadway theater owners, producers and neighborhood groups campaigned hard against a Times Square casino, warning about crime, congestion and cannibalizing a still-healing theater district.

“This was a vote to protect the magic of Broadway,” said Jason Laks of the Broadway League.

City Council Member Erik Bottcher, on both committees, opposed the bids: casinos need an unusually strong degree of community buy-in, and it “has not materialized.”

SL Green CEO Marc Holliday unloaded on committee members after the Times Square vote, calling the decision cowardly and insisting the project “met the standard and then some.” SL Green shares fell intraday before trimming losses; Caesars ticked higher.

Silverstein COO Dino Fusco called the West Side rejection “disappointing,” noting the team had scrambled to answer late questions and argued the process was tainted by the rush.

The bigger board

• Two other Manhattan ideas already died: Saks Global dropped its Midtown pitch; Wynn/Related walked away from Hudson Yards after failing to win support.
• Still awaiting votes: Bally’s Bronx, Coney Island, MGM Empire City (Yonkers), Metropolitan Park near Citi Field (Queens), and Resorts World at Aqueduct (Queens).
• Community committee votes are due by month’s end; finalists then head to the Gaming Facility Location Board, with license awards slated for December.

Glitzy renderings weren’t enough. In Manhattan, local politics and Broadway’s clout trumped billion-dollar promises—at least for now. One last Midtown proposal remains; otherwise, the action shifts to Queens, the Bronx, and just outside city limits.

With input from Bloomberg, the New York Times, and ABC News.