The joint venture behind the Caesars Palace Times Square casino bid has dropped its plans to hand tens of millions of dollars to the residents of an affordable housing complex, instead opting to distribute the funds to a nonprofit that serves Hell’s Kitchen.
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The group, consisting of SL Green, Jay-Z's Roc Nation and Caesars Entertainment, previously promised $22.5M over 15 years to a trust managed by the residents of Manhattan Plaza, which primarily houses performing artists in its 1,600 apartments at 400 W. 43rd St.
The team, which is hoping to redevelop SL Green's office tower four blocks away at 1515 Broadway, also committed 0.5% of the casino’s profit distributions in perpetuity.
The pledge was part of a larger $250M benefits package. Manhattan Plaza was chosen as a key stakeholder in the Times Square proposal, the developers said.
After unveiling the commitment, the casino team received backlash from the greater community as local residents and organizations were confused and wary as to how the money would be spent. Under the original plan, the money would have been managed by a three-person board consisting of two tenants and one representative from an accounting firm, Crain’s New York Business reported.
Monday, the developers announced that they would instead give the money to the West Side Community Fund, a nonprofit that provides small grants to groups in Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea and Hudson Yards, W24ST first reported.
"Since the details of our proposal were submitted earlier this summer, we’ve heard from many members of the community who support our objective but wanted assurances that it would be administered fairly and in a way that truly allowed not only Manhattan Plaza, but also all of the Westside community’s voice to be heard," a spokesperson for Caesars Palace Times Square said in a statement to Bisnow.
The WSCF is funded by a coalition of West Side businesses and has awarded over $1M in grants since its founding in 2018. If the Times Square casino receives approval, it would be gifted $1.5M in the initial year, along with a share of the operating profits.
In a statement, WSCF President Michael Phillips, who is also the president of One Times Square owner Jamestown, said that the new plan would “significantly expand our impact” and that distribution would have a "particular focus on the needs of Hell's Kitchen."
"Significant portions of this new funding would be allocated and distributed to community-led priorities on the Westside through a participatory-budgeting or similar type of process that would include feedback from stakeholders including residents, block associations, small businesses, civic associations, and our land trusts,” he said.
Caesars Palace Times Square is just one of eight casino proposals vying for one of three downstate licenses. The bid is among the flashiest of the contenders, with a proposal to build a $5.4B skyscraper with a 150K SF casino. It would also feature a 992-room Nobu-branded hotel, several restaurants — including from celebrity chefs Daniel Boulud, Gordon Ramsay and Bobby Flay — a Broadway theater, and a nightclub curated by Roc Nation.
To garner support, the developers behind the bid have also promised to fund various other community projects, including an $81M public safety plan for the Times Square area, $15M for a new civil rights museum by the Civil Rights Foundation and $5M for the Callen-Lorde Center for Excellence in Sexual Health.
The group has also developed a plan to allow residents to invest in the project, aiming to sell $15M in shares to everyday New Yorkers.
The Broadway League and other theater groups have rallied in opposition to a casino in Times Square, and some lawmakers who nominated members to a committee that decides the fate of the proposal have expressed opposition to a gambling hub in Manhattan.
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