DOB plans for 1,000-unit hotel, casino in Willets Points filed for Steve Cohen, Hard Rock project

The city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, on behalf of a joint venture called Metropolitan Park led by New York Mets owner Steven A. Cohen and entertainment giant Hard Rock International, filed development plans with the city’s Department of Buildings for a 3 million square foot project including a casino and a 1,000-unit hotel with the address 121-09 Roosevelt Avenue in Willets Point, Queens, adjacent to Citi Field. Two parking decks are being developed under separate applications.

While the project renderings and details have been widely disseminated in government hearings and community meetings, this is the first application filed with the city’s DOB for the hotel and casino complex.

Tony Macari of NYC Parks and Recreation filed the plans with the New York City Department of Buildings on September 18, 2025 under job number Q01274555. It calls for the construction of a 28-story building. The project is described in the filing as: filing herewith for new gaming facility with parking as per plans, filed under MPP [Metropolitan Park] project-000000254. The designer is SHoP Architects and the architect of record on the DOB filing is SLCE Architects.

Steven A. Cohen owns the Mets baseball team as well as the venture capital fund Point72 Ventures.

April 2025 EDC Presentation pdf

The Metropolitan Park project is one of six remaining applicants vying for three downstate casino licenses.

There is parking and restaurant space on the first floor; daycare, theater, parking on the second floor; theater, restaurant, casino on the third floor; parking, theater, office on the fourth floor; hotel, restaurant, gym, on the fifth floor. From the sixth floor to the 28th floor are various uses but mostly hotel. There is additional casino space on the 28th floor, in addition to the third floor.

As part of the Cohen and Hard Rock pitch to the community, Cohen plans to partner with Slate Property Group to develop a reported 450 units of affordable housing at 54-19 100th Street in Corona, about a mile southeast of the casino site. Slate has already filed plans for a building there on September 3, 2025 under job number Q01228195.

The years long process to select three downstate casino licenses is expected to be completed by December 2025. The remaining six projects are the Soloviev Group’s in Manhattan, Bally’s in the Bronx, Thor Equities’ project in Brooklyn, this project in Queens, MGM in Yonkers and Resorts World in Queens.

“This application (C 250047 MMQ) for an amendment to the City Map was filed by Queens Future, LLC and the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) on August 7, 2024. The proposed amendment to the City Map, in conjunction with the related Zoning Map amendment, would facilitate a new 3.7 million gross square-foot, mixed-use development including a gaming facility, music hall, hotel, convention space, parking and other amenities, as well as approximately 25 acres of designed public park and green space in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Joint Interest Area 81, Queens.”

The property

The property in Willets Point has 1,250,000 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 1,700 feet and is 1,635 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,747,985 square feet. The lot is irregular. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4 billion.

Development

Tony Macari of Nyc Parks submitted a new building construction project for a 1,000-unit, 3,047,989 square-foot 53 building at 121-09 Roosevelt Avenue. The plan was filed on September 18, 2025. It calls for the construction of a 344-foot tall, 28-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number Q01274555. The architect is Slce Architects. The project is described in the filing as: filing herewith for new gaming facility with parking as per plans. filed under mpp project-000000254.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received four DOB violations and $16,550 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Willets Point, The majority, or 75 percent of the 834,702 square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space. In sales, Willets Point has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $60.4 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 26th highest in Queens. For development, Willets Point is the 8th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 7.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 860 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 4,749,605 square feet. The largest is a 1,000-unit, 3,047,989 square-foot 53 building submitted by Tony Macari with plans filed September 18, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a 1,701,616 square-foot 74 building submitted by Tony Macari with plans filed August 29, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Steven Cohen owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 1,250,000 square feet and a city-determined market value of $3.2 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio consists of at least a single Q6 property. It is located in Queens.

The surrounding

This is the first commercial real estate event of interest identified within the 400-foot radius of Citi field in the past 24 months.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.