Steven Cohen, Hard Rock pay NYC $282M for portion of land for $8B Queens complex

Steven Cohen and Hard Rock International through the entity Queens Future, LLC acquired an interest from City of New York through the entity The City Of New York valued at $282 million for a portion of the Mets parking lot, which itself is a portion of the land set for the $8 billion Metropolitan Park gambling and entertainment complex in Willets Point, Queens. The buyers paid about $1.8 million in state transfer taxes in this transfer. The document did not provide a metes and bounds for the parcels, so it was unclear what was the precise piece of land.

Much of the land in the parcel identified in the transaction is either roadway or outside the boundary of the project, so The deal closed on December 22, 2025 and was recorded on December 30, 2025. The two properties have zero square feet of built space and 302,320 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 302,320 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data, which does not include any additional development rights the project will be granted through zoning changes.
This is a piece of land surrounding the main parking lot and Citi Field stadium. The groups plan a, $8.1 billion casino and entertainment, and hospitality development called Metropolitan Park through the entity Queens Future, LLC, which is a joint venture between Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock Entertainment.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Steven Cohen had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller City of New York purchased 10 properties in three transactions for a total of $19.7 million and sold seven properties in three transactions for a total of $93.7 million over the same time period.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the properties for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the properties have not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot buildings, one out of the two buildings received a initial certificate of occupancy in the last ten years. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

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 the 26th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in Queens with $80.4 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Willets Point is the 9th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 6.3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 758 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 NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and filed 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 NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and filed by Tony Macari with plans filed August 29, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that City Of New York owned at least 2,831 commercial properties with 236 residential units in New York City with 156,950,578 square feet and a city-determined market value of $36.9 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 90 percent of the 156,950,578 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with office properties next occupying 4 percent of the space. The bulk, or 35 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 25 percent of the space.

The buyer

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.

Direct link to Acris document. link