Galvin-Cohen did not directly respond to questions about the parking revenue’s use in paying off the municipal bonds. Any strategic vision for the area will aim to help revitalize the neighborhood and improve the experience for Mets fans,” she added. “Steve is continuing to engage and listen to stakeholders. “Steve views owning the Mets as a civic responsibility, and has made investments in the team, the ballpark and the community his number one priority,” Tiffany Galvin-Cohen, who is not related to the Mets owner, told THE CITY in a statement. 2020.Ī spokesperson for Cohen said he’s still considering all options for what to do around Citi Field. Queens Ballpark Company refinanced those bonds last year, soon after Cohen finalized his purchase of the Mets for $2.4 billion in Nov. The audit explained that the organization pays its base rent to the city based on a formula that calculates whether net revenue from parking and non-parking operations - like special events - exceeded predetermined amounts of money, according to the audit. Open, according to the financing deal.Ī 2017 audit by then-comptroller Scott Stringer found the Wilpon family had underreported the amount of the previous year’s revenue from managing parking lots by nearly $300,000, out of about $8 million total. The lots include those spaces around the stadium as well as ancillary parking lots inside Flushing Meadows-Corona Park that are used for railroad commuters and for other events, including the U.S. In the deal hammered out by former owner Fred Wilpon in 2006, QBC agreed to maintain more than a dozen parking lots in and around the stadium in connection with its approximately $650 million bond financing, according to officials with the EDC and documents reviewed by THE CITY. Stadium construction was paid for in part by municipal bonds issued through the NYC Industrial Development Agency, a division of the city’s Economic Development Corporation. The team and Citi Field’s official owner, Queens Ballpark Company LLC, leases the land from the city. And the organization would have to find ways to make up the lost parking, likely through multi-level parking decks - which could further complicate any construction project. People familiar with the financing and the deal to build the stadium said any removal of parking spaces would require significant changes to the organization’s financing deal with the city. On top of the public trust issue, any construction project that takes away parking spots from Citi Field would complicate the team’s repayment of hundreds of millions of dollars in municipal bonds it has through the city, which are partially tied to revenue from parking. Later that same year, the city itself had to get state approval to build a pre-K next to the New York Hall of Science in the park. The Mets’ original playground, Shea Stadium, was built in the 1960s following Albany deals that allowed construction inside what is technically Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, owned by the city Department of Parks and Recreation.Īn attempt from the team’s previous owners to build a mall on the Citi Field parking lot was struck down by the State Court of Appeals in 2017 for public trust doctrine reasons. Members and sponsors make THE CITY possible. The plan for Citi Field includes possibly erecting a casino on a stadium parking lot, or across the street at Willets Point, people familiar with Cohen’s proposal told THE CITY.īut building on any of the parking lots would require state legislators to override a legal principle known as the public trust doctrine, which prohibits private development on public land. Other real estate developers are eyeing casinos for Times Square and Hudson Yards in Manhattan, and Coney Island in Brooklyn, according to reports.
Kathy Hochul proposed creating three more downstate casino operator licenses.Īs far back as January, Cohen was pitching the idea of a casino around his ballpark to local and state elected officials, THE CITY previously reported. Owner Steve Cohen’s dream of turning Willets Point into a gambling hub materialized earlier this year when Gov. The owner of the Mets has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying city officials in connection with his push to build a casino near Citi Field - but there could be multiple legal hurdles to bring the slots to Queens.īoth state law and the team’s own lease agreement with the city stand in the way, in particular a financing deal tied to the parking spaces, and rules about building on park land.
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