The Avenir Community Advisory Committee Hits The Ground Running

The first of the eight Community Advisory Committees (CACs) that will help determine who will be the finalists for New York’s three downstate casino licenses met Wednesday and quickly got down to business.

The Avenir, a proposal fronted by Silverstein Properties, Rush Street Interactive, and Greenwood Gaming to bring a casino to the West Side of Manhattan, made its top-level pitch to the committee. That came after the lengthy yet needed process of reviewing rules and regulations regarding the duties, responsibilities, and powers of the CAC, and naming a chair.

Matthew Tighe, who is the chief of staff for Assemblymember Tony Simone, was voted chair. The rest of the committee is comprised of:

• Angel Vasquez, deputy secretary for union relations picked by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
• Nabeela Malik, deputy director for the Department of City Planning selected by New York City Mayor Eric Adams
• Richard Gottfried, former West Side assemblymember tabbed by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal
• Madeleine McGrory, director of land use and planning for the Borough of Manhattan appointed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine
• Quentin Heilbroner, liaison to Manhattan Community Board 4 for New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher

The Avenir is one of three Manhattan-based proposals among the eight submitted to the New York State Gaming Commission. The CAC requires a two-thirds majority — four votes — to advance the applicant to the New York Gaming Facility Board by Sept. 30.

Should it fail to hold a vote by that date, the applicant is deemed rejected. The board would then make its selections for the licenses Dec. 1, which will then be followed by the commission license consideration before the end of the year.

History on the West Side

Dara McQuillan, head of marketing and communications for the Silverstein Organization, opened the proceedings for The Avenir’s pitch. He discussed the impact Silverstein Properties has had on New York City, which included rebuilding the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks and how that led to a philosophy of community.

McQuillan also discussed Silverstein’s history building the area on the West Side where The Avenir would be located. Owner Larry Silverstein bought the parcel of land between 11th and 12th Avenues in 1980, which gave rise to River Place in 2000 and Silver Towers in 2010. Those two buildings house 2,300 families and 4,000 people.

“These people are our most important customers,” McQuillan explained. “And this was one of the defining principles of this particular project. We did not want to do anything or propose anything that would impact negatively these people, because they’re our people — and by extension, everyone else in the community.”

Silverstein Properties then bought land on 11th Avenue where a Mercedes-Benz dealership was located in 2015. It excavated the land and performed a “brownfield cleanup,” which makes the land safe for redevelopment as part of potentially building more housing. But the idea of a casino came to mind because the proposed building point is adjacent to the Port Authority’s bus terminal ramp structure.

McQuillan said partners Rush Street and Greenwood Gaming “share the same values as us. Family-owned, privately owned, and very focused on the community.” He cited Rush Street co-founder Neil Bluhm’s ties to Manhattan, which included moving the Whitney Museum downtown in 2015.

He pointed out Greenwood Gaming, which operates Parx Casino in Philadelphia, “is very focused on giving back to the community, partnering with the community, and supporting a lot of organizations, which is exactly what this project is planning to do.”

Talking design and architecture

McQuillan gave way to Nancy Ruddy, co-founder of the CetraRuddy architecture and interior design firm. Wright described the area where The Avenir would be built as a “crossroads of diverse residential, industrial, commercial, and entertainment uses.”

She stated one of the goals of the project would be to connect the Javits Center, Times Square, Hell’s Kitchen, the theater district, and residential neighborhoods ,given how most of those areas would be within a 15-minute walk of The Avenir. The area would also have “great connectability” with 11 New York City subway lines within 10 minutes.

Regarding the structure itself, she explained the importance of the curvilinear forms of the 45-story tower that would be on top of the nine-story podium base adding to the Manhattan skyline.

“It’s really about creating an urbanistic approach to the project,” Wright said. “And the curvilinear form was developed based on sun studies and sightline studies and the idea of how you put up a very large building within a community.

“And so we wanted to create this elegant form that would allow view corridors from all different directions … to bring sunlight down onto the sidewalk because the design of the building cuts back at the street to create outdoor plazas.”

The hot-button issue of housing

Following Wright was Dino Fusco, CEO of Silverstein Properties. Fusco stressed the ongoing conversations the group was having with residents and Manhattan Community Board 4, and the consistent takeaway from those discussions was the need for more housing.

In late June, Silverstein Properties announced a collaboration with Metro Loft Developers to develop more than 2,000 apartments as part of The Avenir, contingent upon being awarded the casino license. It would also mark more than 500 of those units as “permanently affordable homes.” The plan works within Mayor Adams’ “City of Yes” project to convert office space into residential units.

Fusco added The Avenir will focus on filling the 4,000 union jobs and expected 5,000 permanent jobs for the hotel, food service court, restaurant, casino, and management office locally. He also discussed the extension of community-centered relations, which include giving a space for Rethink Food as well as allocating $1 million annually to be distributed at the community board’s discretion.

Rush Street chimes in

Tim Drehkoff, CEO of Rush Street Gaming, touted his company’s experience in building casinos with community ties. Rush Street operates casinos in large markets including Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Drehkoff pointed out Rush Street has never acquired a casino, but rather, “We’ve developed each of these properties from scratch, and each of these properties was the first casino that ever exists in that city or county, which is important.”

Drehkoff said Rush Street has the “unique specialized skill sets” for regional development while bringing a casino into an urban market. That includes prioritizing public safety on multiple levels, including what he calls “third-party personnel” in addition to neighborhood safety personnel and what he estimated to be 300 people hired internally for security purposes.

In backing Fusco’s call to fill the 5,000 permanent positions, Drehkoff talked of partnerships Rush Street has made with local colleges and universities in other cities as well as non-profit workforce programs. He also noted Rush Street drives business opportunities via local vendors, estimating $60 million in sales annually at their Pennsylvania and Illinois properties.

The CAC’s duties and responsibilities

Besides choosing whether to vote an applicant forward, the most important duty each Community Advisory Committee has is to hold at least two public hearings to solicit comment. That is in addition to reviewing public comments submitted on a project and voting to reflect the public support, or lack thereof.

A CAC can “solicit changes to a bearer’s application,” but there are limits to the changes that can be made. Additionally, any “promise, commitment, or obligation” a bearer makes to be contsidered in discussion with the committee must be “reduced to writing” prior to the Sep. 30 deadline. The committee has the power to request a bidder change or modify its application, but that also must be put in writing prior to the deadline.