At the end of the day even the megawatt star power of rapper Jay-Z and the storied preaching power of the the Reverend Al Sharpton was not enough for Caesars Palace. They have lost their US$5.4 billion bid for one of only three casino resort licenses available for New York City.
Caesars Entertainment, part of a troika, with SL Green Realty and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, hoping to re-develop 1515 Broadway as a casino resort, brought in the Rev. Sharpton as a desperate, last-minute, gambit to sway the citizen voters of the Community Advisory Committee (CAC), who had the say, naye or aye, to progress the proposal to the final planning stage.
The Caesars bid needed a clear two-thirds majority, four of the six available CAC votes, to see off competition from two other mooted Manhattan casinos, the Avenir and Freedom Plaza.
Final Countdown
But in the Final Vote meeting of the Caesars Palace Times Square CAC, which took place yesterday, Wednesday, September 17 at 10am EST in Suite 1001, 1560 Broadway, the prospect of even more visitor congestion, traffic, and a feared increase in street crime, proved to be the troika’s undoing.
The fact that the Caesars bid also omitted to feature a provision for local housing also counted against it.
Rev Sharpton’s typically sassy observation that: “Jay-Z is nobody’s token, he’s the token booth. If this casino is established, it will be the first time we will have an institution on Broadway that has diversity on an ownership level,” also fell on stony ground.
The cleric, who began religious life as a four-year-old Pentecostal preacher, and was then ordained a minister at the age of nine, has long been a polarizing figure in America’s social wars.
Many observers were surprised to hear that he was working his considerable charm and influence on behalf of an industry–our very own gambling industry–that has been likened to the “work of the Devil” by some of its many critics.
The US$5.4 billion (£3.95bn) Caesars gambit to build a casino resort in Times Square, in the heart of Broadway, New York City’s “Great White Way” theatre district, was one of eight final proposals vying for three casino resort licences that will bring legal fully-fledged retail betting to the Big Apple for the first time.
Other nominated Community Advisory Councils (CAC) in New York City have until the end of this month, September, to decide which bids they favour for their borough or district.
1515 Broadway, the site of the proposed new Caesars Palace, because of its iconic location in the heart of the city that never sleeps, was the jewel in the crown.
But despite the face of populist New York-born Jay-Z fronting the bid, powerful union and entertainment forces were adamantly opposed to a siting of a casino in their midst.
Disruption
Broadway’s storied theatre industry led the anti-Caesars charge.
They argued a casino would change “the unique character” of the theatre district.
Other anti-casino social activists said that construction would lead to major disruption – and that no provision has been made for much-needed local housing.
