Posted on: November 17, 2025, 08:24h.
Last updated on: November 17, 2025, 08:24h.
- A New York judge has granted a temporary restraining order against Steve Cohen’s casino plan in Queens
- The injunction could prevent the bid from being greenlit next month
The odds of billionaire Steve Cohen’s $8 billion casino resort bid being greenlit suffered a major setback late last week after a Manhattan Supreme Court judge granted a temporary restraining order halting the project.
Cohen, the hedge fund tycoon who owns the New York Mets and Citi Field Ballpark in Queens, wants to transform Willets Point into a sports, hospitality, and entertainment mecca called Metropolitan Park.
Cohen, with the support of the city, plans to redevelop the 50-acre parking lot next to his Mets ballpark into a casino resort with 1,000 hotel rooms and a gaming floor with 5,000 slot machines, 400 table games, and a sportsbook. The bid includes 18 restaurants and bars, an indoor pool, spa, and fitness complex, 20K square feet of retail shopping, almost 100K square feet of convention facilities, three parking garages, and 25 acres of public green space.
The bid was conditioned on New York City, which owns the 50-acre parking lot and leases its use to both Citi Field and the nearby USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home to Arthur Ashe Stadium and the US Open, approving the redevelopment. The United States Tennis Association says the city, should it execute an agreement with Cohen and its development partner, Hard Rock International, would be violating its more than four-decade-long lease agreement to utilize the parking lot.
The Metropolitan Park website has the tagline, “Let’s turn a parking lot into a park.”
Judge Sides With USTA
In court documents filed in Manhattan’s Supreme Court, attorneys with the USTA successfully asked for a temporary restraining order that prevents the City of New York from signing off on the 50-acre parking lot being redeveloped by Cohen. Justice Nancy Bannon agreed the complaint had merit to proceed, and ordered the city not to sign any agreement with Cohen and Hard Rock, operating jointly as Queens Futures, until the case is resolved.
Executing or otherwise entering into any agreement between the City and Queens Future or its subsidiaries or related entities pertaining to Metropolitan Park unless and until the City establishes that such agreements comply with USTA’s rights and the City’s obligations under the USTA-City Lease, as those rights and obligations are determined by the Court pending resolution of this action,” Bannon wrote.
The USTA hosts the US Open, the most popular and attended tennis tournament hosted on US soil, at the Billie Jean King complex. The Grand Slam event attracted over 1.1 million spectators this past August and September.
Parking Details Light
The New York Gaming Facility Location Board is set to render its downstate New York casino license winners by Dec. 1. Metropolitan Park was viewed as a favorite before the USTA suit.
The USTA claims the city has refused to hear its repeated calls to discuss the casino project and how it might violate its parking lot lease. City officials did not respond to media requests for comment. A spokesperson for Metropolitan Park said the developers were reviewing the lawsuit. Queens Future is not named as a defendant in the matter.
While the Metropolitan Park blueprint shows three parking garages, nowhere in the application materials are the number of spaces specified. The New York Gaming Facility Location Board did not immediately respond to Casino.org’s request for comment on the litigation.
