Bally’s is running out of time to take over Trump Links in the Bronx in order to bid for a prized casino license at the site, The Post has learned.
While Bally’s has reached a deal with the Trump Organization to take over the public golf course next to the Whitestone Bridge, it can’t get the New York City Parks Department to move fast enough to approve the license transfer, sources said.
A Trump Links license transfer will require a roughly 40-day New York City approval process.
Casino bids will be due in about six weeks, sources said.
The Trump Organization has the license for the next 12 years and has agreed to transfer 17 acres at the site and the license to Bally’s.
However, Bally’s needs the rights to operate the site for 70 years to get a state casino license.
The Parks Department has said it has never given that type of long-term license, sources close to the talks said.
On Monday, a spokesperson for the Parks Department said: “Upon receipt of any assignment proposal, Parks follows our standard procedure to vet the proposal to determine whether it is in the City’s best interest and should be approved.”
The Parks Department confirmed that the concession at Ferry Point is not a lease, it is a license agreement to operate a public golf course — very different from leases that the city has entered into.
In a setback for Bally’s, the agency said any “non-parks” use of dedicated parkland would also require state legislation — putting the casino operator in the same predicament that Mets owner Steve Cohen finds himself in.
Cohen seemingly struck out on his plan to build a casino and entertainment complex on the lots next to Citi Field after State Sen. Jessica Ramos — who represents the communities around ballpark — temporarily blocked the proposal, as the Post reported,
Soo Kim, the head of Bally’s, has contended that getting the longer lease deal from Parks is no different than when the city offers long-term leases to sports teams like the Mets or Rangers to operate their venues, sources said.
The impasse comes despite the city wanting to rid the Trump name from the Bronx site, sources said.
Bally’s declined comment.
The state will issue three New York City-area casino licenses that allow table games, with one expected to go to the wildly successful Resorts World in Queens and another to Empire City in Yonkers.
Meanwhile, the Nassau County Legislature will vote tonight to give Las Vegas Sands Corp. a lease to operate a casino at the old Nassau Coliseum grounds, if the state awards a license.
Related Companies also is working with Wynn Resorts on a license to build a Hudson Yards casino. Others seeking a casino license include groups that want to bring gambling to Coney Island, Times Square and atop Saks Fifth Avenue.
Cohen, who was seen by many as the favorite for the license until Ramos stepped in, needs a bill approved by the state Legislature in Albany in order to start a commercial venture in the lots around Citi Field.
Bally’s, which owns casinos in other big cities including Chicago, has a Plan B if Trump Links fails.
It is also working on a relatively small 9-acre site at Willets Point just a short distance from Citi Field.
That site is not on state land, unlike the Citi Field parking lots, so won’t need to necessarily go through Ramos, though it will need local political support, sources said.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
