Giant Towering Casino Proposed for Coney Island

© The Coney

New York State's Gaming Commission is accepting proposals for three casino licenses that would allow full sized, Vegas-esque properties to be built in and around Manhattan. Viewed as an obvious gold mine by casino operators, several have already thrown their hat in the ring in an attempt to wow the Commission and snag a license.  One of those projects is The Coney, which would be a giant towering casino hotel located right in Coney Island, immediately adjacent to Luna Park and the Cyclone.

The project has a website located here where you can check out, but the concept art up top shows how the Coney Island skyline would look if the project is able to move forward.  Quite different than it currently looks, that's for sure.  The plan is a partnership between four entities:  the Chickasaw Nation Indian tribe, Thor Equities, Saratoga Casino Holdings and Legends.

© The Coney

Here is the 2nd piece of concept art released for the property, which will include "a casino, hotel, an acre of public park space, on-site parking, retail & restaurant space" and be built so that it is "catered to local Brooklyn and Coney Island businesses."  No more exact details are available but you'll note in both of the drawings that there is a roller coaster structure on the roof of part of the building.  Is that a planned real ride or just decoration?  Who knows!

© Google Maps

From news articles it sounds like The Coney has purchased (or has options on) 5 acres of land at Surf Ave and W. 12th Street, which just so happens to be immediatly next to Luna Park and behind Deno's and the Wonder Wheel.  If you enlarge the image above I highlighted some land that equals about 5 acres, it would include a lot of buildings back there and some go-karts and a mini-golf, too.  Hypothetically, at least, as an exact location hasn't been released.  It would be pretty wild to see a giant casino resort go up right next to the rides, that's for sure.  It would be interesting if that would make even more money flow into Luna Park and adjacent areas, or if the dynamic would slowly suffocate them.  No matter how hard Vegas tried they never found a way to make gaming family-friendly.

Sadly, or happily depending on your opinion, it isn't believed that this project has much of a chance at winning a casino license.  Of the three licenses two are expected to go to existing casinos around Manhattan, leaving only one as a new project.  There's some other very big operators going after a license - which by the way costs $500 million and requires another $500 million in investment!