Bronx Community Board 10 is set to review a proposed $160 million redesign of Ferry Point Park, a plan that would place new recreational facilities and waterfront improvements around Bally’s planned Bronx casino resort.
The board’s role is advisory. It will vote on whether to issue a letter supporting the design, while the city’s Public Design Commission is conducting a separate review. The park project is not expected to begin construction until 2028.
Gothamist reported that Hargreaves Jones developed the design after a community-engagement process. The proposal divides the work among five sites, with two facing Throggs Neck and three along the waterfront.
The inland portion would add tennis and pickleball courts, upgrade existing basketball courts and a baseball field, and provide shaded seating and landscaping. It would also shrink a detention basin to about one-fifth of its current size. The basin is required because the site is on a flood plain, although the designers said the existing one is larger than necessary.
Along the waterfront, the proposal calls for ground to be raised by as much as 10 feet above the flood line. It includes three soccer fields, an overlook, walking trails along and around the East River, and a playground featuring a 20-foot slide, splash pad and climbing structures. Ferry Point Park would remain an NYC Ferry port.
Some residents questioned both the sports mix and how visitors would reach the site. Ozzie Yon of Friends of Ferry Point Park said three soccer fields were excessive for the area. The nearest bus stop is nearly a 30-minute walk from the park and there is no nearby train stop.
Bally’s introduced a free East Bronx shuttle to the ferry landing in 2023, when the closest bus stop was more than a mile from the park entrance. The 20-passenger, wheelchair-accessible service connects Ferry Point Park with Throggs Neck and the Westchester Square subway stop, making 10 stops on an approximately 30-minute loop on weekdays.
The redesign accompanies Bally’s $4 billion integrated resort proposal on roughly 16 acres of parking lots and practice-green area at Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point. The company bought the golf-course property, formerly leased by the Trump Organization, for more than $150 million. New York City acquired the wider Ferry Point Park land in 1937.
Bally’s Bronx received one of New York’s three downstate casino licences in December, alongside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Metropolitan Park near Citi Field and Resorts World’s Aqueduct Racetrack expansion. The proposed resort would cover more than 3 million square feet, with a 500-room hotel, 3,500 gaming machines, 250 table games and a 2,000-person event center.
Bally’s application to the state committed $100 million for parkland improvements and at least $75 million for transportation upgrades, including two new MTA bus stops serving the project site and Ferry Point Park. The company projected nearly 9.3 million annual visitors once the resort stabilizes, including 8.2 million trips from outside the Bronx.
As we reported in September, Bally’s also secured $560 million in WhiteHawk Capital Partners financing to advance pre-construction planning for the proposed resort.
