The Citi Field parking lot is starting to look less like a sea of asphalt and more like a construction zone, as heavy machinery tears up curbs and clears stretches of pavement in Flushing. It is all early prep work for Metropolitan Park, the planned $8 billion casino and entertainment complex backed by Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International. Developers are careful to call what is happening "site preparation," not a formal groundbreaking, but crews have been working on portions of the lot west of the ballpark. Fans and neighbors should expect to see more staging areas, equipment and construction signage around Citi Field in the coming weeks.
As reported by the Queens Daily Eagle, crews began work earlier this month on the more than 50 acre, city owned parcel that now serves as stadium parking, including "breaking up some existing curbs" and clearing pavement. Metropolitan Park spokesman Karl Rickett told the paper that "preparation for construction is now underway" and declined to give a specific date for when full scale construction would begin.
What Metropolitan Park Will Include
Hard Rock and the development team say Metropolitan Park is set to feature 5,000 slot machines, 375 table games and 30 poker tables, along with a hotel, a roughly 5,650 seat live music venue and a "Taste of Queens" food hall. In a press release via PR Newswire, Hard Rock also highlighted plans for 25 acres of public open space, a Queens first hiring program and more than $1.75 billion in community benefits and infrastructure investments.
Parking And Transit Questions
Parking and traffic have been the sore spots for this project through years of public hearings, with local residents repeatedly pressing developers on what game day chaos might look like once casino crowds are added to Mets fans. The Queens Daily Eagle noted that parking concerns nearly sank the proposal late last year. The current plan calls for a handful of above ground garages and several levels of underground parking, even as the MTA has yet to sign off on the promised overhaul of the Mets Willets Point 7 line station.
Legal status
The project hit a legal snag in mid November when the United States Tennis Association sought a temporary restraining order over lease terms and parking protections tied to its own operations nearby. News outlets reported that the sides later negotiated language to preserve the USTA's "superiority" rights so lease talks could move forward. Casinos.com reported that the dispute pushed city officials to scrutinize lease terms more closely even as state regulators continued to move toward awarding gaming licenses.
Timeline And What Comes Next
Public filings and coverage indicate a multi year build with a target opening sometime in the 2030 window, according to Wikipedia. The state gaming board formally approved the Metropolitan Park site late last year. Major League Baseball's schedule has the Mets home opener at Citi Field set for March 26, 2026, which means these early prep activities could overlap with regular season home games this spring; that opener is listed by NBC Sports.
What To Watch
Developers say they will coordinate closely with the Mets and city agencies to limit disruptions as the site transitions from parking lot to construction zone, and they continue to tout jobs and new public park space as part of the overall tradeoff. Project materials emphasize community benefits and infrastructure commitments, while the finer grain details that neighbors care about, including traffic management plans and the schedule for heavier construction phases, are expected to surface in upcoming permit filings and community briefings. For now, the clearest sign of what is coming is the sound of jackhammers where tailgates used to be.
