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The Bronx is getting a new casino and a reimagined Ferry Point Park, too
By
Willow Higgins
Published Oct 14, 2026
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Courtesy of Hargreaves Jones
By
Willow Higgins
Published Oct 14, 2026
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Bronx community board members on Thursday will get to weigh in on Ferry Point Park's $160 million makeover, which includes new playgrounds, landscaping, athletic fields and more. Bally’s Bronx will sit in the middle of the new-and-improved amenities, as part of a massive redevelopment of the area.
The park improvements are just one piece of the promises Bally’s has made to the surrounding community as it pursues a $4 billion casino development, alongside a golf course previously leased by the Trump Organization. Bally’s has since bought the property for more than $150 million, gaining control of the sprawling area.
A glimpse of redevelopment plans for Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, where Bally's Corp. is siting a new casino.
Courtesy of Hargreaves Jones
The development represents a major change for a waterfront park that has served Bronx residents since the city acquired the land in 1937. While changes are afoot, the aptly named Ferry Point Park will remain a port for NYC Ferry.
Bronx Community Board 10 members, whose role is advisory, will weigh in on a face lift developed by landscape architecture and planning company Hargreaves Jones. The plans were presented to the board’s parks committee last week, where a Hargreaves Jones representative said the plans were drawn from Bronx residents during a community engagement period.
A glimpse of redevelopment plans for Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, where Bally's Corp. is siting a new casino.
Courtesy of Hargreaves Jones
Some community members have already raised concerns about a lack of public transit to the site from the Bronx and also about the mix of amenities.
The park would share its footprint with a gambling complex featuring a 3 million-square-foot resort, thousands of gaming machines and an event center that can hold 2,000 people. The project is billed as the largest private development in the borough’s history.
A glimpse of redevelopment plans for Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, where Bally's Corp. is siting a new casino.
Courtesy of Hargreaves Jones
“This park belongs to the community, and residents helped shape the vision for its redesign from day one,” Jessenia Aponte, the NYC Parks Bronx borough commissioner, said in a statement. “Their vision is being reflected in our design, especially their wish for a safe, welcoming place to connect with family and neighbors and have fun.”
Rendering of the Bally's Bronx casino at Ferry Point.
Rendering courtesy of Bally's Corporation.
Bally’s Bronx is one of three downstate casinos that the New York State Gaming Commission licensed in December. Last summer, Bally’s issued a statement to investors warning them of potential financial problems and raising questions about the project’s viability.
The company has since received substantial financing. In a statement, Soo Kim, the chair of Bally’s board and the majority stakeholder, said the project remains on schedule.
A glimpse of redevelopment plans for Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, where Bally's Corp. is siting a new casino.
Courtesy of Hargreaves Jones
The other two recently licensed casinos are both in Queens: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Metropolitan Park near Citi Field, which is in the early phases of construction, and Resorts World, an existing casino at Aqueduct Racetrack, where an expansion is underway.
What’s in the cards
Hargreaves Jones’ design includes five different development sites – two facing the Throgs Neck neighborhood, and the others along the waterfront.
The inland development sites include the addition of tennis and pickle ball courts, sprucing up the existing basketball courts and baseball field, adding shaded lounging areas and new landscaping.
A glimpse of redevelopment plans for Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, where Bally's Corp. is siting a new casino.
Courtesy of Hargreaves Jones
To make room for more open space, Hargreaves Jones proposes reducing an existing detention basin on the property to about a fifth of its current size.
Megan Esopenko, a landscape architect with the company who presented the proposal to the community board, said a detention basin is required because the property is on a flood plain, but is larger than it needs to be.
Some of the proposed improvements along the waterfront are less flashy, like raising the earth up to 10 feet so it's above the flood line, Esopenko said.
Other improvements include three new soccer fields, the addition of a scenic overlook, paved walking trails along and around the East River, and a playground that includes a 20-foot slide, a splash pad and climbing structures.
Esopenko said she hopes her design “becomes a destination park.”
Community concerns
One committee member last week raised concerns about the lack of public transit access from other areas of the Bronx to the park.
The nearest bus stop is nearly a 30-minute walk from the park, and there is no nearby train stop. In 2023, Bally’s announced a shuttle service that picks up passengers from various points in the neighborhood to the ferry landing, which committee members said may address the transit concerns.
Esopenko said that public transit to the park was outside of the scope of the landscaping company, as did representatives from the parks department.
Lucas Bejarano, an MTA spokesperson, said in response, “it is premature to evaluate demand for transportation to a facility that has yet to be built.”
Ozzie Yon, a liaison from the community group Friends of Ferry Point Park, said he would like to see the addition of a baseball field, which could act as a home field for nearby Herbert H. Lehman High School, which currently has none.
The lack of nearby home fields is taxing to students and their families, Yon said.
Baseball, he said, is more important to the community than soccer.
“Honestly, three soccer fields in this area is ridiculous,” Yon said at the community board meeting. “Very few people in this area utilize soccer fields.”
Esopenko and representatives from the parks department said that adding a new field would be a drastic change that would be too late in the process to accommodate.
Katerine Borrome, director of NYC Parks Bronx Borough Commissioners Office, said she wished this guidance could have come sooner in the process.
A Parks Department spokesperson said that they plan to move forward with the single baseball field currently proposed as the project is nearing the end of the design phase.
The community board will vote on whether it will provide a letter of support for the design. The city’s public design commission is also reviewing the proposal.
The next phase of the process includes developing contracts for the project, which will include drawings and additional specifics, the Parks Department said.
Esopenko said the park improvement project will not break ground until 2028.
Clarification: An earlier version of this story did not fully describe Hargreaves Jones’s work. The company specializes in landscape architecture and planning.
Tagged
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Willow Higgins
Willow Higgins covers changes in New York City neighborhoods for WNYC and Gothamist. She has previously reported on wrongful convictions, corruption in district attorney offices and Texas' child welfare system.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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