New York begins public planning for Aqueduct Racetrack redevelopment after racing ends

The countdown to Aqueduct Racetrack’s last live races has become a redevelopment clock for southeast Queens. Before the final horses are sent away from South Ozone Park, New York has started a public planning process for the roughly 100-acre state-owned parcel, with the first workshop set for May 12 at John Adams High School and a virtual session to follow on May 14.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced the process on May 5, and Empire State Development is now steering the site planning on behalf of the New York State Franchise Oversight Board, which owns the land. The immediate question is not whether the track is ending, but what New York wants on one of the city’s most consequential pieces of racing real estate after the sport moves across the region.

The racing calendar gives the transition a hard stop. The New York Racing Association says Aqueduct’s final live-racing weekend will be June 27-28, 2026, with Sunday, June 28, as the last day of live racing. NYRA’s 2026 schedule still lists 196 live race days across Aqueduct, Saratoga Race Course and the new Belmont Park, but the Queens oval will soon give way to a different use.

That shift is tied directly to Belmont Park’s overhaul. Empire State Development says a $455 million upgrade at Belmont will allow year-round racing there, and the winter cards now run at Aqueduct will move permanently to Long Island. In the state’s larger plan, Belmont Park’s redevelopment is a $1.3 billion project that will bring a new home for the New York Islanders, a 350,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex and a hotel.

Aqueduct’s future matters because the site is bigger than a racetrack and more layered than a vacant parcel. NYRA says Aqueduct opened on September 27, 1894, and occupies 210 acres in Queens. The redevelopment area under review is about 100 acres, but the broader property includes the Aqueduct Racetrack station on the IND Rockaway Line and Resorts World New York City, which sits on Aqueduct land and adds another political and economic layer to any change.

The choices now taking shape will determine whether the property leans toward affordable housing, open space, retail or community facilities. They will also help define the long-term footprint of downstate racing. Belmont becomes the permanent cold-weather home, while Queens loses the track that anchored its racing identity for more than a century.

That shift has been looming for years. In 2024, State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. and Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato called Aqueduct a 172-acre state-owned property and raised concerns about uncertainty around development, a sign that the debate over the site’s fate was already well underway before the formal planning process began.