Plans posted online, then pulled
As New York State gaming regulators weigh the pros and cons of 17 multimillion-dollar casino projects, would-be developers continue to tantalize their communities with promises of jobs, infrastructure improvements, and longstanding economic stability.
Last week, Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen toured the Capitol Region, where his company is hoping to develop a resort. “We’ve seen in some jurisdictions developers put up a rectangular building, add slots or VLTs or poker, and then you have something that is really just marketing only to the people living within five, 10, 15 miles,” Allen said. “Fundamentally that may work for some developers but our business model, and our brand, is much different.”
Hard Rock plans a $280 million development to be built in the city of Rensselaer, across from downtown Albany. That company will compete with four other proposals in the capitol region.
Three development projects?Tioga Downs, Traditions Resort and Casino, and Lago Resort and Casino?are vying for a license in the Southern Tier-Finger Lakes region. Tioga Downs owner Jeff Gural plans to convert the racino into a casino with 50 table games and 1,000 slot machines, according to the Corning Leader. He would also build a 136-room luxury hotel with five restaurants. A second phase would add an Adventure Center.
Traditions at the Glen Resort in the Binghamton area would add a 450,000-square-foot expansion to the existing hotel, along with a parking garage, casino floor, restaurants, and retail space. The owners, the Walsh family, has partnered with Seneca Gaming Corp., which runs casinos in Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Salamanca.
Lago Resort and Casino is proposed by real estate development company Wilmorite. It would be built on 84 acres in Tyre, Seneca County. Lago would have a casino, 208-room hotel, spa, pool, two nightclubs and several restaurants. It will “enhance the wine and food tourism industry of the Finger Lakes,” the application says, and create about 1,000 jobs.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the fight to watch is in the Catskills and Hudson Valley—especially Orange County. Nine applications were submitted for the region.
Last week Mohegan Sun at the Concord unveiled its proposed $550 million resort casino to New Yorkers living in the Catskill Mountains region. Mohegan Sun CEO and Sullivan County native Mitchell Etess last week detailed the $550 million project that would be built at the former Concord resort outside Monticello in Sullivan County. The heir to the well-known Grossinger’s tradition?which typifies the resort era the casinos promise to bring back?touted the economic opportunities such a resort would bring.
Empire Resorts, which owns the Monticello Casino and Raceway, and real-estate investment trust EPR Properties are planning to build a casino and resort in the Catskills town of Thompson. The partners have presented a three-tiered plan loaded with contingencies. Plan A is a $1.1 billion project on a 1,695-acre site. If a license is awarded in Northern Orange County, which is closer to New York City, they would build a $870 million resort. In the event a license is awarded in Southern Orange County, the fallback plan would be a $722 million casino resort.
“The location of a gaming facility in Southern Orange County will have a dramatic adverse impact on the team’s investment, gross revenues and overall economic benefits to Sullivan County,” the partners said in their application. “The vastly superior location of Southern Orange County will have a devastating effect on the drive-in market segment.”
In Orange County, Caesars Entertainment plans a $880 million casino resort on a 115-acre site in Woodbury. Caesars said it would pay $20 million to improve traffic in the region near Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.
Greenetrack, a bingo-parlor operator from Alabama, and casino operator Full House Resorts, have plans to build a casino and resort in New Windsor, near the Stewart International Airport. The team said it also would build a sports and aquatic center to serve the region and said it would rebuild the facilities for the New Windsor Police Academy.
Malaysian gambling company Genting Group has made two bids for casinos in Orange County, including one for a project valued at $1.5 billion for Tuxedo. The company said in its application that residents in the Catskills would be better employed at their site “than a smaller gaming facility in their ‘disadvantaged area’” that has struggled economically for years.
The proposed Nevele resort and casino in Ellenville say its proposed casino and resort would create 3,926 jobs directly and indirectly in New York by the time the project is operational. It is the only casino planned for Ulster County.
The planners behind a casino resort at Howe Caverns in Cobleskill say in their application for a state gaming license that their project is “unmatched” in its potential to quickly transform the region’s economy, reports the Oneonta Daily Star.
“There is no proposed gaming facility in the state that can be underway and built faster than ours,” said the application submitted on behalf of Michael Malik Sr., the Detroit-based developer behind Howe Caverns Resort and Casino LLC. The firm said it is planning to buy 110 of the 330 mountaintop acres near Howe Caverns. The proposed casino, according to the application, would include 1,200 to 1,500 slot machines and have 35 to 60 table games. The casino complex would also include a 254-room hotel, three full-service restaurants and convention/banquet facilities, along with a pool and spa.
A companion attraction would be a 55,000-square foot water-park, which would also feature a 250-room hotel, an arcade game park and three additional restaurants. The project would offer about 3,000 construction jobs 1,700 permanent jobs.
The New York State Gaming Commission posted the applications of the state’s casino bidders online July 31, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. But all applications were taken down the same day due to what the Gaming Commission called “tech issues.”
“We inadvertently put up some documents that were not intended to be released and then promptly took them down,” said Lee Park, spokesman for the Gaming Commission, in a statement. “We are working to resolve that and other technical issues.”
