Other contenders continue road shows
New York’s five-member casino siting panel has disqualified one of 17 applicants to build a Class III casino upstate.
The application from the Florida Acquisition Corp. failed to meet “threshold requirements,” said Rob Williams, director of the New York Gaming Commission.
Florida Acquisition is a partnership of Clairvest and Great Canadian Gaming. The partners wanted to develop a $250 million casino in the city of Amsterdam and the town of Florida, both in Montgomery County. The project promised 450 construction jobs, 850 permanent jobs, and $11.4 million annually in gaming taxes.
The Gaming Facility Location Board cited about 80 unanswered questions on the project application as one reason for disqualifying the bid. According to the Albany Times-Union, county officials tried to persuade the panel to reconsider, citing an unemployment rate of 7 percent in the region and an economy on the decline.
Florida Acquisition sought unusual concessions from the siting board, including a 60-day extension to complete their proposal, which like the others was due June 30. The partners also conceded they could not immediately come up with the $50 million licensing fee. When they heard the board members were looking to oust them from the process, the partners scurried to explain, and to plead.
Clairvest CEO Jeff Parr traveled from Toronto to make his case to the board. Chairman Kevin Law would not accept comment from Parr, but let Amsterdam Mayor Ann Thane speak. Thane called the Clairvest project “the first glimmer of hope” in years for an “impoverished” community. “We are really in a tough spot,” Thane said. “We would ask this commission to reconsider. Please.”
But panel member William C. Thompson Jr. said it would be unfair to other communities and bidders to change the rules. “We’d undermine the entire process if we do that,” he said.
With Amsterdam out of the running, four other applicants have Capital Region proposals, in Schenectady, Rensselaer, East Greenbush and Howes Cave. Another 12 proposals have been made for sites in the Hudson Valley/Catskills area and the Southern Tier. And all of them continue to roll out details of the projects for their would-be host communities.
Officials from Mohegan Sun, who want to build a casino resort at the old Concord Hotel in Sullivan County, recently presented a detailed proposal to the members of its community in the town of Thompson, in the Catskills.
“Take a beautiful location like Sullivan County and a great brand like Mohegan Sun and you put it together?it’s a great recipe,” said Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority CEO Mitchell Etess. The Catskills could get two of the four casino licenses when the board makes its decision this fall.
One developer has stepped down as head of a casino project. Michael Treanor of Nevele Resorts withdrew last week as head of the proposed $640 million Ulster County project. He will be replaced by Angelique Brunner, a Washington D.C.-based investor.
Before his departure, Treanor said recent announcements of closures in Atlantic City “have just highlighted the fact that gaming properties are not cash cows. They are not necessarily printing money at casinos. So as the financing community looks at the Nevele project they look at it as just a business.”
According to the Kingston Daily Freeman, Treanor proposed a five-year period with a tax freeze at about 1 percent of full property value in exchange for the benefits a casino will bring during a downturn in the casino business. He said the $480 million project would pay $99 million in taxes and fees to the state the first year of operations, with the state then giving about $9.8 million to Ulster County and $5.2 million to Wawarsing.
“That’s a tax that no other business in the state of New York has to pay except the casinos,” Treanor said. “So when the papers print that the Nevele’s looking for $100 million worth of tax breaks, it’s over 15 years, it needs to be looked at in the perspective of we’re also paying $100 million in taxes through a gaming tax.”
Treanor stepped down for the second time amid allegations he assaulted a family member. In 2007, he reportedly pleaded guilty in 2007 to a third-degree misdemeanor assault involving his sister.
Meanwhile, the horse industry is looking at Class III casinos as a potent threat. “It’s probably going to have at least a significant impact,” said Chris Wittstruck, a thoroughbred owner. “The more expanded gaming you have the less opportunity the horse racing industry has for growth. There’s a finite number of gambling dollars.”
New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association President Rick Violette echoed that sentiment. “You have to be concerned,” he told the Saratogian. “Competition is competition. If you’re not concerned about it, you’re in a coma.”
