by Chris Killian | Special to the Gazette
Saturday February 09, 2008, 6:32 PM
Two area gambling hubs could open by late next year, pending court ruling
Mark Bugnaski / GazetteKristine Albers checks new decks of cards at The Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo in August. By mid-to-late 2009, southwest Michigan could have two more casinos.
Two Native American casinos could be open in Southwest Michigan by the middle to end of next year, bringing with them an estimated 3,000 casino jobs, another 2,600 spin-off jobs and the potential for millions of dollars in annual local-revenue sharing. They would become the 22nd and 23rd casinos in the state, and both would be within an hour’s drive of Kalamazoo.Ground could be broken as soon as this spring on both the FireKeepers Casino in Emmett Township, just east of Battle Creek, and the Gun Lake Casino, in Wayland Township, about 35 miles north of Kalamazoo on U.S. 131.
Both projects have faced legal challenges for several years, significantly delaying their progress. The proposed casino near Battle Creek has cleared those hurdles, while a court ruling is expected soon on the Gun Lake Casino.
The Four Winds Casino Resort, in New Buffalo Township, about 70 miles west of Kalamazoo on I-94, opened Aug. 2, becoming the first casino to open in Michigan since the Greektown Casino opened in Detroit in 2000, and is doing well, according to casino officials.
Author and gaming expert John Gollehon, of Grand Rapids, said this is an exciting time for area gaming enthusiasts.
“I rarely find a market with too many casinos,” he said. “There is plenty of room for growth here and plenty of players. Everyone is going to benefit.”
FireKeepers Casino
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FireKeepers Casino |
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Tribe: Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians. |
Rising from what is now a flat, barren cornfield in Calhoun County’s Emmett Township, FireKeepers Casino will soon be the second casino in Southwest Michigan.
Cleared of legal challenges after the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., in July threw out a lawsuit filed by Citizens Exposing Truth About Casinos — a group that had been fighting the casino since 2002 — the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians is looking forward to getting to work.Designs will soon be completed on the 230,000-square-foot, $270 million FireKeepers Casino, which will be managed by Las Vegas-based Full House Resorts Inc. Construction could begin this spring, with the casino estimated to open in mid-2009.
“This is going to be a real economic boost for the Calhoun County area,” said Donna Halinski, spokesperson for the tribe. “Right now we need jobs and economic development, and this project will bring that. This is going to be a wonderful addition to the area.”
The tribe estimates that the casino, which will require patrons to be at least 21 years old to play, will attract about 3.8 million visitors per year from all over the state and generate an expected $100 million to $125 million annually.
The tribe’s revenue-sharing obligations to the state and local municipalities will be met, Halinski said.
Halinski said she didn’t know what level of compensation would be offered to the casino’s estimated 1,200 employees, saying only that “all we can say at this point is that it will be competitive within the industry and market.” (The average wage for employees at the Gun Lake Casino is to be about $40,000, which includes benefits.)
Laura Spurr, the Nottawaseppi chairwoman and owner of the 79 acres of land where the casino is to be built, said the tribe can’t wait to get the project underway.
“The tribe is eager to provide this economic stimulus to the county,” she said. “We’re really looking forward to getting started.”
Revenues will go toward housing, health care, education and other social services for the 800-member Fulton-based tribe.
“It’s important that we do our best to maintain our culture,” Spurr said. “This revenue helps us do that.”
Gun Lake Casino
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Gun Lake Casino |
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Tribe: Gun Lake Match-E-Be-Nash-E-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians.Location: Northeast corner of U.S. 131 and 129th Street at U.S. 131’s Bradley exit in Allegan County’s Wayland Township.Status: Final appeal by opponents is before a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.Opposition: Michigan Gambling Opponents.Acres: 147.Cost: $200 million.Casino building: 194,000 square feet.Gaming features: 2,500 slot machines, 80 gaming tables.Other attractions: Three full-service restaurants, a small live-entertainment venue and bar areas. Jobs: 3,100 projected, with 1,800 at casino complex and the rest spin-off jobs in the community. |
In 2000, when plans were first announced by the Gun Lake Match-E-Be-Nash-E-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians to open a casino, tribe members had no idea it would take nearly eight years for the plans to come to bear.Much like the Huron Band of Potawatomi, the Gun Lake Band has faced casino opponents who have mounted several legal challenges that have delayed the project.
But now it could be only a matter of days before a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., makes a ruling on an appeal by Michigan Gambling Opponents (MichGO), which sought to further delay the casino, according to Eric Bush, manager of the Michigan Gaming Control Board‘s Tribal Gaming Division.
“We’re hopeful and anxiously awaiting approval,” said James Nye, spokesman for the tribe. “We are anticipating a favorable ruling.”
Mark Bugnaski / GazetteThe former Amturf/Ampro building is the site where the Gun Lake Match-E-Be-Nash-E-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians hope to build their casino next year. The site is at the northeast corner of U.S. 131 and 129th Street in Allegan County’s Wayland Township.
Todd Boorsma, president of MichGO, said that a decision in favor of the tribe will not stop his group from trying again, this time with the U.S. Supreme Court, the group’s last legal option.”We will appeal to the highest-level court,” Boorsma said. “The longer we can hold them off, the better opportunity we have to stop (the casino).”
But Nye said the tribe is not worried about any further lawsuits and will begin construction soon after the appeals court makes its ruling, provided it’s in favor of the tribe.
“Everything’s in place, from the designs to the blueprints,” Nye said. “We’re ready to go.”
“Tribal gaming is a proven economic tool,” said D.K. Sprague, chairman of the tribe. “It has created thousands of good-paying jobs and produced positive economic growth across the state. We are eager to provide those same benefits here in West Michigan.”
Nye said the $200 million Gun Lake Casino, to be built on the foundation of the defunct Ampro Industrials fertilizer plant, will take 14 to 16 months to construct. Las Vegas-based Station Casinos will manage the facility, which is expected to employ 1,800 people.
The casino is expected to draw about 3.1 million visitors annually people from places such Grand Rapids, Holland, Lansing and Kalamazoo and to generate about $150 million annually after its first full year of operation, Nye said.
The tribe is waiting on the State Senate to approve their gaming compact with the state, which has already been signed off on by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the State House of Representatives.
At full operation, the tribe will give about $3 million to local government agencies or organizations and about $15 million to the state if the compact is approved by the senate.
If the compact is not approved by the senate, then the casino will not have to share its revenues, something the tribe wants to do.
“The tribe wants the compact approved by the senate in order to benefit the state, local entities, as well as the tribe itself,” Nye said. “We want to be good stewards.”
Like the Huron Band, the Gun Lake Band also will use part of its annual revenue to pay for social services for tribe members as well as programs that seek to keep the tribal culture alive.
Four Winds Casino Resort
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Four Winds Casino Resort |
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Tribe: Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.Location: North of M-239 and east of 1-94’s Exit 1 in Berrien County’s New Buffalo Township.Status: Opened Aug. 2.Acres: 675.Cost: $400 million.Casino building: 130,000 square feet.Gaming features: 100 gaming tables, more than 3,000 slot machines.Other attractions: Six restaurants, gift shop featuring tribal goods.Jobs: More than 2,000 at the casino complex. |
If the success that’s been seen at the Four Winds Casino Resort over the past several months is any sign of how well casinos can do in Southwest Michigan, then FireKeepers and Gun Lake should be able to hit the ground running as soon as they open.”Overall, we are very happy with the casino’s performance,” said David Gutierrez, spokesman for Four Winds. “Beyond that, we can’t really go into it further.”
Gutierrez would not disclose how much business the casino has done over the past seven months, saying that “it’s in the best interest of the casino not to make that information public. It is what it is.”
Tom Shields, spokesman for the 3,000-member Dowagiac-based Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, which owns the casino, said the tribe is expecting to give $4 million to $5 million annually in local revenue sharing, or 2 percent of its yearly revenue, as required by the state. According to those numbers, Four Winds would have to take in $200 million to $250 million annually.
Currently the tribe is putting into escrowits local revenue-sharing funds, since there are problems with the way the Local Revenue Sharing Board — which includes Berrien County, New Buffalo Township and the New Buffalo School District — was set up.
The tribe is also holding its 8 percent revenue-sharing payment to the state in escrow, pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed in 2005 against the state by the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians and Little River Band of Ottawa Indians.
The tribe is expecting its 8 percent payment to be about $20 million annually, Shields said.
The bands that filed the lawsuit allege that the Michigan Lottery’s Club Keno game — popular in bars and restaurants — violates their gaming compacts with the state, which provides exclusivity clauses limiting “electronic games of chance” or “commercial casino games” to Michigan’s Indian casinos and the three Detroit casinos and that Club Keno is a commercial casino game.
Four Winds, managed by Lakes Entertainment Inc. of Minneapolis, employs more than 2,000 people and has become the area’s second largest employer, behind Whirlpool Corp.
Four Winds officials have not said how much their employees make, stating that wages are competitive with what the two other casinos will be offering.
The prospect of two more large casinos in this corner of the state does not worry the Pokagon Band, Shields said. There will be plenty of business for all the casinos, he said.
“That’s why you do marketing work before you start construction — to make sure you can be competitive,” he said. “Having all these casinos is a good thing.”
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/casinos_close_to_cashing_in.html
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