Montreign unveiled: A first look at Sullivans casino By Steve Israel Times Herald-Record December 20, 2014 - 9:29 PM What exactly is the Montreign Resort Casino at Adelaar – the 1,700-acre Sullivan County project that on Wednesday was chosen as the first - and only - casino in the Hudson Valley and Catskills? Who is the team behind it? Just where on the old Concord resort property outside Monticello will it be built? When could it open? A day after the state chose Montreign over eight other contenders in Sullivan, Ulster and Orange counties, the Times Herald-Record sat down with the team behind the $1.1 billion resort casino. Heres the first full look at the history-making project. What is it? The $630 million Montreign Resort Casino will feature an 80,000-square-foot casino with 61 table games and 2,150 slot machines. It will include a 391-room, 18-story hotel, several restaurants and an entertainment complex. It will be built by Empire Resorts. Adelaar is the 1,700-acre destination resort that will include Montreign as well as an indoor water park with a 350-room family lodge, an entertainment village with many restaurants and retail shops, the redesigned Monster golf course and areas for skiing, boating, hunting and paintball. The price tag for the entire project is $1.1 billion. Adelaar is Dutch for eagle. There is no meaning for Montreign, which was suggested by a marketing firm, as was Adelaar. Who are they? Montreign will be run by Empire Resorts, a gaming company that owns Monticello Casino and Raceway. Empire Resorts is a publicly traded company. Its stock trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol NYNY. Its CEO is Joe D’Amato, the former CEO of Mount Airy Resort and COO of the Seneca casino in western New York, who has also been an executive with Resorts International, Trump Entertainment and Bally’s Park Place. Manny Pearlman is chairman of the board of Empire. He is the founder and CEO of the Liberation Investment Group, an investment and financial consulting firm. He’s also been a consultant for Bally. Charlie Degliomini is executive vice president of Empire. He is a former deputy communications director for U.S. Sen. Alfonse DAmato, chief of staff of the U.S. General Services Administration, New York state communications director for Reagan-Bush 84 and senior vice president of an Internet lottery corporation. Empire’s largest stockholder is Kien Huat, a company owned by the family that owns Genting, the huge global casino company that sought to build casinos in Tuxedo and Montgomery. Adelaar is owned by EPR Properties, a Kansas City real estate investment trust with investments worth $3.5 billion. It is the largest owner of movie theater real estate in the world, including properties for chains such as AMC. It also owns Mount Snow in Vermont, Camelback in the Poconos and public charter schools throughout the country. EPR is leasing the land for the casino to Empire. EPR lent Concord land owner Louis Cappelli about $225 million for his original Concord project. After lawsuits in 2010 by both sides over what Cappelli owed, EPR ended up with about 1,700 acres of the Concord property. Cappelli teamed unsuccessfully with Mohegan Sun to seek a casino license on the 160 acres of the Concord he still owns. Where will it be built? On 1,700 acres of the site of the former Concord Resort in Kiamesha Lake, just outside Monticello in the Town of Thompson. Its borders will be Rockridge Drive and Concord Road to the west, Route 161 to the east, Kiamesha Lake Road to the north and Route 17 to the south. The primary access will be from Route 17 Exit 106, where a new traffic circle will be built near Route 17 West. Joyland Road will be bypassed. When will it open? According to the state, a casino must start its “gaming operations” within 24 months after its license is awarded. Since the state police must conduct background checks before the license is issued, the clock should started ticking within a few months. That means the casino should open in the early spring of 2017. Most of the elements of Montreign and Adelaar should open around the same time. What about Monticello Raceway, owned by Empire? It will not only stay open, said Empire Resorts Degliomini, it will be improved. “We plan on investing in the property and making it better,” he said, mentioning that the mostly deserted grandstand may be reconfigured. The more than 1,000 slot-like Video Lottery Terminals are run by the state, which regulates the racino, but has nothing to say about how the racino would be run now that Empire will be operating a casino a few miles away. The horsemen at the harness track have had a contentious relationship with the raceway, but just signed a two-year contract that includes a seven-year extension once Empire is granted a casino license. What economic benefits will the project provide? Up to $10.3 million per year will be split between the host county of Sullivan and the host Town of Thompson, according to state estimates. Another $10.3 million will be split between counties in the Hudson Valley/Catskills region that could have hosted a casino: Orange, Ulster, Dutchess, Delaware, Greene and Columbia. Montreign is expected to generate $82.7 million per year for statewide school and/or property tax relief, according to the state. The Montreign casino is expected to create 1,200 full-time and 96 part-time permanent jobs. The entire project is expected to create 2,160 full- and part-time jobs. Approximately 3,000 construction jobs would be created by the project. sisrael@th-record. m.recordonline/article/20141220/NEWS/141229917/101010/json
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 12:50:57 +0000
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