ALBANY—Wilmorite, the Rochester-based real estate company, will unveil redesigned plans today for a $425 million destination casino-resort in the town of Tyre in the state’s Finger Lakes region.
The casino's developer, Tom Wilmot, will also get new partners and the facility will get a new name—changing from the Wilmot Casino and Resort to “Lago Resort and Casino.” Lago is the Italian word for lake.
The new plans also change the project’s design from its earlier version, and increase the projected cost by about $75 million from earlier estimates of about $350 million. The developer said those changes, which would lower the hotel’s height and its parking garage and move the facility further from surrounding agricultural and personal property, were made in response to concerns from residents and officials in the surrounding community.
“Once we met Tom [Wilmot] and we understood a little bit more about the community, we wanted to create a destination resort that’s a little more in touch with the culture and the architecture of the Finger Lakes area,” said Jonathan Swain, the principal of JNB Gaming, the company partnering with Wilmorite on the project that will serve as the casino’s manager.
Some of the casino’s buildings have had their designs altered and profiles lowered to blend in better with the area and address concerns from area lawmakers.
The casino-resort complex will feature a performance theater called the Vine, and a “regional platform” for area vendors, wineries and breweries, called Flavor New York. The updated design adds a new restaurant, a spa and a pool.
Wilmorite is also adding Peninsula Pacific as an equity partner in the proposal, Wilmot told Capital. Both Peninsula Pacific and JNB Gaming are made up of former executives of Peninsula Gaming, an Iowa-based casino company with properties in Iowa, Louisiana and Kansas. The company was bought by rival Boyd Gaming in 2012, for $1.45 billion.
Wilmorite estimates the new Lago Resort & Casino project will result in the creation of 1,800 permanent jobs, as well as 2,100 temporary construction jobs, and said if the project is granted a license by the state in October of 2014, the facility would be ready to open by January of 2016.
The newly re-branded Lago Resort & Casino is competing with two other bids in the Southern Tier region—the Tioga Downs Casino (owned by Jeff Gural) and the $150 million proposed Traditions Resort and Casino in the town of Union in Broome County.
Brent Stevens, the C.E.O. of Peninsula Pacific, said the joint Wilmorite-Peninsula Pacific bid enhances the proposed casino’s chances of being selected by the state this fall, as one of four casinos allowed under state law.
“We’re very optimistic,” Stevens said.
The casino has encountered some opposition in Tyre, a town of about 900 people. A group opposing Wilmorite’s casino plans that included some of the town’s Mennonite and Amish population, who abstain from voting as part of their culture, filed a lawsuit against the town and the developer protesting the casino’s plans. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
“We know the elected officials very much are in favor of the design changes,” Swain said, when asked if the redesigned casino and resort would placate the neighbors opposed to the casino's plans. Wilmorite, JNB Gaming and Peninsula Pacific representatives are planning to present the new design to people in Tyre at a meeting today.
“As far as individual neighbors, we believe the opposition was basically about ten families. They will be looking at it for the first time tomorrow,” Swain said on Tuesday.
The project still has some detractors. Officials in the town of Tyre and Seneca County have issued statements backing the casino, but the Onondaga County Legislature pulled a resolution of support for the project earlier this month, amid community opposition.
But Wilmot and his partners said the development has satisfied the state’s requirements that proposals demonstrate community support as part of their final application to the state’s Gaming Commission.
Casinos must submit their final plans for casinos to the state by a June 30th deadline. Sometime this fall, the state will select as many as four casino plans for development, in three different regions of the state. State officials had received 18 different initial applications by June 12, but developers can withdraw and still recoup a $1 million application fee if they withdraw by the June 30 deadline.
MORE: previous
MORE IN ALBANY
nextAROUND THE WEB
MORE FROM CAPITAL
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|