Representatives of the Shinnecock Indian Nation presented a rough sketch of a proposal for a casino and hotel complex at the Belmont Raceway to civic groups from the Nassau County neighborhoods surrounding the famed horse racing venue this week, touting added jobs and revitalization of the facility as the benefits of their plan.
A hotel with between 400 and 600 rooms would adjoin a refurbished and modernized racetrack grandstand, and the new casino would be built on a 35- to 45-acre section of the racetrack grounds now used for parking. A tiered parking garage would also be built. The tribe has also pledged to renovate the Long Island Rail Road station near the track and will push for increased train service to the property, tribal leaders told the crowd of community leaders from Elmont, where the racetrack is located, on Friday.
The casino would create jobs, spur commercial enterprise in the area and revitalize the deteriorating racetrack, home to one of horse racing’s penultimate Triple Crown events, the Belmont Stakes, in addition to pumping potentially millions of dollars in tax revenue into local government and school district coffers, the tribal representatives told Elmont residents.
“They were very concerned about jobs,” Shinnecock Nation Gaming Authority Vice Chairman Phillip Brown said this week, noting that the audience on Friday was almost entirely community leaders, not elected officials. “Elmont has high foreclosure rates, close to 51 percent, so they are very interested in economic opportunities.”
The tribe has cast a wide net over the last two years in search of a venue for its first casino development, and tribal leaders have said that winning the support of the surrounding community will be a critical hurdle in the planning process. After Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano chose to pursue a publicly funded redevelopment of the sprawling Nassau Coliseum property, rather than an ambitious Shinnecock casino proposal that had been seen as among the most promising options, the tribe was encouraged by the county to pursue a project at Belmont.
The racetrack had been on the tribe’s short list of possible venues for at least two years. In 2007, the tribe released designs for a casino and hotel development at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Yonkers, but a bid to build the gaming facilities at the track was awarded to Malaysian casino developer Genting Behrad last year, before the Shinnecocks had received the federal recognition making them eligible to develop a casino.
Friday’s pitch was made by Mr. Brown and fellow Gaming Authority member Karen Hunter, Tribal Trustee Fred Bess, and Michael Malik, the Detroit-based casino developer who has been bankrolling the tribe’s long and costly legal and political battles to win the right to operate a casino, in exchange for a cut of its future proceeds. Mr. Malik’s company, Gateway Casino Resorts, has developed three Native American-owned casinos in Michigan and has been a leading player in the push to legalize gaming in states like California and Hawaii. His partner is Marian Ilitch, who founded the Little Caesars Pizza chain with her husband, Michael Ilitch, owner of the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings professional sports franchises. She also owns a controlling interest in another Detroit casino.
Mr. Brown acknowledged that the tribe still has a long row to hoe before it can hope to nail down plans for a casino at Belmont. Along with gaining support from the community and winning approvals from local governments and regulators, the tribe will have to negotiate a gaming compact with the state—likely requiring millions of dollars in annual contributions to education and government programs—before it could open a casino with slot machines and high-stakes gaming tables.
“There are a number of steps that have to be climbed still,” Mr. Brown said. “We have a lot of work with the community, with the county and with the state to come still.”
Since it opened in 1993, the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut has contributed more than $3 billion to that state’s government, primarily from slot machine revenue. In 2003, a gaming consulting company issued a report to the Shinnecocks that projected a casino on Long Island could be expected to outpace the mammoth Foxwoods and neighboring Mohegan Sun casinos within 10 years, possibly bringing in $1 billion a year in revenue.
As the Belmont push moves forward, the tribe is continuing to examine other options for casino developments as well, including several properties in Suffolk County. Last year, the tribe revealed that it has its sights set on developing as many as three casinos on the island, including what Mr. Brown called at the time “a high-class Monte Carlo-type” facility in eastern Suffolk County.
Mr. Brown said this week that the tribe is hoping to secure between 35 and 45 acres for its development at Belmont. But the tribe’s leaders have said they are looking for a very large property, something with hundreds of acres available for development of a sprawling complex of gaming, hotel and entertainment facilities.
The tribe has visited dozens of large parcels around the county, including the 750-acre Riverhead Resorts parcel on the former Northrop Grumman aircraft testing facility in Calverton, the 600-acre Brookhaven Calabro Airport, and the 250-acre Legacy Village parcel in Yaphank.
