MGM frustrated by delays and opposition in Detroit

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 1998 | 11:27 a.m.

"If it weren't for the integrity and commitment of Mayor (Dennis) Archer to the renaissance of Detroit, we would have walked away a long time ago," said MGM Grand President Alex Yemenidjian.

But he believes the casino will eventually open.

"We are making an $800-million bet -- not on today's Detroit, but on the Detroit that we conceive of in our mind's eye five years from now," Yemenidjian told the Detroit Free Press last week.

After Archer picked MGM Grand and two other casino licensees last November, there was a citywide vote on whether to affirm those choices. Now, an association demanding that blacks have a bigger stake in Detroit's casinos is characterizing MGM Grand as white outsiders whose local black partners are tokens.

The Community Coalition used a petition drive to temporarily nullify the rezoning for the company's temporary casino site downtown. All three casino groups plan to open temporary gaming houses while building permanent complexes.

Yemenidjian told the Free Press that the coalition doesn't understand MGM's plans. Many of the company's 3,000 employees will be Detroiters, and it will create a $50-million development fund for businesses owned by women and minorities, he said during an interview with the newspaper last week.

"I think if they really understood what MGM Grand is doing to empower minorities, they would be ashamed of their actions," he said.

"The Community Coalition is very misinformed," Yemenidjian said. "Nobody else in Detroit who is building a casino -- and certainly nobody else who ever proposed to build a casino -- ever proposed anything close to the commitment MGM Grand is making to minority empowerment."

He also questioned whether the MGM Grand opponents represent the community, saying "the Community Coalition is totally a misnomer for a few renegades that are basically frustrating a process that is going to result in jobs and opportunities for a lot for people."

Coalition president Ernest Johnson said MGM Grand's 10 Detroit partners, eight of whom are black, won't own a portion of the casino, unlike partners in the Atwater-Circus Circus and the Greektown-Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians development groups.

"Half of their black partners don't live in the city," Johnson said. "They are window dressing. They don't reflect the community. They have no decision-making power. And MGM has rebuffed all attempts to talk to them."

Yemenidjian said MGM Grand Detroit will have a local board of directors to provide input on "key decisions," including how to allocate the $50-million business development fund. Five of the nine board members will be black, he said.

Before any of the casinos can open, the Michigan Gaming Control Board must complete background investigations of the developers. The investigations are expected to last several more months.

A statewide proposal passed in 1996 authorized three Detroit casinos.