MGM casino to help revive blighted downtown

Mike Householder

Friday, July 30, 1999 | 11:59 a.m.

DETROIT -- Tony Petschler was so excited about the prospect of gambling that he showed up at the city's new casino early -- seven hours early.

Petschler, 54, a retiree from Dearborn, was the first of thousands of eager people who lined up for Thursday's opening of the Motor City's first temporary casino, the MGM Grand Detroit.

Joy Canton, 37, of Detroit was third in line. But her reason for showing up had little to do with gambling.

"I've never set foot inside a casino before," she said. "I want to see the grandeur of it all."

The $225 million casino, built in a renovated IRS building, brings 2,700 jobs and a projected 10,000 visitors a day to the city's blighted downtown.

The casino's opening is the latest in a string of revival projects in Detroit. Within four years, three permanent casinos are to be built on Detroit's riverfront.

The MGM Grand Detroit is near two sports stadiums under construction as well as other commercial development projects in a downtown area that had slid largely into ruin after the 1967 riots.

"Once all three temporary casinos are open, and you combine that with all the great restaurants in downtown, the stadiums opening up and the (office) project, I think the city is ready to ignite," MGM Grand Detroit President Lyn Baxter said.

Before the casino doors opened at 4:30 p.m., crowds stretched from a parking lot onto the street. One of the first players inside was Cenus McMillan, a Detroit retiree who showed up at the casino at 9:45 a.m. and had to be taken inside a little early because of the sweltering heat.

She immediately headed for the 25-cent slot machines.

What she saw inside -- an art deco interior meant to evoke a 1930s movie theater holding 2,370 slot machines and video poker games and 83 table games -- impressed her.

"It is gorgeous!" McMillan said. "I'm so glad they're finally opening up. I don't know what to do."

MGM officials said the casino can hold up to 5,700 patrons.

The temporary casinos are expected to create about 11,000 jobs -- as many as General Motors Corp. has in the city. Analysts say the three casinos should do well in Detroit, the largest U.S. city with casino gambling, and estimate the market at $1.5 billion a year -- just behind Las Vegas, Atlantic City, N.J., and Tunica, Miss.

The city has been seeking new businesses for decades; since the late 1950s, Detroit has lost nearly half its people. Suburban flight sped up after the 1967 riots.

Since the 1970s, investors have pitched casinos in Detroit, but voters turned down gambling four times from 1976 to 1988. Seventeen Indian casinos have opened since 1993, but the nearest was 2 1/2 hours from Detroit.

Then in 1994 Canada's Ontario province opened a casino in Windsor, a five-minute drive across the Detroit River, drawing throngs. Finally in 1996 city residents gave permission to open a casino in its own backyard.

Detroit's casinos are counting on gamblers like Peggy Jennings, who visits Casino Windsor three times a week, to take pride in their hometown casino offering.

"I'm going to spend my money in Detroit, where we all live," Jennings said. "Let 'em tax me."