Backer for Michigan theme park has past of plans that never materialized

Tuesday, March 14, 2000 | 8:55 a.m.

Now under a new name, Sungold Entertainment also has gone through various management changes, and regulators have questioned its stock trading, The Monroe Evening News reported Monday.

Sungold, formerly Sungold Gaming, once planned to build two South Korea casinos before the troubled Korean economy scuttled the ventures, said Kim N. Hart, the company's president.

In 1993, the company announced plans for casino projects on American Indian reservations in Arizona, Nevada and British Columbia, but those projects for various reasons fizzled.

Hart said the company still is pursuing plans to develop a $160-million thoroughbred horseracing complex in British Columbia, though that project has hit some land-use obstacles.

For the project proposed here between Interstate 75 and Toledo Beach Marina, Sungold has options to buy about 142 acres of vacant land owned by Toledo Beach Investments and has commissioned International Theme Park Services Inc. to do a feasibility study.

Hart has said the study, expected to be completed in April, will analyze the market in terms of tourism and attendance levels, revenue projections and estimated rate of return, as well as the overall theme and land-use plan for a mixed-used entertainment complex.

Sungold has an option to buy 70 acres near Toledo Beach by June 1 for $692,953 and an additional 172 acres by June 30, 2001, for about $1.4 million.

Since 1994, Sungold had been working with the Gun Lake Band of Pottawatamis to get federal recognition for the tribe and establish an Indian casino on land near the marina, which Sungold would develop and manage.

The idea was for the Gun Lake Band to declare some 70 acres as its initial reservation, then apply to the state for a casino-gaming compact. But the deal fell apart, and Sungold is suing the Gun Lake Band in Eaton County Circuit Court for more than $447.8 million in damages.

Sungold had been known as Sungold Gaming until about two weeks ago, when it changed its name to reflect its new focus on developing entertainment complexes, Hart said.