Park Place commits to 2,000-room resort in New York

Monday, May 1, 2000 | 4:15 a.m.

Park Place Entertainment Corp. on Monday announced the acquisition of a 50-acre land parcel in the Catskills region of New York state -- land the Las Vegas company said will be used for the construction of a massive new hotel-casino.

The Catskills are just 90 miles from New York City, from which casinos in Connecticut and Atlantic City draw a lot of gamblers.

The price Park Place will pay for the site, purchased from Kutsher's Resort Hotel and Country Club, was not immediately available. Nor was the planned cost of the 2,000-room gaming resort Park Place plans to build on the land parcel for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council.

Park Place will manage this property for an initial term of seven years. Park Place also received an option to acquire the entire Kutsher's resort, which spans 1,400 acres.

"Since announcing our relationship with the St. Regis Mohawks last week, there has been much speculation about whether Park Place would actually build a casino in the Catskills," said Park Place Chief Executive Arthur Goldberg. "Today's announcement should put an end to that speculation."

The Mohawk tribe pulled out of plans to partner with the Catskill Development Group to enter into the Park Place pact. This agreement had called for the construction of a casino on 30 acres in Monticello, N.Y. Upon hearing of the Park Place deal, the developers claimed Park Place had no plans to develop a Catskills casino, and was only trying to protect its interests in Atlantic City.

However, Goldberg was adamant the new resort would not be harmful to Park Place properties in nearby Atlantic City.

"Park Place is committed to quickly building a world-class casino-resort that will complement and providing co-marketing opportunities for our other casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Mississippi and throughout the world," Goldberg said.

Goldberg also fired back at the Monticello group, saying the resort will "create the substantial economic benefit that the previous site ... simply cannot provide."

The 50 acres will be transferred in trust to the tribe, which will then apply for approval from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to operate gaming at the site. Once these approvals are received, Park Place said it could complete the resort within two years.

The resort, which Park Place said will rival the mammoth Foxwoods tribal casino in Connecticut, will feature a 160,000-square-foot casino, 50,000 square feet of retail space, 100,000 square feet of convention space and a championship golf course.