Greektown Casino moves step closer to opening

Jim Suhr

Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2000 | 11:40 a.m.

DETROIT - State gaming regulators Tuesday deemed Greektown Casino's investors suitable, a key ruling that bolsters investors' confidence the gambling hall will become Detroit's third in November.

After its 4-1 vote during a brief hearing, the Michigan Gaming Control Board said it will decide in early November whether to license the casino. Nelson Westrin, the board's executive director, said such a vote won't come until the site is ready to open.

Bernard Bouschor, chairman of the Upper Peninsula's Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the casino's principle owner, said he expects the Greektown site to open for business Nov. 10 as "a tremendous opportunity for Detroit."

"We've been through the marathon. Now, it's a 100-yard dash to the finish," he said.

The lone dissenter in Tuesday's vote was Paula Blanchard, who said there were "some nagging questions" about the casino. Without elaborating, she said they included concerns the casino has created "serious conflicts and divisions within the tribe," and that the financing could be "stretched very thin," among other things.

"As I said at the beginning, every board member must follow his or her best judgment," she told reporters after her dissenting vote. "I just voted the way I felt I needed to vote."

Last month, Bonnie McKerchie, who ran unsuccessfully for a tribal board seat in June, said she thinks the tribe has committed too much to the Greektown Casino, and that the venture was "too risky."

"A lot of members didn't want Greektown, but we weren't asked," she told the Detroit Free Press. "We have five casinos; a less-risky investment would have been fine. This isn't a Monopoly game."

Others are upset that the tribe put up as collateral one of its new trust funds, a $19.7 million federal land-claims settlement that pays every elder $1,200 a year. Tribal leaders promised to put $10 million in casino profits into the fund.

Bouschor has said he's confident the Greektown casino will do better than some people expect because he thinks it has the best location among Detroit-area casinos.

Blanchard would not say whether she would vote to license the planned casino. "I'm taking these votes one at a time. Hopefully in the interim, some nagging questions will be answered," she said.

Bouschor declined to discuss Blanchard's comments.

After Tuesday's vote, representatives of the planned casino tried to assure the board that parking for patrons and staff would be sufficient, with prospects of building a parking garage, if necessary.

"I think parking is going to be tight" and "bothersome," board chairman Thomas Denomme said, later noting "the city already has signed off on the plan." Bouschor called any parking concerns "a non-issue at this time."

The casino's licensing process had been delayed for months as Greektown Casino investors Ted Gatzaros, Dimitrios Papas and their wives shopped their 40 percent stakes after state-mandated investigations uncovered problems with their backgrounds.

Last month, the gaming board approved a revised plan for the couples to sell to the tribe their interests with no prospects of reinvesting. The 28,000-member tribe will own 90 percent of the $150 million site, with plans to sell 10 percent of its ownership to local minorities.

The casino, in the heart of downtown's Greektown entertainment district, will have 2,400 workers, about 2,400 slot machines and 104 game tables in 75,000 square feet of Mediterranean-themed space.

Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer hailed Tuesday's developments as another positive step toward his goal of turning around a city that already has collected tens of millions in revenue from its two existing casinos, with even more expected from the Greektown one.

"Am I pleased? Absolutely. Will I be more pleased Nov. 10? Absolutely," Archer said, discounting delays in the Greektown Casino. "We're walking on fresh sand here. It's not something you can say that after chapter so-and-so in a book written by such-and-such this is going to happen. This is new for us.

"We've learned a lot, and I think we are continuing to learn from it."

On Wednesday, Archer, Bouschor and the tribal board are to lead reporters on a tour of the Greektown casino.

With each passing day, the casino has fallen farther behind its competitors, giving the local MotorCity and MGM Grand gambling halls that opened last year more time to build customer loyalty and costing the city additional tax revenue.

All three casinos are to move to permanent Detroit sites within four years on land that Archer said officials continue negotiating to obtain.