Permanent plan unveiled

Monday, May 13, 2002 | 10:50 a.m.

DETROIT -- MotorCity Casino's plans for its permanent casino include a 16-floor hotel with 400 rooms, a 50,000-square-foot convention center and a fitness club.

The $150-million temporary Mandalay Resort Group casino now occupies 12 acres, but has locked up another 10 acres of undeveloped land to expand, The Detroit News reported Sunday.

MotorCity will incorporate its existing casino into its expansion. The interior of its permanent property would be comparable to that of Monte Carlo, a Las Vegas casino resort owned by Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE.

"The fact of the matter is, except for the number of hotel rooms and the amount of retail, there's virtually no difference in what we're doing here with what we were going to do on the river," MotorCity spokesman and investor Jack Barthwell said.

Early cost estimates for the expansion are in the range of an additional $300 million, the newspaper reported.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and operators of the existing MGM Grand, MotorCity and Greektown casinos agreed in principle for each casino to build permanent locations. But some City Council members have said the deal isn't good enough.

Kilpatrick and City Council members are expected to meet this week to iron out their differences.