Cappelli to spread the wealth

Apprentice program unveiled

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The evening was billed as a lesson in “How the Concord Can Help My Business,” and the topic was enough to draw 115 people to the event. Terri Ward, president and CEO of the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce, said it was the largest gathering that a chamber mixer had drawn in quite some time.

The keynote speaker at the event, which took place in the Hype Room of the Mighty M Gaming racino in Monticello on October 23, was Joe Apicella, executive vice president of Cappelli Enterprises. Apicella assured the crowd that the creation of the new $1.2 billion resort, spearheaded by developer Louis Cappelli, was going forward despite the economic crises facing the country and the world. He noted that at the height of the Great Depression in the ’30s, the unemployment rate was 26 percent, which meant that 74 percent of the workforce still had money to spend. By comparison, unemployment in the United States now is a bit above six percent and some economists are predicting it will reach eight percent in the next year or so.

Apicello also said that staffing the ambitious project, which would result in 5,000 construction jobs during the building phase and 2,000 permanent jobs, would be challenging in Sullivan County. One way that Cappelli will attempt to meet that challenge is by creating an apprentice program through the building-trade unions to allow young people who want to enter the building trades to gain training and certificates while being paid.

Dean Tambori, a representative from the Hudson Valley Building and Trades Council, which has a project labor agreement with Cappelli and the project partner, Empire Resorts, said the apprentice program would be a great advantage for young people wishing to enter such professions as carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, tiling and so on.

On a separate matter, Apicello said that the project managers would be seeking to work with local vendors whenever possible to supply such things as plumbing and building materials, stationary, uniforms and other goods. He said Cappelli Enterprises has a history of working with local vendors in other locations, so long as the goods are competitively priced.

During a brief question-and-answer session, Apicella was asked what would be the fate of the current race track and of the old Grossinger’s Hotel in Liberty, which is owned by Cappelli. Apicello said the company was involved in creating a master plan for the track, but that the future of both facilities would depend, to some degree, on the success of the project at the Concord site. He said the hope is that the Concord project will provide enough of a spark to ignite ambitious undertakings at both locations.

Casino or racino?

Like Capelli, Apicello refers to the project as a resort and casino, even though at this point the only gambling will involve video slot machines and harness racing.

In the past, Capelli has indicated that he is still holding out some hope that a full-fledged casino may still be in the future of the facility, even though that eventuality was taken off the table in January when U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kemthorne blocked the approval of off-reservation Indian casinos here.

One way to get a full casino to be would be to change the state constitution to allow voters to decide whether gambling should be allowed in any part of the state.

It’s a possibility that was backed by Senator John Bonacic on October 22 when he addressed the chamber’s power breakfast. He said that in a democracy the people should be allowed to decide whether they want gambling or not.