Cuomo lands at Bethel Woods

Posted 8/21/12

BETHEL, NY — With a line that got a pretty good laugh, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said of New York State Sen. John Bonacic, “When I first met him, I thought he had a speech impediment: ‘casino, casino, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Cuomo lands at Bethel Woods

Posted

BETHEL, NY — With a line that got a pretty good laugh, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said of New York State Sen. John Bonacic, “When I first met him, I thought he had a speech impediment: ‘casino, casino, casino.’” The joke ultimately became praise for Bonacic and for his persistence in pursuing a casino for Sullivan County for so many years.

The Event Gallery at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts was packed to capacity on December 18, a day after the Gaming Facility Location Board announced that they recommended there should be one casino in the Catskills and Hudson Valley region, and the license should go to Empire Resorts’ casino Montreign in the Town of Thompson.

Sen. Bonacic said that when Orange County was added to the mix of possible casino locations, he could hear some “despair” in the voices of some residents. But, he said, he never doubted that Sullivan would get a casino. He further said the casino would also generate revenue for Orange and Ulster counties and draw employees from them.

Cuomo delivered a pep talk about how the proposed casino would revitalize the region because it will be a destination and one that will draw some of the 50 million tourists who visit New York City each year by inducing them to “look north.” He said the casino, Montreign, will be “not just a casino, but a casino as a larger resort destination to bring people, bring families for a weekend, for a week; and that is really an economic development generator.”

And not just for Sullivan County, he said. “This is so big, this is so massive, that it will create spin-off businesses; it can regenerate an entire region on the theme and the essence of what the region was to begin with… It is going to work because it has worked in the past. We know the proximity to the city is there. We know you’re going to offer a service and an attraction that you can’t get anywhere else. We know that it’s going to be first class. You will rediscover the Catskills. And a whole generation of people who never came north—who were always going east—are going to be introduced to upstate (which technically starts above the Bronx) and they’re going to see the Catskills and they’re going to love them. And they’re going to want to buy a second home, and they’re going to want to move, and they’re going to want to vacation. We just have to expose what we have. It’s what made us once; it will be what makes us again.”

His words were greeted with enthusiastic applause multiple times by a crowd that was already convinced of the regenerative powers of a casino resort destination springing up from the ground that now serves as a graveyard for the Concord Resort of yesteryear.

What are the elements of this resort destination? Stu Rabinowitz, a member of the location committee enumerated them the previous day when the recommendations about which projects should receive licenses were announced. He said, “Montreign proposes an 18-story casino-hotel and entertainment complex, featuring an 86,300-square-foot casino with 61 gaming tables and 2,150 slot machines, 391 hotel rooms, multiple dining and entertainment options and several meeting spaces.

“Adelar [within which Montreign would be situated] would feature an indoor water park and hotel, an entertainment village with dining and retail outlets, a golf course and significant residential development… Montreign projects $301 million in gross gaming revenues in 2019 and $103 million in gaming tax revenues.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here