Casino would be biggest in region

Tribe says Kenosha project would cost $808 million

By STEVE SCHULTZE sschulzte@journalsentinel.com, Journal Sentinel

Thursday, June 17, 2004

A casino and entertainment complex that the Menominee tribe wants to build in Kenosha now carries an official price tag: $808 million. That would make it, far and away, the biggest and glitziest casino in the region.

Bringing the project -- a massive casino, hotel, retail and conference center, water park and restaurant complex -- to fruition has no more than a 50-50 chance, Menominee Tribal Chairwoman Joan Delabreau said Wednesday in an interview.

The tribe must get local, state and federal approval, including agreement by the U.S. Interior Department, to take the 223-acre Dairyland Greyhound Park track site on I-94 into trust for the tribe for gambling purposes. A similarly ambitious plan by the tribe for a Kenosha casino died in 2001.

But the tribe is committed to pursuing a first-rate facility with the new plan, which would draw heavily on the Chicago market, Delabreau said.

The $808 million cost would include $40.5 million to buy Dairyland from its Alabama owners. The rest would go toward converting part of the track to a casino and developing the additional facilities, including a 5,000-seat theater for live performances, a 4,000-room hotel, parking structure, conference center and water park.

The facility would ultimately employ about 3,000 people earning an average of $47,234 a year, including the value of fringe benefits, and have an annual payroll of $138 million, according to figures released by the tribe. Building the complex also would mean thousands of additional construction jobs, with an estimated construction payroll of $164 million, according to the tribe.

Plans call for opening a temporary casino at the track clubhouse in 2006, with 1,000 slot machines and 50 blackjack tables. By 2009, the tribe hopes to have completed the entire complex, which would feature a casino with 3,100 slot machines, 75 table games and pari- mutuel betting on horse races.

Tribal officials plan to meet soon with Kenosha city and county officials to negotiate local casino payments, which would be based on a percentage of the casino's net revenue.

Delabreau said the tribe would refrain from offering additional table games that a state Supreme Court decision this spring said were illegal, based on a case involving the Forest County Potawatomi tribe.

She said the Kenosha project could proceed without the additional games, such as roulette and craps. Those games don't account for a major portion of a casino's revenue, but they are important to marketing the facility, she said.

Potentially more troublesome to the Menominee project is another part of the Supreme Court ruling that negated the perpetual duration of new state-tribal gambling compacts. Having very long-term compacts is important to getting the necessary financing to do the project, Delabreau said.

It remains to be seen whether additional litigation reverses any parts of the Supreme Court ruling, she said.

Kenosha County Executive Allan Kehl said Wednesday that the County Board would schedule a public hearing soon on the casino plan. He said it was unlikely a local referendum would be held on the project, something the board rejected earlier this year on an 18-7 vote.

A city referendum strongly in favor of the earlier Kenosha plan still reflects the sentiment of the community about the casino, Kehl said.

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