The Forest County Potawatomi tribe is proceeding with a $240 million expansion of its Milwaukee casino if the tribe receives a favorable ruling in a lawsuit pending before the state Supreme Court.

The Potawatomi filed a rezoning application on Monday with the Department of City Development to allow an expansion of the Menomonee Valley casino. The project would add 1,000 jobs with a $40 million annual payroll, said Jeff Crawford, tribal attorney general.

The 275,000-square-foot casino, 1721 W. Canal St., would add 500,000 square feet, along with a six-story parking garage, Crawford said. The expanded building would be on tribal-owned land east of the current facility, he said, with the new parking structure built west of the casino.

The proposed expansion would make Wisconsin's largest casino even bigger.

The new facility would have 3,000 slot machines, compared with 1,575 slots currently, Crawford said. It would offer 100 tables with black jack, craps, roulette and poker, up from about 75 tables. The expanded casino also would have more restaurants, and a new ramp that would connect its two parking structures to the James E. Groppi Unity Bridge, formerly known as the 16th Street Viaduct.

The tribe's main target is northern Illinois.

Crawford said that around 20% of the casino's customers come from outside metropolitan Milwaukee.

"We will try to capture more of that market, particularly the Chicago traffic," Crawford said. The casino's annual revenue is around $260 million, a number that would swell if the expansion happens.

But the plans are based on getting a court decision that upholds the legality of casino gambling in Wisconsin.

The Potawatomi announced in May 2004 that it wanted to again expand the Menomonee Valley casino, which last grew five years ago and has 2,000 full- and part-time employees.

However, tribal officials said they wouldn't expand until the Supreme Court rules on a lawsuit seeking to outlaw casino gambling. That suit was filed by the owners of Kenosha's Dairyland Greyhound Park, who saw their dog track revenue decline as the Potawatomi casino grew.

The court is scheduled to hear arguments in that case on Sept. 7. A ruling is expected by late fall or early winter, Crawford said.

The tribe filed its zoning application so it will be ready to immediately begin expanding the casino if the Supreme Court issues a favorable ruling, Crawford said. The expansion would take about two years to complete, he said, and create 525 construction jobs.

Crawford said the rezoning request, and the notification of the news media about the request, was not aimed at generating publicity before next week's Supreme Court arguments. He said the justices were already well aware of the important issues at stake.

"We don't need to remind them," Crawford said.

The filing also reiterated the tribe's commitment to its Menomonee Valley site, despite efforts by Mayor Tom Barrett and others to lure an expanded casino to a downtown location.

The tribe's position continues to be that it would consider a downtown location, but only if it made economic sense to both the city and the tribe, Crawford said.

A downtown casino would have the potential to attract more people, given the facility's location near several large hotels. It might boost efforts to draw more conventions and other downtown visitors.

But the tribe would have to be able to recover the $135 million investment already made in its Menomonee Valley casino, Crawford said. That would be very difficult, he said, given that any alternate use for the valley site would not generate the level of profits that gambling provides.

Also, federal approval would be necessary for designating a new downtown casino site as federal trust land for the tribe. The process takes time, and Monday's filing indicates that "time is running out for downtown," Crawford said.

The Potawatomi casino in Milwaukee is one of only three places nationally where off-reservation casinos have won both federal and state approvals needed since a 1988 law was passed.

Department of City Development officials "look forward to working with the tribe on their proposed zoning change," said Andrea Rowe Richards, department spokeswoman.

"We continue to discuss the possibility of a downtown casino," she says in a statement, "but this type of relocation could take years to accomplish, and we understand the tribe needs to move forward with its current expansion plans."

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Copyright 2005 Journal Sentinel Inc. Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media
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