The biggest disappointment is that The Republican has been a primary proponent of Casino Gambling, reporting one-sided information, until this article.
Those supporters who allow themselves to be blinded by the false promises without conducting their due diligence and investigating the costs and impacts of Gambling elsewhere should be embarrassed.
This is not what you think!
Documents trace Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse's consideration of casino gambling, Eric Suher's offers of downtown investment
HOLYOKE -- The Die Cut Card building at the corner of Front and
Dwight streets was one of several downtown properties targeted for
investment as part of a Mountain Park casino proposal presented by
Eric Suher to city officials in September.
By
on January 12, 2013
HOLYOKE — Mayor Alex B. Morse's initial reaction in mid-September to a casino proposal floated by entertainment and real estate mogul Eric Suher was terse: "I don't like it."
The response, sent on Sept. 13, came just over a half hour after the city’s planning and economic development director, Marcos A. Marrero, forwarded an email to the mayor in which Suher outlined a list of potential benefits to the city.
Suher -- who grew up in the Paper City, launched his business career here, and is still a resident -- promised significant investment for the city's downtown. He also offered funding for programs at Holyoke Community College and William J. Dean Technical High School to accompany his proposed casino at Mountain Park.
The emails are included in nearly 500 pages of documents obtained by The Republican and MassLive.com in a Nov. 28 request to the city for release of public records. The request was filed in the days after Morse announced he would consider proposals from would-be casino developers, a change of heart from the strong anti-casino position he took in his 2011 campaign for mayor. Within three weeks, Morse changed his mind yet again, announcing on Dec. 13 that he would not negotiate with casino developers after all.
Earlier in 2012, Morse had virtually shut another would-be casino developer, Paper City Development, out of the game when its principals pitched a casino plan for Wyckoff Country Club.
The mayor also penned an anti-casino editorial, "No Dice," in CommonWealth magazine's October issue in which he outlined the city's non-casino strategies for economic development.
With Morse's announcement on Nov. 26 that the city would enter the casino process, Suher's Mountain Park plan emerged as the apparent frontrunner. The gaming resort was proposed for land Suher acquired in 2006 and 2007, including one property bought by a corporation he named Dadgayadoh MA, a Seneca Indian word that means "gambling men."
Paper City Development also got back in the action, resurrecting its Wyckoff proposal. A third possible site surfaced with Charles J. Petitti pitching a downtown “nonprofit” casino that he called “Good Sam’s,” a play on “good Samaritan.”
Now, with the state Gaming Commission’s Jan. 15 deadline looming for developers to submit a $400,000 fee and application materials, it is unclear if the casino debate for Holyoke will resume or die.
A partner in Paper City Development says the group will file the nonrefundable fee to the state Gaming Commission by Tuesday.
"We are still in, working it every day, through Christmas and New Year's with lawyers and others," partner Anthony L. Cignoli wrote in an email to The Republican on Jan. 3. (See related story.)
Suher declined to say if will submit the fee and application. He said renewed discussion of casino meetings he had with city officials amounted to "trying to beat a dead horse."
Holyoke's casino supporters have vowed to gather signatures needed to place a non-binding referendum on the November municipal election ballot, asking if voters want a casino. Holyoke voters approved casino questions in 2002 and 1995.
The documents obtained by The Republican outline the rise and fall of Morse’s willingness to engage with casino developers. They also document the role Marrero took in bringing Suher's proposal to the mayor and ultimately offering cautionary notes about the process after the pair visited a Bethlehem, Pa., casino in late November.
The documents also reveal the extensive, but short-lived, role that consultant David B. Panagore, once chief development officer for the city of Springfield, played in the early stages of Holyoke’s casino process.
The Suher bet
Marrero, who previously worked as a land-use and environmental planner with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, took his post as Holyoke’s director of planning and economic development on May 14. He was appointed by Morse in April.
11.26.2012 | HOLYOKE -- Eric Suher, right, attends the press conference in November at which Mayor Alex B. Morse
announced that he would consider casino proposals.
Emails show that Marrero contacted Suher on Aug. 31 to ask for a meeting the week of Sept. 10. The agenda which Marrero proposed included discussion of a number of Suher’s properties in the city -- "particularly the Die Cut Card building” at 439 Dwight St., he wrote.
Marrero's meeting with Suher took place on Sept. 12 and lasted two hours, according to one of the emails obtained by The Republican.
Suher wrote to Marrero in a Sept. 13 email, “I appreciate you taking the time yesterday. I do understand the mayor’s issue, but I feel strongly that this project is SO different from the previous Wyckoff plan, we need to seriously look at this, rather than just say no.”
Suher then outlined benefits to the city that his Mountain Park proposal would bring. He noted he had “taken care to make certain that Ward 7 would not be affected by traffic, noise, etc.” Much of the Ward 7 neighborhood, which runs along the Route 5 corridor on the northern side of the city, lies within close proximity to the Mountain Park site.
Suher's plan, according to the email, placed a “huge emphasis on downtown investment and economic sustainability.”
That investment would include locating the casino's management offices downtown, “with further investment in (the) 439 Dwight St. mill building for restaurant and cafe along the canal.”
Suher also proposed investing in market-rate residential housing downtown and offered money to complete the CanalWalk, including adding “canal laser light fountains.” Renderings submitted by Suher show a nightscape of the city, with the fountains in a stretch of the first-level canal that runs along Heritage State Park.
Suher also proposed building “an indoor / outdoor downtown mercado” and linking the casino to downtown by offering transportation between Mountain Park and the recently built Holyoke Transportation Center on Maple Street.
Other proposed investments included an endowment for a culinary school at Holyoke Community College, a culinary program at Dean Tech and other unspecified programs.
As for the casino itself, Suher said, the project would mean “two thousand plus jobs for Holyoke residents” and that the proposed resort would include a convention center and 300-room hotel, a “music amphitheater with covered seating that would attract world class entertainers” and a “recreation facility that would attract people from all over the region”
There was no price tag attached to all of Suher's proposed projects. Suher said the footprint for the project, including access ramps from Interstate 91, would fit within the parcels he already owns around the Mountain Park property.
Fountains equipped with laser lights, seen here in a rendering submitted as part of a package of documents relating to casino
proposals in Holyoke, were part of Eric Suher's plan to marry
downtown investment with a Mountain Park casino.
“This would send a huge message to the Holyoke (and surrounding) business community, enabling the city to attract additional business investment,” Suher wrote. “I am a lifelong city resident, and I have been investing in Holyoke since I was 18. I would never propose a project that I feel would be detrimental to the city or its residents.”
In interviews about the project, Suher has said he was negotiating with Len and Mark Wolman, principals in the Waterford Group, of Waterford, Conn., to operate the casino. The Wolmans have been in partnerships on casino projects, including the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., which is proposing a resort casino in Palmer.
Marrero’s meeting with Suher came at the same time Morse sought the planning director's input for his anti-casino editorial. Morse first asked Marrero to review the editorial on Sept. 11, emails show.
One of the emails from the morning of Sept. 12 shows Marrero responded to the mayor that he had been in a meeting with Suher and hadn’t yet reviewed the piece. “We need to talk,” he added.
Suher’s email outlining the casino details arrived on the afternoon of Sept. 13, and Marrero fowarded it to Morse at 2:55 p.m. Morse’s response, “I don’t like it,” came just over a half hour later.
Morse’s initial resistance, though, appears to fade over the course of the next few weeks, the municipal documents show.
Copies of Morse’s calendar obtained by The Republican show he met with Marrero, city solicitor Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross and treasurer Jon Lumbra on Sept. 25 “re: Eric Suher.” Morse said the meeting was to discuss the details Suher had sent on Sept. 13, and that this was the first time he met with other city officials to discuss Suher’s proposal.
Morse met with Suher at 3 p.m. on Nov. 13, his calendar shows, and the mayor confirmed that casinos were on the agenda for that meeting.
Both Marrero and Morse said they had no knowledge of Suher approaching any other city officials regarding a casino prior to Marrero’s Sept. 12 meeting. Marrero said he met with Suher on earlier occasions to discuss Suher’s “Pleasant Crossing” site at the corner of Hampden and Pleasant streets.
The topic of casinos did not arise during those meetings, Marrero said.
“There really is no further story to be told about meetings with Morse and Marrero that hasn't already been told,” Suher said in an email response for comment for this story. “Someone's trying to beat a dead horse.”
The mayor says Suher's proposal never amounted to any firm plans: “There was never a complete ‘plan’ shown to the City, merely a concept that Mr. Suher presented us.”
Morse added this week, “Even today, I haven't seen a plan from Suher other than what the public knows about, which was a general concept for a casino resort on Mt. Tom with a few Downtown components.”
Asked what happened between the Sept. 13 email in which he dismissed Suher’s proposal and his Nov. 26 announcement that he would consider casino proposals, Morse said only, “I felt that my job as mayor required me to give it more thought, and in an effort to be transparent, I thought it was necessary to deliberate publicly.”
A house of (Die Cut) cardsSuher, through his company ES Development Corp., bought the four-story Holyoke Die Cut Card building in November 2001 for $157,500. The vacant building, located at 439 Dwight St., sits across Front Street from a municipal parking garage and across Dwight from the Volleyball Hall of Fame and Heritage State Park. The building and land are currently assessed at $258,900, according to city records.
The Die Cut Card building is highlighted in blue.
Suher is also a principal of Trident Holyoke LLC.,
which owns the 72 Front St. property
bounded by a blue line. Enlarge map.
It is one of several Suher-owned properties in Holyoke that figure in the city’s economic development and downtown revitalization efforts, some of which have vexed Paper City officials for years.
In October 2010, Suher sought a zoning change to build a parking lot at Mountain Park, which aroused suspicions among neighbors that he was gearing up for a possible gaming facility. A meeting to discuss the zoning change drew questions from city councilors about his plans for his Pleasant Crossing property, which had been sitting idle since he purchased it in 2005. At the time, Suher faced a November 2010 deadline to determine a use for the lot or see it revert to city ownership for $1. He had already received six previous extensions.
After the meeting, then-Mayor Elaine A. Pluta said she had also frequently asked about Suher’s intentions for the Die Cut building. Suher said on multiple occasions that he hoped to convert the property into market-rate housing, but was waiting until the Holyoke Housing Authority renovated the nearby Lyman Terrace housing complex.
Suher was, to the city's benefit several years earlier, the first of several property owners along the proposed CanalWalk to sign a formal easement with the city. The easements, signed in 2007 for Suher’s property at 72 Front St. and the die-cut building, allowed the city to move forward with the first phase of the project.
The promise to include funding to complete the CanalWalk as part of his casino development would have brought the project full circle, since he helped get it off the ground nearly six years ago.
Other benefits Suher listed in his casino concept were more speculative, involving land he does not already own.
A map of Suher's proposed downtown investments shows "Future Market Rate Housing" located at Lyman Terrace, bounded by High, Lyman, Front and John streets. The low-income, 167-unit housing project managed by the Holyoke Housing Authority was slated for demolition early in 2012, but it won a reprieve when Morse called for studying other options.
View full sizeA map included with documents provided in response to a records request by The Republican shows areas
of downtown investment, proposed with Suher's plan for a
Mountain Park Casino.
Suher's conceptual map shows the downtown “mercado” located on city-owned land at 191 Appleton St. The “restaurant and outdoor terrace” are shown on Front Street, adjacent to the Die Cut building on land currently occupied by Suher’s Canal Place building at 72 Front St., now home to offices for several state agencies, and a building at 120 Front St. owned by Edward A. Owen, of West Springfield.
Morse said Suher's focus on downtown investment helped persuade him to reconsider a casino proposal for the city.
“The preliminary commitment to downtown, including the investments mentioned above (CanalWalk, Die Cut Card Building, seed money for the Holyoke Redevelopment Authority), did play a role in my decision to consider proposals,” the mayor said. "Furthermore, given the budgetary constraints on the City, the possibility of millions of dollars in additional tax revenue would compel any Mayor to look twice. I needed to explore whether or not it would be possible to achieve those goals – a casino in the City and a revitalized Downtown.”
The upgrades Suher proposed mirrored the city's plan for downtown redevelopment, known as “Connect. Construct. Create: A Plan for the Revitalization of Center City Holyoke,” that was released in September. And, emails obtained by The Republican show that concurrent to his casino negotiations Suher was working with city officials to lure a national restaurant chain to the Pleasant Crossing site.
Cornerstones of the “Connect. Construct. Create” plan include improving downtown housing options and rehabilitating blighted properties. CanalWalk is listed as a featured project.
Both Morse and Marrero said the plan can move ahead without investment from Suher as part of a casino deal.
“The Redevelopment Authority along with many city officials and participating citizens worked hard for several years to put a comprehensive plan in place that wouldn't sit on a shelf, but could be executed with success,” Marrero said. He added: “A casino (and funding from it) was never part of that plan, so the absence of a casino will not hinder it.”
A consultant's role
Another entry in the mayor’s calendar shows Morse initially met on Sept. 7 at 10:30 a.m. with Panagore, who most recently worked as chief operating officer in Hartford.
Morse said the crux of the Sept. 7 meeting was that Panagore “wanted to discuss opportunities in Holyoke and in Western Massachusetts.” The meeting did not involve any discussion of casinos, Morse said. He had been eager to take the meeting with Panagore, he said, because, “I have great respect for David, and he brings a unique set of experiences to the table, coupled with expertise and passion, like no one else I know.”
Panagore had resigned from his post in Hartford on Aug. 20, setting his last day as Sept. 14. At the time, he told the Hartford Courant he didn’t have another job in place. “I just didn't feel it was fair to undertake a job search while on the city's payroll.”
Panagore resurfaced in Holyoke when Morse announced in late November that he would consider casino proposals. Under the plan Morse laid out, Panagore would serve as a development consultant for the city, with fees to be paid by whichever operator managed the resort's casino.
A contract proposal with Panagore, dated Dec. 4, was included in the documents obtained by The Republican.
Under the contract, Panagore would work under the direction of Marrero to “... manage the City’s available assets and resources on behalf of the Mayor in order to successfully represent the City’s interests consistent with its development strategy, facilitate all facets of the development process relative to the potential location of a casino in Holyoke.”
Panagore was expected to review casino license applications and plans, assist with media relations and facilitate community outreach. He would also “act as principal point of negotiation for any agreement with project proponents, as contemplated by the Gaming Act, including developing host community services,” the contract proposal states.
The proposed agreement carried an option for the city to renew it on Oct. 1, 2013. It set a ceiling of 100 hours.
An invoice dated Dec. 3 and submitted on Dec. 6 shows Panagore billed the city for $4,640 to cover 29 hours of work at $160 an hour between Nov. 20 and Dec. 4. The itemized work list includes conducting research, meeting with Morse and other city officials and drafting a letter to potential casino developers.
Panagore played a role in the run-up to the mayor's Nov. 26 press conference, billing one hour at $160 for time on Nov. 25 to prepare for the event. On the day of the press conference, he billed for $1,360 to cover 8.5 hours of work.
On Dec. 4, a day for which he billed the city $960 for six hours of work, Panagore reportedly assisted Morse and Marrero in crafting an invitation to area mayors for a regional meeting on casinos, according to the documents.
Emails show that Panagore was also asked to participate in weekly meetings with city officials to discuss the casino issue. Tessa Murphy-Romboletti, assistant to the mayor, emailed Panagore and others on Nov. 29 to schedule the meetings. The first one was set for Dec. 3.
Panagore’s emails exchanged with city officials show he worked for Holyoke right up until Morse's Dec. 13 announcement. On Dec. 10, for instance, Morse forwarded a query from a reporter to Panagore, asking for thoughts on how to respond. The next day, Marrero asked Panagore for input on how to respond to questions from Paper City Development principals.
On the day Morse went public with his suspension of the casino proposal process, Panagore posted a link via Twitter to The Republican / MassLive.com’s coverage of the announcement. Later that night, Panagore wrote, "Mayor amazes me with his integrity & courage. Once he knew he had decided, he acted. No pretense, no wasted expense.”
Morse said this week that the city has ended its consulting relationship with Panagore.
The Bethlehem effect
What ultimately led Morse to reverse course on casinos the second time left many observers puzzled.
In interviews, Morse cited strong and vocal opposition from the community. He was jeered by a crowd outside his office when he held his Nov. 26 press conference, and casino opponents in the city quickly mobilized in the days that followed.
"At a time when our community needs unity of purpose, a year-long debate over locating a casino within our borders would only sow division and discord," Morse said when he announced his suspension of the casino process.
Bethlehem Mayor John B. Callahan gives a presentation on the process to bring the Sands Resort Casino to his city.
The discussion was part of the City2City Greater Springfield's
learning trip to the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.
Robert Rizzuto | The Republican
Records show that a trip Morse and other city officials took to Pennsylvania in late November also influenced his decision. During that trip, part of the City2City program organized by the Federal Reserve of Boston and Philadelphia, Morse, Marrero and Lumbra joined other Western Massachusetts representatives to tour the sprawling Sands Casino Resort at the former Bethlehem Steel property.
“There are real risks when you introduce gaming or gambling to a community, and a municipality needs to be vigilant in planning to mitigate such problems," Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan told his visitors. "We spent a lot of time traveling to other cities with casinos and ended up working together as a region to make it work for everybody.”
On Dec. 10, Marrero sent an email to Morse detailing his notes from the Pennsylvania trip and expressing doubts about whether the economic success Bethlehem found hosting a casino could translate to Holyoke.
“There were a few notable economic, procedural and site-specific circumstances under which Bethlehem’s (gaming-licensed resort) was provided a successful project and model of GLR development,” Marrero wrote. “It is highly questionable whether those circumstances currently exist in Holyoke.”
Listing differences between Bethlehem and Holyoke, Marrero noted the Pennsylvania casino’s proximity to the large New Jersey and New York markets, and cited the Bethlehem mayor's description of the Sands Casino -- with its tagline of “Closer than you think,” -- as “convenience gambling on steroids.” Marrero wrote that the largest markets a Holyoke casino could draw from – Boston and New York – would ultimately have casino resorts closer to their own metropolitan regions.
Marrero cited leaders he met in Pennsylvania who said the Sands Casino “does not play a role in spreading economic development in the region.” He also noted that Lehigh Valley region’s high rate of population growth in recent years, projected to continue in the current decade, stands in contrast to relatively flat growth in the Pioneer Valley.
Marrero also expressed concerns about the timeline of the casino process in Holyoke.
Lehigh Valley officials, he said, took a course of several years to discuss potential casino developments, visiting communities with casinos across the country and building partnerships with their own local arts, business and educational organizations.
“It is questionable whether we would have the opportunity to replicate such efforts locally by the Phase II deadline without compromising other planning efforts in the community and/or other items on the City’s economic development agenda,” Marrero wrote to the mayor.
Morse this week told The Republican and MassLive.com that the trip to Pennsylvania and Marrero’s memo played a role in his decision to return to an anti-casino stance. It became clear during the trip, Morse said, that the conditions that made a casino a successful bet for Bethlehem were not present in Holyoke: "It didn't take long to realize that any potential benefit was not worth it."
A visit to the gaming floor of the casino, Morse said, also made an impression: “(It) was nothing short of an incredibly depressing site to see. It was clear Holyoke could do better.”
While initially encouraged by Suher’s apparent commitment to downtown investment as part of a casino deal, Morse said, he concluded that a Mountain Park casino and a revitalized downtown were “incompatible visions of the city" and locating a casino on the outskirts of the city would be “incompatible with a vibrant Downtown Holyoke.”
Morse also reiterated that he would not support a casino for downtown Holyoke. “I'd rather focus on a long-term, sustainable approach to economic development,” he said.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/documents_trace_holyoke_mayor.html
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