Financial terms set for building behind the 50 year old hurricane barrier certified in 2011 by the same US Army Corps of Engineers that certified the New Orleans levies that wiped out all the casinos

New Bedford Casino developer: Financial terms set

The developer behind the New Bedford casino proposal said Tuesday that it had submitted financial terms with its primary investor to state gaming officials, potentially meeting a crucial deadline after months of extensions and clearing a huge hurdle ahead of the city's June 23 vote on the $650 million project.

By Mike Lawrence
mlawrence@s-t.comPosted Jun. 9, 2015 at 1:54 pmUpdated at 5:12 PM

NEW BEDFORD — The developer behind the New Bedford casino proposal said Tuesday that it had submitted financial terms with its primary investor to state gaming officials, potentially meeting a crucial deadline after months of extensions and clearing a huge hurdle ahead of the city’s June 23 vote on the $650 million project.

"KG Urban Enterprises has submitted a signed term sheet between it and GLPI to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission," KG Urban spokesman Andrew Paven wrote in an email.

Pennsylvania-based Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. is KG Urban's primary financial backer for the casino, hotel and conference center development, proposed for New Bedford's waterfront on the MacArthur Drive site of an abandoned NStar power plant.

State gaming officials confirmed receiving KG Urban’s documents, the end result of financial negotiations that spanned months. Commissioners gave KG Urban extensions on application deadlines in February, March and twice in May.

“(Tuesday), KG Urban did submit requested documentation which is now under review by the MGC’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB). The Commission will receive an update from the IEB on the overall Region C licensing process at MGC’s next public meeting,” commission spokesman Elaine Driscoll said in a news release.

Southeastern Massachusetts is known as Region C in state gaming circles.

The Gaming Commission is scheduled to respond to KG Urban’s submitted term sheet Thursday in Boston. Commissioners stated that plan May 28, when they granted KG Urban its final extension on the financial deal.

Tuesday’s deadline will enable IEB staff to review the term sheets Wednesday, ahead of the commission’s public meeting Thursday.

Closing a deal with GLPI — pending the commission’s approval — is a huge milestone for KG Urban and New Bedford casino backers. The proposal still faces hurdles including a positive vote June 23, completion of application materials late this summer or early in the fall, and then selection by the commission over a competing proposal in Brockton.

But securing hundreds of millions in financial backing amid an increasingly competitive casino market in the state and across New England, with unknowns including the lingering potential for tribal gaming in Taunton, is a significant statement.

“The confirmation that KG Urban has financial backing from GLPI is another positive step forward for the project,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said Tuesday. “There are many (steps) left to go, obviously, and I’m ready to support KG however I can in order to help the project down the road.”

A public casino forum is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center downtown. The final forum scheduled so far is from 6 to 8 p.m. June 17 at Normandin Middle School in the North End.

Wednesday’s forum is sponsored by Leadership SouthCoast and SouthCoast Media Group. The June 17 forum is sponsored by the city.

A Brockton proposal by Mass Gaming & Entertainment is KG Urban’s only remaining competition for the single resort casino license the commission can allocate in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Brockton voters narrowly approved Mass Gaming’s $650 million proposal for a Brockton Fairgrounds site May 12, in that city’s referendum.

COMMENTS:

• Frank Haggerty
 

In 1996 the Legislature entered the home stretch of the 1996 session, local lawmakers made a final push to win state aid to remove a toxic power plant. The House in 1996 passed a plan that contains $300,000 to study the possibility of converting the toxic abandoned New Bedford power plant.The clean up documents weigh twenty pounds. 

Here is the plan : They continue to build the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, Dredge 800,000 cubic yards of toxic material, continue the largest fishing fleet on the East Coast and now build a 650 million dollar casino on top of all this ? 

New Bedford has only a single car exit off a two lane highway. The single car lane turns into a two lane highway that basically ends as a dead end in a residential neighborhood in the New Bedford South End. The city lacks infrastructure 

The 2014 climate change report : 
Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Planning Study for Water Quality Infrastructure in New Bedford, Fairhaven and Acushnet 

http://climate.buzzardsbay.org/download/seaplan-climate-vulnerability-new-bedford-area.pdf

The casino is going to be built behind the 50 year old hurricane barrier certified in 2011 by the same US Army Corps of Engineers that certified the New Orleans levies that wiped out all the casinos.The local mainstream media reports news by omission. They are not going to report to the public the recent 2014 climate change report showing New Bedford Harbor underwater in a Cat 2 hurricane . 

To build a casino on the waterfront in New Bedford the owners have to get by the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act ( MEPA ) . The casino is going to be built at the old toxic Cannon Street Power Plant who really knows whats buried in the underground vaults.

MR: 

Hopefully, you have shared this with the Massachusetts Gambling Commission. 

Should a glorified Slot Barn be constructed in Tiverton, it's difficult to envision revenues materializing. 

Gambling Market Saturation has been widely reported. 

Much like Twin River, should revenues fail to appear and bankruptcy ensue, any agreement will be re-written by the bankruptcy court.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20150609/NEWS/150609376

Proposed New Bedford Foxwoods casino developer meets gaming deadline

By The Associated Press 
on June 09, 2015

http://www.masslive.com/business-news/index.ssf/2015/06/proposed_new_bedford_foxwoods_casino_dev.html

Waterfront casino developer meets deadline

By Sean P. Murphy GLOBE STAFF  JUNE 10, 2015

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/06/09/waterfront-casino-developer-meets-deadline/v16HSmoPUjp9yJuODGFcXI/story.html

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• New Bedford casino developer: Deal signed, sealed and delivered

• http://www.enterprisenews.com/article/20150609/NEWS/150606019/?Start=2
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New Bedford Casino Developer Meets Latest Application Deadline

June 10, 2015

http://www.casinonewsdaily.com/2015/06/10/new-bedford-casino-developer-meets-latest-application-deadline/

Crucial week for New Bedford casino bid

Tuesday financial deadline, Wednesday forum, Thursday meeting all on slate for $650 million proposal

By Mike Lawrence
mlawrence@s-t.com

Posted Jun. 8, 2015 at 5:45 PM 

NEW BEDFORD — State gaming officials and the developer behind New Bedford’s casino bid declined to comment Monday on the status of a crucial financial deal that could move the $650 million proposal forward to a public vote June 23 or, if not signed, kill the entire deal before voters have their say.

Andrew Paven, spokesperson for New York-based KG Urban Enterprises, said developers would have no comment on the status of their key financial deal ahead of Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission set that deadline May 28, telling KG Urban operating partner Andrew Stern that failure to present a signed term sheet would be a “guillotine” for KG Urban’s application to build a casino, hotel and conference center development on New Bedford’s waterfront.

Commission spokesman Elaine Driscoll, asked Monday if commission enforcement staff had yet received a signed term sheet, said the state would not comment, either, until after Tuesday’s deadline.

KG Urban has been working to close a financial deal with its potential primary investor, Pennsylvania-based Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc (GLPI).

The commission likely will respond Thursday in Boston to whatever happens Tuesday.

Stern expressed confidence in the negotiations last week, saying “we’re going to have a term sheet” by Tuesday.

The financial issue didn't come up at a public casino forum Thursday evening at Roosevelt Middle School in the South End, where Stern presented site plans and answered questions about traffic and other concerns from about 30 attendees.

The next casino forum is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center downtown. The last forum scheduled so far is 6 to 8 p.m. June 17 at Normandin Middle School in the North End.

Wednesday’s forum is sponsored by Leadership SouthCoast and SouthCoast Media Group. The June 17 forum is sponsored by the city.

Casino discussions have been spreading outside of the forums as the June 23 vote nears. Last week at New Bedford Art Museum/Artworks!, during an event about efforts to create a collaborative art space downtown, longtime downtown advocate and property owner Jean Bennett expressed opposition to the casino proposal. She told a small crowd at the museum that she thought it was “disgusting” to propose “cutting off downtown from the waterfront” with a casino that would increase traffic on Route 18.

Stern, Mayor Jon Mitchell and other casino supporters have said the development would increase connections between downtown and the waterfront, though, citing the potential for spillover of restaurant patrons and shoppers.

The Host Community Agreement the city and KG Urban signed March 19 caps restaurant space inside the casino, requires the development to offer gift certificates and other incentives to visit downtown businesses, and creates a partnership with the Zeiterion.

A Brockton proposal by Mass Gaming & Entertainment is KG Urban’s only remaining competition for the single resort casino license the commission can allocate in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Brockton voters narrowly approved Mass Gaming’s $650 million proposal for a Brockton Fairgrounds site May 12, in that city’s referendum.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20150608/NEWS/150609415

• State gaming board sets ‘guillotine’ deadline for New Bedford bid

By Mike Lawrence
THE STANDARD TIMES

Posted May. 28, 2015

NEW BEDFORD – Developers behind the New Bedford casino proposal again received more time Thursday to close a financial deal, as state gaming officials set a “guillotine” June 9 deadline that kept the $650 million project alive for at least two more weeks.

And once again, as it has been for the past several months, it was a very close shave, like blackjack players staying at the table by winning on their last chips.

“We would be well within our rights to say that we didn’t get what we were looking for,” Stephen Crosby, chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, told a leading partner in the New Bedford casino bid, suggesting that the commission could have rejected the entire application today.

“(But) I happen to not think that would be appropriate,” Crosby added.

Andrew Stern, operating partner for New York-based developer KG Urban Enterprises, acknowledged to commissioners in Boston that KG Urban has not yet finalized its deal with its key investor, Pennsylvania-based Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI).

“We do not have a signed term sheet,” Stern said.

Commissioners, in turn, acknowledged that their May 14 request for progress on the deal had some "gray area," and may not have clearly indicated that a deal had to be signed by today. Stern said his understanding was that only incremental progress was needed by today, and said the two draft, unsigned term sheets KG Urban sent state gaming staff Wednesday “more than showed” that.

So — as they did in February, March and earlier this month — commissioners granted KG Urban more time Thursday to submit application materials.

Commissioner James McHugh cautioned, though, that if a signed term sheet is not submitted by 5 p.m., June 9, to Karen Wells, the commission’s director of investigations and enforcement, the commission would use “the guillotine instead of the butter knife.”

A citywide casino referendum is scheduled for June 23.

Public forums on KG Urban’s proposal are scheduled in the city on June 4, June 10 and June 17.

KG Urban’s casino development is proposed for the 43-acre site of an abandoned NStar power plant on the waterfront, off MacArthur Drive.

A Brockton casino proposed by Mass Gaming & Entertainment is New Bedford’s sole competition for the single resort casino license the commission can allocate in southeastern Massachusetts.

Brockton voters narrowly approved Mass Gaming’s $650 million proposal for a Brockton Fairgrounds site May 12, in that city’s referendum.



http://www.enterprisenews.com/article/20150528/NEWS/150526104/0/breaking_ajax