Casino news source: The Clarion-Ledger - http://www.clarionledger.com/
3 groups seek gaming license for $2B Myriad Tunica resort
By Nell Luter Floyd
nlfloyd@clarionledger.com
Architectural rendering of Myriad World Resorts gives a view of hotel and domed structure that would enclose an 18-hole golf course.
Three groups, including two North Dakota American Indian tribes, plan to seek gaming licenses to operate casinos as part of the proposed $1.9 billion Myriad World Resorts in Tunica.
Myriad World Entertainment & Resorts has won recognition for its ambitious plans that call for developing a casino resort featuring a climate-controlled, fully enclosed, 18-hole, covered golf course and botanical gardens.
High Plains Equity LLC, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians based in Rolette County, N.D., and the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota have each published a notice in The Tunica Times weekly newspaper that they plan to seek a gaming license, said Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission.
"That's the first step to formally notify the community they plan to go into," he said. "The next hurdle is to come to the Gaming Commission to get site approval."
Myriad has an agreement with the three groups for the sale of three separate casino parcels within its 540-acre development and plans to close on the sales on June 1, 2007, according to information on its Web site (www.myriadworldresorts.com). Myriad would receive 4 percent of gross gaming revenues each casino reports to the Gaming Commission, according to information on the Website.
Gregory said he plans to visit the three sites this month. He expects the groups to seek site approval at the commission's July or August meeting.
The developers told the Mississippi Gaming Commission in March that they would like the resort to eventually include six casinos in addition to the one they hold a license to operate.
While some in the gaming industry doubt a project the magnitude of Myriad's plans may ever be built, Gregory said he's encouraged because he hears from developers of the project monthly.
"Any time you have developers wanting to push a project in a particular community and coming in each month that's encouraging to regulators," he said. "With this particular group, it appears they're moving forward."
Fred Hayne, marketing director of Myriad, said groundbreaking on the resort is scheduled this fall. Construction for the first phase of construction would take about two years to complete, he said.
Hayne said he couldn't discuss financing because of Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.
Myriad Entertainment has an agreement with Dutchess Private Equities Fund to provide up to $20 million in funds for corporate and working capital, according to the Myriad Web site.
Myriad Entertainment recently received approval from the Tunica County Board of Supervisors to implement tax increment financing that could be used to finance about $70 million of infrastructure costs associated with building the resort.
Gary Copeland, director of planning and development for Tunica County, said the tax increment financing would not cost the county anything.
Webster Franklin, president and chief executive officer of the Tunica Convention &Visitors Bureau, said there's still work to be done on the project, but Scott Hawrelechko, CEO of Myriad, appears to be doing all he can to move the project ahead.
"Their task now is to raise funds necessary to build a project this size," he said. "If someone can do a project that is $1.9 billion, it would change the face of Tunica. It would be a bigger and better product to offer the traveling public."
Gregory said the Tunica gaming market has seen little growth the last few years. Nine casinos are located there.
"For that market to grow, another casino the same size of what is there will not change it," he said. "Something very dynamic has to be placed there to grow the market and get more people to come to Tunica. They'll have to continue with the concept of the eighth wonder of the world with indoor golf facility and botanical garden."
|
|
