Concord and Grossinger

Is Scott Rechler on his way to becoming the next Donald Trump?

Maybe not, but he's a key player in a plan to build a Catskills casino that could help give The Donald and Atlantic City a run for their money.

Real estate mogul Rechler is dabbling in the gaming market with the Great Neck-based spin-off of Reckson Associates, Reckson Strategic Venture Partners, better known as RSVP.

RSVP and Westchester-based developer Louis Cappelli plan to sell the Concord and Grossingers Catskill properties to Empire Resorts Inc. in return for a 40 percent stake in Empire.

Monticello-based Empire would then develop a 210,000-square-foot casino on the land housing the Concord Hotel in the Catskills.

On Feb. 10, the Sullivan County Legislature voted 6-3 in favor of five Native American casinos in the county, and Gov. George Pataki has voiced his support for the project as well.

Empire also plans to develop a second casino, at the Monticello racetrack, and a hotel on the land currently occupied by Grossingers resort. Empire already operates nearly 2,000 video-gaming machines in Monticello.

RSVP and Empire had been waiting for gambling approval from the feds before proceeding with the deal, but now that upstate officials and Pataki have given them a thumbs-up, the companies have decided to forge ahead.

[I look] forward to working with Empire to bring gaming to the Catskills, said Rechler, adding that RSVP and Reckson Associates are separate entities and that the latter has nothing to do with the casino and hotel plans.

He added that RSVP is contributing our land at the Concord and Grossingers to Empire Resorts as investors.

The Monticello casino would be developed jointly with the Cayuga Nation of New York. The Concord casino would be a partnership with the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, which lays claim to upstate New York land.

The Concord resort and casino would house about 1,500 rooms on 170 acres of property, once a popular Jewish resort and a mainstay on the Borscht Belt entertainment circuit. The casino would include 160,000 square feet of gaming, 20,000 square feet of restaurant space and 30,000 square feet for operations.

The cost of the project was not disclosed, but the Catskills casino is expected to cost at least $500 million.

There are comprehensive plans to redevelop the Concord property already in place, said Empire spokesman Charles A. Degliomini. There's been a lot of work done in terms of the environmentals and some of the development plans. It [the RSVP deal] is clearly bringing two Catskills premier properties into the new combined company.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 3, Pataki proposed a bill, now pending in the New York State Legislature, for the global settlement of Native American land claims and authorization of gaming compacts for Catskills casinos.

Our plans for the Catskills would result in the creation of up to 50,000 new jobs and attract more than 30 million visitors annually to the region, Pataki said. This historic resort community was once home to more than a dozen first-class resorts, and as we move forward, we will build on that proud legacy.

(Monticello, NY) .The two "crown jewels" of the Catskills, the legendary Concord Resort and Grossingers Country Club were recently sold (December, 2004) by RSVP Reckson Strategic Venture Partners/Cappelli, which purchased them out of bankruptcy, to Empire Resorts. Empire owns Monticello Raceway as well as Mighty M Gaming, which operates the "racino" at the Monticello Raceway. It's been reported that Empire hopes to locate a casino at the Concord in Kiamesha Lake, (as part of Governor Pataki's plan for five casinos in the Catskills), but has not mentioned plans for the former Grossingers property (in Liberty). Currently, the golf course and club house at Grossinger's continues in use, but the remaining buildings that once housed Jennie Grossinger's empire, are abandoned and dangerous. One would hope that Empire will try to capitalize on the legendary Grossinger name, and attempt to bring back a new resort that would both live up to and exced, what Grossinger's was known for.

November 16, 2004

Concord, Grossinger's sold

   By Steve Israel
   Times Herald-Record
   sisrael@th-record.com

   Monticello – The crumbling resort where 50,000 tulips once bloomed could blossom into one of the first Catskill casinos.
   Robert Berman, who grew up in Sullivan County during he decline of the Borscht Belt, yesterday pulled off one of the biggest local deals in decades. His company, Empire Resorts, agreed to buy the Concord resort – and Grossinger's – from Westchester developer Louis Cappelli and his Concord Associates. The price was 18 million shares of Empire stock, worth yesterday about $205 million.
   The deal, reported exclusively in the Record last week, could ultimately mean two Indian casinos for Sullivan County. And that could mean billions for Berman's Empire Resorts and Cappelli's Concord Associates.
   Empire would not comment to the Record. Cappelli did not return three calls.
   Empire has casino management deals with the Seneca Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma and the Cayuga Nation of New York.
   The Seneca Cayugas would build a casino at the Concord. Just last week, the tribe and Gov. Pataki agreed to settle the Seneca Cayuga land claim in exchange for the casino and up to $350 million; the Cayugas would pay casino sales tax.
   The New York Cayugas and Pataki also announced a tentative land claim deal in June for a casino at Empire's Monticello Raceway. But that deal collapsed when the state included the Seneca Cayugas. Both tribes are part of the same land claim against the state, but the New York tribe doesn't want to include the Oklahoma-based Seneca Cayugas.
   This is why Empire wants to broker a new deal between the state and New York Cayugas.
   "[Empire] has urged the state and the Cayuga Nation to pursue a similar settlement agreement [before the end of the year when the tribe's deal with Empire ends]" said its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
   Friction between the tribes is one of several obstacles in the decades-long quest for a Catskill casino, which must win state and federal approval. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who must OK any Indian casino deal, has said she's opposed to off-reservation casinos.
   And even though the Concord has begun the local approval process for a resort/housing development, it may now have to begin again, according to Town of Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini, whose town would host the casinos.
   "This is a whole new ball game," said Cellini, who learned about the deal on the Internet. He added this reference to Cappelli's on-again-off-again plans for the Concord:
   "Do we start all over, or do we go back and look at the same drapes?"
   But both tribes have cleared major hurdles.
   The New York Cayugas won tentative federal approval from the eastern office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. And the Seneca Cayugas may be able to bypass the lengthy federal land-to-trust application. Up to 100 acres could be transferred to the tribe as part of the federal land claim settlement, according to a top state official.
   Still, just the news that two once-proud Catskill resorts may have new life gave some skeptical locals reason to hope.
   "I just hate to see places like that dead," said Kathy Van Loan, who attended firefighter conventions at the Concord as a member of the Monticello Ambulance Corps. She now works at Monticello Greenhouses, which grew the tulips that once bloomed at the Belle of the Borscht Belt.

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Long Island developer to play role in building Catskills casino