THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2008
Talks Slated On City-Bluhm Casino Partnership
By TODD WESSELL
Journal & Topics Editor
Des Plaines aldermen have tentatively scheduled a discussion on the city's partnership with a Chicago billionaire to try to secure state approval for a casino to operate here.
Included as part of the draft agenda for City Council's Monday, Sept. 15 regular meeting is a slot of time to discuss the city's agreement with Midwest Gaming & Entertainment LLC to try to gain state approval for a casino. Because the planned discussion is part of a draft agenda, aldermen and Legal & Licensing Committee chairman Ald. Carl Brookman (5th) can change their minds and not talk about the casino at that time. It's believed that Ald. Brookman had the item placed on the tentative agenda about 10 days ago under "committee of the whole" where matters are discussed but not necessarily acted on.
Two attempts by the Journal & Topics Newspapers to contact Brookman for comment this week were unsuccessful.
If and when council members discuss the city's previous agreements with Midwest Gaming and its owner, Chicago real estate billionaire Neil Bluhm, they will likely focus on formal resolutions approved in 2002, 2003 and 2004. One of the resolutions says the city shall work exclusively with Midwest Gaming "in pursuing a license authorizing the docking of a riverboat in the City of Des Plaines." While it is not publicly known what aldermen will discuss concerning this resolution, there is speculation that questions will be raised whether the exclusivity provision does or should remain in affect.
A second resolution concerns the city's willingness in 2003 to share 25% of its host community revenue with up to 10 of the most economically depressed municipalities in Cook County. State law says the host community of a casino can reap a tax amounting to 5% of the adjusted gross revenues generated by the casino, which could total more than $20 million annually.
The third resolution involves Mar. 12, 2004 City Council approval of a lengthy Business Development Agreement with Midwest Gaming that would provide Bluhm's company with incentives amounting to $94 million paid out over several years. There is some speculation that because this resolution was embraced by the city more than four years ago, it requires discussion and possible change partly because casinos are not producing as much revenue as before.
Previous attempts to reach Bluhm have been unsuccessful.
The scheduling of a meeting on the casino issue for mid-September make sense because the Illinois Gaming Board has set an Oct. 14 deadline for applications to be submitted to own and operate the state's 10th and final casino license.
A list of three finalists will be created and a winner of the license will be declared by the end of the year, the Gaming Board has said.
As reported exclusively in the Wednesday, Sept. 3 Journal & Topics Newspapers, a group of investors led by Robert L. Kozonis, owner of the 50-acre O'Hare Lakes office complex in Des Plaines, may submit an application to the Gaming Board to own and operate a casino in Des Plaines. Kozonis, it's believed, does not want to own the casino, but to lease his property where one can operate. His property is located west of the Tri-State Tollway and north of Devon Avenue, across from Rosemont. Bluhm's Midwest Gaming is also expected to submit an application for a casino in Des Plaines.
Applications to operate a casino in Rosemont and Waukegan and possibly one or two other suburbs are also expected to be submitted to the Gaming Board by Oct. 14.