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| June 18, 2010 By IGNAZIO MESSINA, TOLEDO BLADE STAFF WRITER Penn National Gaming Inc. finally has shown its cards and released details of the casino it plans to build in East Toledo just north of Rossford. It could be the first to open in the state. The Wyomissing, Pa., company filed a major site plan with the city and revealed its plan to tear up an existing $1 million road, storm sewer line, and also a public bicycle path, paid for by the city of Toledo, in order to build its planned casino and parking structure on former industrial riverfront land. Toledo Law Director Adam Loukx said the city will be made whole because the company has agreed to reimburse Toledo up to $1.1 million for the cost of the improvements that will be abandoned.  VIEW: Newly released Casino site plan "There is no need to vacate the road because it was never dedicated where it became a public street open to the public," Mr. Loukx said. "Subject to council approval we would like to get reimbursed for the road, and they would relocate the road." A Penn National spokesman did not return telephone calls seeking comment. Because the company already owns the property on Miami Street near I-75 - which includes the road that was apparently never an actual public street - some might be perplexed as to why Penn National would pay the city anything. Mr. Loukx explained the two sides could otherwise be entangled in legal complexities. "It was built with 2 percent money, which is utility money, and we cannot just give that away," Mr. Loukx said. "There is a provision as part of our utility fee that 2 percent will go into a fund to support infrastructure for economic development [and] the requirement of the 2 percent program is we have to own and control the property." He said Penn National "would prefer to own it" and that would also make the company liable to maintain the new road it plans to build for the casinos. Karlene Fredericks, who lives directly across from where the existing property entrance is and from where the new parking garage will be built, is worried about traffic, excessive light, and noise. "I am really surprised the garage will be there because I thought it would have been on the other side of I-75 and that they would have run a shuttle," Ms. Fredericks said. Her next door neighbor, Dorothy Kralik, is more in favor of the casino. "We need the money. People need the jobs," she said. Ms. Kralik said she plans to sell her home - possibility to a developer who would put a business on her property. "I am happy with it although I know some of my friends said it would bring an uncouth type of people, but I don't think so," Ms. Kralik said. Louie Bauer, former Rossford mayor, has criticized for months the decision to vacate the road as well as the bike trail. "Certainly the citizens of northwest Ohio are being shortchanged if the bike trail is vacated that has been paid for with public money," Mr. Bauer said. "What are they going to do for public access to the river, which was required under a state of Ohio grant?" The $250 million gambling facility to be called Hollywood Casino Toledo is scheduled to open in late 2012. The major site plan will go before the Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions on July 8, and will not go before Toledo City Council for a vote unless any "interested party" files an appeal, said Tom Lemon, plan commission administrator. The site plan shows a 75-foot high, 1.2-million square-foot parking garage with the equivalent of 5 1/2 decks. The whole property will have 4,388 parking spaces. The casino itself will have about 227,000 square feet on the main level, 218,000 square-feet on the lower level, 114,000 square feet for a 260-space valet parking area, and 104,000 square feet for "employees and operations" according to the plans. The casino building will be 84 feet high, 450 wide, and 475 feet long, the plan states. The plan appears to show a new bike trail along the river and it also has an area designated for a "potential future hotel" on the eastern side of the site between the river and the casino. Construction on the existing road, sewer line, and bike path began in late 2005 during Mayor Jack Ford's administration to help promote development on the once-polluted property. A March 1 letter from former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Andy Douglas, who has been working as an attorney for the casino company, promises the money "once the improvements in question are abandoned." Toledo Councilman D. Michael Collins - who opposed the site-specific constitutional amendment voters approved in November to legalize Las Vegas-style gambling in four Ohio cities - has numerous questions about the east side property and the deal with Penn National. Mr. Collins said an ordinance council passed on Dec. 28, 2009, amended a prior development agreement for the property but he says it was written incorrectly and now needs to be redone. "We were never told by the former administration and Andy Douglas, as attorney for Penn National, that we would be vacating the road," Mr. Collins said. "It was taxpayer dollars that cleaned that property up, and I am not sure we are getting our return on our investment." A $2.9 million state grant and funding from Toledo were used to clean up the site. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency approved the remediation in February, 2009, clearing the way for redevelopment. Mr. Collins said the city's match for that grant was the nearly $1.1 million, which paid the cost of the road that Penn National wants to remove. Mr. Loukx acknowledged the Dec. 28 legislation incorrectly lists "Maumee/I75 LLC." "There were three different LLCs and they are all owned or controlled by [Penn National]," he said. "In a perfect world I wish it said the right one, but I think it would be wrong to say there is a fatal problem." Penn National announced Dec. 30, 2009, that it had completed the purchase of 44 acres in East Toledo on which it planned to build the casino. The sale closed Dec. 23, according to the Lucas County auditor's database. Penn National paid $2.5 million for two parcels - 37 acres and seven acres - along the Maumee River on either side of I-75, north of Rossford. The previous owner, River Road Redevelopment LLC, purchased the property in 2006 for $565,000. The constitutional amendment passed by voters last year required a total of $1 billion - $250 million per casino - in initial on-site investments. It also required them to pay a total of $200 million - $50 million per casino in up-front licensing fees targeting local work-force development programs. |
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