Commission rejects Cedar Rapids casino proposal (in the works since Oct. 2012)

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Commission rejects Cedar Rapids casino proposal

The [Cedar Rapids] Gazette
By Rick Smith, Reporter
Published: April 17 2014 | 8:43 am - Updated: 17 April 2014 | 8:47 am

Cedar Rapids Casino Commission April 2014.jpg
(Photo data and credit: Doug Gross (from left), strategic adviser, Investor Steve Gray, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, Cedar Rapids City Council Member Ann Poe, Cedar Rapids City Council Member Susie Weinacht, Investor Drew Skogman, and Cedar Rapids City Council Member Ralph Russell sit dejected as it becomes clear that the Linn County gambling license wouldn't be approved during a meeting of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission at the Ameristar Casino Hotel Council Bluffs in Council Bluffs on Thursday, April 17, 2014. Stephen Mally/The Gazette)


Excerpt:

The five-member Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission did what it could here to continue the suspense and drama late Thursday morning by allowing the two commissioners whose votes were most expected to speak first.

Carl Heinrich of Council Bluffs, former president of Iowa Western Community College, started by concluding that the proposed Cedar Crossing Casino would harm existing casinos in Eastern Iowa and not be a net benefit to Iowa.

Dolores Mertz of Algona, a former state lawmaker and a farmer, disagreed, saying that state would see a revenue boost from a new Cedar Rapids casino and that the new competition would be good for Iowa's casino industry. The casino industry, like farming, always comes with a risk, Mertz said.

But in quick order, Kristine Kramer of New Hampton and Richard Arnold of Russell reprised Heinrich's reasoning that a Cedar Rapids casino would harm existing casinos, and the matter was closed: the $174-million Cedar Crossing Casino project across the Cedar River from downtown Cedar Rapids was not going to get the needed state gaming license.

Commissioner Chairman Jeff Lamberti made the final vote 4-1.

...

In the minutes immediately prior to the commission's decision, [Ron] Corbett [,Mayor of Cedar Rapids,] kidded that he intended to vanish if the vote went against the Cedar Rapids project. He left quickly after the vote.

Gray left quickly, too.

Skogman remained to say he was “disappointed and shocked.”

“I knew that the commission was going to have a lot of pressure on them from the surrounding casino facilities, and it showed,” Skogman said.

He continued: “I'm extremely proud of Linn County and how everybody worked together. I hope it's a great model going forward for projects, whether it is this one or something else. It shows we can all work together, labor, management, business and government.”

Skogman said it was too soon to know what options for the casino project might still be possible in the future.

“Maybe there are options out there. I haven't thought that through,” he said.

Keith Rippy, executive director of Area Ambulance Service and president of the non-profit Linn County Gaming Association, said the commission vote caught him by surprise. He said he thought the large community support in Cedar Rapids and Linn County for the project and the quality of the casino proposal would have been enough to secure the state gaming license. The non-profit would have had some $2.5 million from casino revenue to distribute to local programs, and now it won't, he said.

“From the standpoint of the non-profit, I'm just very disappointed,” Rippy said. “In my mind, we just lost $2.5 million we could have given back to the community.”

...

Read more: http://thegazette.com/subject/news/g...#ixzz2zD078O00


See also:

No Dice: Commission Rejects Linn Co. Gambling License

KCRG NEWS (Channel 9 ABC in Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
Apr 17, 2014 at 10:16 AM CDT
By Rick Smith, Reporter

http://www.kcrg.com/home/top-9/No-Di...#ixzz2zD2sEBvn

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

$164 million Cedar Rapids casino proposal nixed

Iowa City Press Citizen
6:47 a.m. CDT April 18, 2014


Excerpt:


COUNCIL BLUFFS – The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission rejected a proposed $164 million Cedar Rapids casino Thursday, saying it would hurt existing casinos.

Supporters of the Cedar Crossing Casino development have said it would give an economic boost to Cedar Rapids and the region. They also argued it would be a catalyst for development in an area ravaged by a 2008 flood, create jobs and generate millions for tax revenue and charities.

But representatives of casinos in Riverside, Dubuque and Waterloo fought the plan, saying it would take business away from them.

The five-member commission voted 4 to 1 against the new casino during a meeting in Council Bluffs, with more than 300 people attending.

All of the panel members praised Cedar Rapids plans as top-notch, but the four who voted against the proposal cited studies commissioned by the panel last year that found Iowa's gambling market was saturated. One of the studies said the commission should focus on reinvesting in existing casinos rather than licensing new operations.

...

The lone member who voted to approve the proposal, Dolores Mertz of Algona, said she didn't "want to put anyone out of business," but thinks industry — including Iowa's casino gambling industry — should be market driven.

But commission chairman Jeff Lamberti said the panel's goal is to provide a "stable and predictable gaming environment" in Iowa.

"The commission has never taken the position that it's a free market system for gaming in Iowa," Lamberti said.

The most vocal contingent opposing the development came from the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort about 40 miles south of Cedar Rapids. Casino operators there warned they would have to lay off about a third of their 750 workers if the Cedar Rapids project was approved.


Read more:

http://www.press-citizen.com/story/n...nixed/7860217/

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

After the decision: What is next for Cedar Rapids’ empty casino site?

The [Cedar Rapids] Gazette
By Rick Smith, The Gazette
Published: April 18 2014 | 6:30 pm - Updated: 18 April 2014 | 6:50 pm

Official says Plan B will take some time to create

Cedar Rapids casino proposed site for construction.jpg
(Photo data and credit: The site in Cedar Rapids where the casino was proposed to be constructed. Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)


Excerpt:

CEDAR RAPIDS — Ann Poe admitted to a lingering disappointment Friday that left her as empty as the eight acres of vacant city-owned land where she and other supporters thought the Cedar Crossing Casino would go up.

A day after the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission denied the casino a state gaming license on a 4-1 vote, City Council member Poe was not alone in wondering what might come of the land across the Cedar River from downtown Cedar Rapids.

“At this point it’s hard to drive down there because we had the vision of the casino with a parking ramp almost ingrained in our mind,” Poe said. “It’s very difficult to imagine what else can be there.”

Poe, who grew up on the west side of Cedar Rapids and who has backed the $174 million casino project as a flood-recovery, economic-development investment for the west side, said the city needs to “regroup and rethink and be creative.”

Council member Monica Vernon, the chairwoman of the council’s Development Committee, on Friday said coming up with a Plan B will take some time because Plan A, the casino project, was such a large project with such economic-development potential.

Vernon, too, said the dust was still settling Friday, and she said the city still needed to determine if the casino idea “was completely over.”

There is no mechanism in state government to appeal the Gaming Commission decision against the casino project, and Mayor Ron Corbett, a former state lawmaker, again Friday doubted there was any prospect for a legislative solution at the Iowa Legislature.

Even so, council member Pat Shey, also a former state lawmaker, said he could envision legislation that would permit a new casino with the stipulation that it be required to share revenue with an existing casino that suffers a loss of business because of the new competition.

...

Shey said the city continues to have a development agreement in place with casino investors Cedar Rapids Development Group LLC, which calls for it to buy the site for $2.2 million and pay another $732,730 for streets and alleys.

However, those purchases were conditioned on the casino group building a casino after securing a state gaming license.

At some point when the agreement ends or expires, he said the city will need to reactivate its property disposition process and see what kind of proposals it might get for the property. The city picks the “best project” through that process, and hopefully one that will spur additional development, he said.

...

Corbett said the new New Bohemia district not so many years ago was home to the shuttered Iowa Iron Works plant, the Iowa Steel plant and the Quality Chef plant, not to mention the former Sinclair meatpacking plant, which was demolished after the flood.

A new office building for Geonetric Inc. is going up on the Iowa Steel site, New Bo City Market is on the Quality Chef property and there is a development proposal on now vacant land behind it, the mayor said.

That has been 15 or more years in the making, and the redevelopment of the casino site could take time, too, he said.

...

“It’s going to be difficult for a while. But we’re a tenacious group of people here in Cedar Rapids, and we’ll come up with something. It won’t be the same, but it will be wonderful in a different way. And we’ll look for what that is.”


Read more:

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/a...#ixzz2zLjSkEaU

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Riverside [Casino] CEO’s link to Lamberti draws scrutiny

The [Cedar Rapids] Gazette
By Rick Smith, The Gazette
Published: May 4 2014 @ 10:28 pm

Critic of C.R. project donated to Battleship Iowa fund led by gaming panel chairman


Excerpt:


CEDAR RAPIDS — Casino owner Dan Kehl and lead Cedar Rapids casino investor Steve Gray haven’t seen eye to eye on much of anything, especially now concerning the optics in the latest chapter of their relationship.

Kehl, CEO of Riverside Casino & Golf Resort, on Saturday acknowledged that he has been an ongoing supporter and donor to the Battleship Iowa preservation fund, whose chairman is Jeff Lamberti. Lamberti also is chairman of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.

Kehl has been the most outspoken of critics of a proposed Cedar Rapids casino, saying it would cannibalize business from existing casinos and devastate Riverside.

On April 17, the Racing and Gaming Commission agreed with Kehl and the commission’s market studies of the Iowa gaming industry and denied a state gaming license to Gray’s Cedar Rapids casino project.

The vote was 4-1, with Lamberti voting with the commission majority.

Ten days before the vote, Kehl attended a reception at the governor’s mansion, Terrace Hill, for the Battleship Iowa museum fundraising effort. Lamberti also was among the 25 or so on hand.

...

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said more.

“I just want to make sure that the city of Cedar Rapids and Linn County have been treated fairly in this whole process and that the scale wasn’t tipped against us,” Corbett said Saturday. “And I hope that isn’t the case as it relates to these contributions and the Terrace Hill event as it relates to a foundation specifically chaired by Lamberti.”

Corbett said he wanted to see the details of when Kehl and any other casino owners made contributions to Lamberti’s battleship fundraising endeavor. As for the Terrace Hill reception 10 days before the Racing and Gaming Commission vote, “it just doesn’t give the best appearance,” Corbett said.

...


Read more:

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/g...#ixzz31SlHs8w1

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Cedar Crossing Casino (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)

cedar rapids casino cedar crossing.jpg

http://cedarcrossingcasino.com/

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

[Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron] Corbett says he’s in on Cedar Rapids casino for the long haul

The [Cedar Rapids] Gazette
By Rick Smith, The Gazette
Published: May 13 2014 @ 6:00 pm

Former speaker of the Iowa House said Legislature is place to start

cedar rapids casino cedar crossing may 13 2014.jpg
(Photo data and credit: The site for the proposed casino in Cedar Rapids. Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)


Excerpt:

CEDAR RAPIDS — Don’t look for an aquarium or planetarium or any Next Big Thing to take shape for now on the city-owned, eight-acre site of the proposed Cedar Crossing Casino.

At least not if Mayor Ron Corbett has anything to say about it.

Corbett said this week that the dust is settling now, a month after the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission, on a 4-1 vote, denied a state gaming license for the $170 million casino project across the Cedar River from downtown Cedar Rapids.

In that month, Corbett said most residents who have talked to him have asked him to not give up on the casino idea.

...

Having said that, he said the best option likely will be a Cedar Rapids-led effort to convince the Iowa Legislature to grant Cedar Rapids a casino license instead of leaving the decision to the five appointees of Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission.

A Cedar Rapids legislative proposal, he said, likely would call for the state’s first “smoke-free, Blue (wellness) Zone” casino to be located in Cedar Rapids, a city seeking a casino to further its effort to recover from the historic flood of 2008.

Corbett, a former speaker of the Iowa House, said the Iowa Legislature has had trouble reaching consensus on issues related to racing and gaming, and he said it took the Legislature several years before it reached an agreement this year to limit unprofitable dog racing in the state.

...

In pursuit of a legislative solution, he said Cedar Rapids also will be watching to see if the composition of the Racing & Gaming Commission changes and if the governor appoints members who might favor “more competition” in Iowa’s gaming industry and who do not share the current majority’s “protectionist” philosophy.

However, Corbett noted that the commission chairman, Jeff Lamberti, and member Carl Heinrich have just been reappointed by Gov. Terry Branstad to new three-year terms, and member Rich Arnold has two years remaining on his term. All three voted with the 4-1 majority against the Cedar Rapids proposal.

Corbett said “most assume” that Branstad, a Republican, will win re-election in November over Jack Hatch, a Democratic state senator, though Hatch has come out publicly in recent weeks to support the Cedar Rapids casino proposal as part of the city’s flood-recovery effort.

Corbett said the chance for “wholesale changes”to the makeup of the Racing & Gaming Commission — and to the chance of the commission granting a Cedar Rapids gaming license — is greater if Hatch defeats Branstad.

...

Last week, the Cedar Rapids casino investor group and the not-for-profit Linn County Gaming Association — which by Iowa law would hold any state gaming license for the Cedar Rapids project — announced that they would remain in place and look for opportunities as they came up to garner a casino license.

Brent Oleson, a Linn County supervisor and a member of the Linn County Gaming Association board, this week said he, like Corbett, is not giving up on the idea of a Cedar Rapids casino.

Oleson has disagreed with Gray and the investor group, others on his gaming association board and Corbett who, in the past week, suggested that Lamberti as state commission chairman sided with existing casinos against the Cedar Rapids proposal because of casino donations to a Lamberti-supported not-for-profit project, the USS IOWA battleship museum.

...

Read more at:

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/c...#ixzz31hzAf2dR

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Cedar Rapids' Casino would be a smoke-free casino, the first in Iowa.

Cedar Rapids mayor holds out hope for new [and smoke-free] casino

Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
May 31, 2014
By: Mike Wiser


Excerpt:


JOHNSTON | Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said the casino plan for his city isn’t dead yet because Gov. Terry Branstad seemed open to having a smoke-free casino in the state.

"That was probably about as encouraging as we could have received,” Corbett said following a Friday taping of Iowa Public Television’s "Iowa Press" Program. "Now, (Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Chairman Jeff) Lamberti and the commission, the governor’s their boss, and their boss is saying, ‘I’d like to see, maybe, a smoke-free casino,’ so let’s see if that gets any traction.”

...

Corbett joined Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie for the "Iowa Press" taping, where the mayors talked about gaming, climate change and a host of issues facing Iowa’s municipalities.

Cownie and Corbett agreed the recently completed legislative session didn’t cause much heartache for the state’s two largest cities.

“We’re always working on flood issues, so we proposed a little bit of a tweak to go before the board to allow regional applications, and we got great bipartisan support,” Cownie said. “Republicans, Democrats in both the Senate and the House.”

...

“We don't know what's going to happen in Congress, but I think this administration is committed to trying to figure out what kind of schemes can we put together in terms of funding for projects, much as the mayor and I are working on in our cities,” he said. “And Iowa, you know, it used to be that 85 percent of the water that came from the sky was absorbed on-site. Now, it has switched. It's 85 percent is in the river and 15 percent is absorbed on-site.”


Read more at:

http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/gov...45432184e.html

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Des Moines and Cedar Rapids mayors talk casinos

Program: Iowa Press
Station: Iowa Public Television
Date: May 30, 2014

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Video: Iowa loses without a Cedar Rapids casino, Ron Corbett tells IPTV

The [Cedar Rapids] Gazette
By Rick Smith, The Gazette
Published: May 30 2014 | 1:00 pm - Updated: 30 May 2014 | 6:04 pm


Excerpt:


JOHNSTON — Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett on Friday said that the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission’s denial last month of a state gaming license for a Cedar Rapids casino hurts all of Iowa, not just Cedar Rapids.

Speaking on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” show,” Corbett said the state of Iowa has evolved in a way that the state depends on “hub” economies like Des Moines and Central Iowa and Cedar Rapids and the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor.

“… (T) he future is going to be these hub economies … and supporting Iowa’s second largest city (Cedar Rapids) is important not just for the second largest city, but the state of Iowa,” Corbett said. “We generate a lot of tax revenue for the legislature and the governor to divvy up every year whether that’s for schools or … human service programs, roads and bridges.”

...

Corbett said he was “extremely disappointed” that the Racing & Gaming Commission turned down the Cedar Rapids proposal for a state gaming license. He said the Cedar Rapids “urban” casino was a “newer product” than “the standard traditional cornfield casinos that Iowa has approved” and would have provided a “shot in the arm” to a state casino industry where revenues have become “stagnant.”

He said the state commission has done a good job of regulating Iowa’s casinos to protect against corruption as it has worked to promote the casino industry in the state.

“I think they lost sight of that promotion of the industry and took more of a promotion of a particular operator (stance),”Corbett said.

He was referring to the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort, which stood to lose significant business to a Cedar Rapids casino, according to two studies conducted for the commission.

Corbett, former speaker of the Iowa House, said the commission has suggested that Cedar Rapids look to the Iowa Legislature for help on the casino project, and he said that was a “possibility.” He said, too, that Gov. Terry Branstad said a week ago that he might be open to legislative efforts and that he liked Corbett’s idea of a smoke-free casino.

Corbett said a smoke-free casino in Cedar Rapids “would be a completely different product” for Iowa’s casino industry, and he suggested that the state commission consider allowing Cedar Rapids to reapply as a first-in-the state, smokeless casino.

Corbett appeared on the IPTV interview show with Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie.

...

Cownie said, “You know, at the moment, I’d absolutely agree with Mayor Corbett.”


Read more at:

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/v...#ixzz33OO75JIV

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

CR Council Buys Back Casino Land

The [Cedar Rapids] Gazette
By Rick Smith, The Gazette
Published: Jul 23, 2014 at 12:39 PM CDT Updated: Jul 23, 2014 at 1:42 PM CDT


Excerpt:

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Without City Council or public comment, the council this week agreed to buy four parcels of land that the local group of casino investors hustled to buy in the summer of 2013 so they could complete plans for their Cedar Crossing Casino.

...

The casino investors led by Cedar Rapids businessman Steve Gray paid $2.05 million for four parcels of property, and the City Council now has agreed to buy it for $415,000 or 20 percent of the casino investors’ cost. The city also will pay demolition costs.

Mayor Ron Corbett said last week that the city wanted to buy the four parcels from the casino investors, Cedar Rapids Development Group LLC, so the city controlled all the contiguous parcels in the eight-plus acres that comprise the proposed casino site directly across the Cedar River from downtown.

The city already had owned most the site having obtained the property through the federally funded, flood-recovery buyout program.

Corbett said the city will approach the Iowa Legislature about the city’s continued interest in bringing a casino to the riverfront site. But this week’s property purchase puts the city in a position to market the entire casino site for another development if a casino does not come to be, he said.

...


Read more at:

http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/cr-...mment-20140723

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Cedar Rapids attorney sues Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission

The [Cedar Rapids] Gazette
By Rick Smith, The Gazette
Published: July 24 2014 | 1:58 pm - Updated: 24 July 2014 | 2:10 pm

Commission has it wrong on Cedar Rapids casino, Eugene Kopecky says


Excerpt:

CEDAR RAPIDS — Eugene Kopecky, a retired Cedar Rapids attorney and one-time Linn County attorney, is taking on the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission in an effort to win a state gaming license for a Cedar Rapids casino.

Kopecky filed a lawsuit this week in Linn County District Court against the commission and the four of five commission members who voted April 17 to deny a state gaming license to casino investor group Cedar Rapids Development Group LLC.

Kopecky, who has practiced law in Cedar Rapids since 1966, said Thursday that his lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment. He said he wants the court to instruct the commission on the state’s gaming law in a way that would require the commission to revisit the Cedar Rapids casino application and grant a state gaming license.

...

He said state law doesn’t give the state commission the ability to deny a casino license in one county based on a license in another county, he said.

...

Kopecky hinted that a lawsuit could be coming in an April 26 guest column in The Gazette when he said that the commission’s April decision did not serve Iowans and particularly did not serve Linn County residents who voted to allow casino gaming. Instead, the commission voted to protect existing state-licensed casinos from competition, he said.

...


Read more at:
http://thegazette.com/subject/news/c...ssion-20140724

[Lucas Daniel Smith]

Non-smoking Cedar Rapids casino bill advances in [Iowa] Senate

Non-smoking Cedar Rapids casino bill advances in Senate

Des Moines Register
By William Petroski (bpetrosk@dmreg.com)
Feb. 26, 2015

Excerpt:

A bill aimed at forcing state regulators to grant a state gambling license to establish a non-smoking casino in Cedar Rapids advanced in an Iowa Senate subcommittee Thursday, although it faces an uncertain future.

The three-member subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Wally Horn, D-Cedar Rapids, voted 2-1 to send Senate File 139 to the Iowa Senate State Government Committee. A similar bill that would authorize two no-smoking casinos was considered by an Iowa House panel earlier this week, but did not advance.

Horn unsuccessfully proposed a Cedar Rapids gambling bill at the end of last year’s legislative session. That happened after the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission voted 4-1 to reject plans for a $164 million casino in Cedar Rapids, saying it would hurt existing casinos.

The Senate bill doesn’t specifically name Cedar Rapids as the site of new smoke-free casino, but it would require the gambling business to be located in a city with a population of more than 50,000.

All of Iowa’s existing 21 casinos permit patrons to smoke on the gambling floor.

Gary Grant, a lobbyist for the City of Cedar Rapids, said city officials understand the push for a Cedar Rapids casinos is an “incredibly uphill climb,” but he believes it’s appropriate for lawmakers to review the state’s oversight of the casino industry.

Larry Murphy, a former legislator who also lobbies for the City of Cedar Rapids, said that under current state policy, casino workers are forced to work in an environment where they are breathing second-hand smoke on a daily basis.

...

Read more at:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/sto...free/24062283/