This seems to be relevant:
Hard Rock Clears Spectacle Entertainment in Land Deal, $300M Gary, Indiana Casino is a ‘Go’
Hard Rock issued a statement to Casino.org on Monday saying its compliance committee “found that there was no impropriety on behalf of Spectacle” regarding property deals on land for the planned casino off the Frank Borman Expressway. That location is roughly five miles from the Lake Michigan port that’s home to two Majestic Star riverboats currently owned by Spectacle Entertainment.
On Sept. 5, Hard Rock announced its compliance committee would perform due diligence after a series of articles by The Times of Northwest Indiana brought to light concerns about several properties purchased at Lake County tax sales.
The auctions allow the county to sell-off land it seizes when owners fail to pay property taxes. In at least one instance, a man purchased property at a tax sale that was seized from his father, who was looking to sell the land to Spectacle.
On Aug. 28, the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) approved Spectacle’s plan to relocate its casino from the two riverboats and build a 225,000-square-foot casino that Hard Rock would operate. In addition, the venue would include a 2,000-seat concert hall.
The second stage of the project would involve a 200-room hotel.
The Hard Rock casino should employ about 1,600, an increase of around 650 from the current workforce at the Majestic Star boats. The hotel project would add another 200 jobs.
At the IGC meeting, Spectacle’s vice president and general counsel John Keeler said his company and Hard Rock International had signed a letter of intent, with plans to formally sign the partnership agreement by mid-September.
However, that was before Hard Rock brought its compliance committee in to review the project.
The casino and concert hall could be ready by the end of 2020. No announcement has been made regarding when construction would start.
Financial Details
The IGC’s approval is contingent on Spectacle paying a $20 million relocation fee in five annual installments of $4 million.
In addition, earlier this month the Gary Common Council approved a new local arrangement between Spectacle and the city. As part of the revised deal, the city will receive 3 percent of Hard Rock’s adjusted gross casino receipts, as well as three percent of the adjusted revenue from the mobile sports betting applications tied to the casino.
Spectacle also agreed to give back the second Majestic Star license to the state, which has earmarked it for another land-based casino in Terre Haute.
Gary will also receive proceeds from a planned Terre Haute casino if Spectacle and Hard Rock win the license for that venue. Voters in Vigo County will go to the polls next week to decide in a referendum whether they want a casino in the central Indiana city near the Illinois border.
If the referendum passes, the IGC will accept proposals for the casino through Dec. 1.
https://www.casino.org/news/hard-rock-clears-partner-in-land-deal-gary-indiana-casino-is-a-go/
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and previously:
Indiana Majestic Star Casino to Become Hard Rock Gary Through $400M Partnership
Four months after the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) approved the sale of the Majestic Star Casino in Gary to Spectacle Entertainment, the new owners made a big announcement. Over the weekend, the company announced a $400 million partnership with Hard Rock International to rebrand the northwest Indiana casino as Spectacle moves it from two boats on Lake Michigan to an inland location.
It also comes after the Indiana General Assembly passed an expanded gaming law in April allowing the casino’s move. As a result, the new Hard Rock Gary casino will operate under one license instead of two. However, the new casino just outside Chicago will be much larger.
The Hard Rock Casino will have up to 2,764 gaming positions, according to a news release. The Majestic Star’s boats currently combine to hold 1,620 slot machines and 63 table games. Horseshoe Hammond, Indiana’s largest casino and located about six miles west of Gary, features 2,173 slots and 150 table games.
The release did not mention a hotel as part of the project. However, it noted the project would include a Hard Rock Café, a Hard Rock Live concert venue, and several other restaurants and bars on a more than 40-acre plot less than a half hour away from Chicago. Spectacle will also pay a $20 million relocation fee to the state.
The project is expected to create more than 1,000 construction jobs and about 2,000 casino jobs.
“We’re confident this $400 million investment will serve as a significant catalyst for the continued economic revitalization of northwest Indiana and the City of Gary,” Spectacle Entertainment CEO Rod Ratcliff said in the release.
Company officials told the IGC back in March they hope to open the land-based casino by 2022.
Targeting Terre Haute
Spectacle’s plans with Hard Rock do not end, necessarily, in Gary.
The two companies also plan to compete for a casino in Terre Haute, Ind., according to the release. The same law that allowed Spectacle to move inland also allowed Terre Haute to receive the second Majestic Star license.
However, it’s not guaranteed Spectacle would retain that license. First, the measure must pass a countywide referendum in November. Then, the gaming commission would seek bids for the new casino.
Still, Spectacle has had its eye on the central Indiana town near the Illinois border since at least March. Company officials talked about possibly expanding to Terre Haute when the IGC approved the acquisition.
While the legislature had not yet determined how it would handle the second Majestic Star license in March – a point Ratcliff acknowledged to the commission during his discussion with them – Spectacle representatives frequently mentioned Terre Haute businessman Greg Gibson’s involvement in the project.
(Gibson) thinks it’s a game changer for Terre Haute in a lot of ways, because of the market, the void in the market from… Illinois, that it pulls in there, and it’s… the jobs,” Ratcliff told the IGC in March. “The jobs are big for them over there. You know, that’s one of the things he talks about a lot.”
Ratcliff also mentioned the initiative had the support of Terre Haute officials as well.
In the press release, Gibson said the Terre Haute casino would create 500 jobs in the community.
After Indiana approved its gaming bill this year, Illinois lawmakers approved one as well that will set up competitors to Terre Haute and Indiana’s northwest casinos on the other side of the border.
https://www.casino.org/news/indiana-majestic-star-to-become-hard-rock-gary-thanks-to-400m-deal/
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Many Hopeful For Hard Rock Casino In Gary, But Some Say Promised Path Isn’t New
......Yet 24 years ago, similar hopes were voiced by now-president, and then-businessman, Donald Trump. He opened a Gary casino and hotel, which he sold to Majestic in 2005.
Trump bailed before fulfilling a promise to rehab Gary’s Sheraton Hotel, which current Mayor Karen Freeman Wilson later had torn down.
“In my harshest estimation, he made his comeback on the backs of Gary residents,” Freeman Wilson said of Trump.
When asked if it concerned him that Trump’s plans for Gary did not come to fruition, Keeler said, “I wouldn’t want to speak ill of the president.”
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/0...-in-gary-but-some-say-promised-path-isnt-new/