LIBERTY, NY—The significant investment interest in Orange County for a possible casino in the Catskill-Hudson Valley region has caused another casino project to the north to pull out of the running for a state casino license.

Foxwoods and partner Muss Development have announced they will not file a bid by the June 30th deadline with the New York State Gaming Facility Location Board for its proposed Foxwoods Catskills Resort Casino, to be developed at the former Grossingers hotel resort in Liberty.

With that deadline looming, the field is now down to two proposals in Sullivan County—both in the town of Thompson on different pieces of property that once housed the storied Concord Hotel resort—and one in Ulster County at the former Nevele resort, in the town of Wawarsing. Meanwhile, there are still six possible project proposals based in Orange County.

In a two-page advertisement in today's Middletown Times Herald Record, Foxwoods and Muss released a joint statement explaining their decision to pull out of the running for a casino gaming license in New York State.

“Unfortunately, the mere prospect of a casino in Orange County has made securing the required financing from the banks and other equity partners impossible," according to the partners. "We always approached this project by assuming that there would be two casinos in the Catskills, but what we didn't plan for, and cannot compete with, is a casino project in Orange County. Such a location would siphon off the business and guests we projected would come to Grossingers.”

Despite the New York State Gaming Commission's attempt to level the playing field by instituting lower licensing fees for Sullivan and Ulster county casinos if a project in Orange County were approved for a gaming license, those measures were not enough to spur needed capital investment in their Sullivan County venture, the Foxwoods Catskills Resort Casino partners charge.

“To its credit, the NYS Gaming Commission developed different licensing fees and minimal capital investments for different locations; allowed for a binding alternative if a casino were to be built in Orange County; and  made it clear that speed to completion was important and that SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) would impact a project's selection,"
the partners state. "Unfortunately, this did not provide a level of comfort necessary to potential financing partners. As such, our financing challenges have proven to be too great, and we will not be submitting a bid on a project that we cannot complete and will be suspending our efforts at this time.”

“The whole town is very disappointed by this,” Barbuti says Liberty town supervisor Charlie Barbuti. He charges that clarifications earlier this year made by the New York State Gaming Facility Location Board eventually made Orange County more attractive than counties to the north to investors.

“There is no question in my mind that this is the best site. It is next to the highway. We have the poverty numbers, we have the support numbers; everything that was in the legislation for the criteria for selection, we check off every box,” Barbuti says. “And it is just a shame that we didn't get to the selection committee to make its decision. The decision was made by the marketplace.”

He added that all of the projects in the Catskills (Sullivan and Ulster) are either fully approved or nearing completion on approvals, while all of the Orange County projects are just entering the approval process.

A spokesman for the New York State Gaming Facility Location Board released a statement on the siting process, “The Gaming Facility Location Board will closely review all the applications according to a comprehensive evaluation criteria to ensure the greatest benefit. As clearly indicated in the Request for Applications, regional employment benefit, integration into a regional economic development plan and more are all factors in the evaluation criteria. Additionally, the Request for Applications' evaluation criteria include statutory values of 70% for economic activity and business development factors, 20% for local impact and siting factors and 10% for workforce enhancement factors.”

At press time, the Foxwoods-Muss team had not filed a request seeking a refund of its $1-million casino application fee, according to a Gaming Facility Location Board spokesman.