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The Weight Of A Community's Future
Michael Treanor Speaks Of Some Casino Alternatives

Once Michael Ready Treanor got his first taste running casinos in Las Vegas, he realized the industry's mix of investment, legal and people know-how played right to his strengths. Similarly, Treanor says that when Gov. Andrew Cuomo started speaking about using casino gambling as a means of bettering the Upstate New York economy, he knew the odds were right for him and his investor group at Claremont Partners to bet on the Nevele's chances at getting okayed as a means for changing the Ellenville's lot.

"I went to the mayor, Jeff Kaplan, and other community leaders and said it's going to be tough... will you help me with the effort," Treanor said in a recent interview of what's wed his future to the area's. "They've all supported the Nevele effort fully."

We brought up the various pay-to-play thresholds that have been mentioned in Cuomo's statements regarding casino gambling to date... from the single casino for the Catskills/Hudson Valley region to talk of minimum investments in the $200 million range, plus sizeable fees to go to the state for approvals. Treanor explained his view of the real numbers behind the rhetoric, based on his years in the business of gambling, as well as the politics of real estate and developmental investments.

"The bottom line is that no one knows what the market is for any of this yet," he said. "I don't think the amounts, in the Catskills at least, can be in the hundreds of millions... the interest from national gambling interests is too tepid for the large amounts, yet, because of the many unknowns involved. Publicly-traded companies don't like uncertainty. We have the ability to prove ourselves through a combination of bond and hedge fund investors, and my assumption is that the total pay-to-play amount we'll have to come up with will be in the $25 to $30 million range. With a full roll out of capital investment, our plans have us ending up at about $450 million, which is at the high end of what's expected. On top of that, we'd be five miles closer to Central Park than anything else that's been proposed."

As for the machinations that could see Cuomo's stated will for three casinos, statewide, thwarted by State Senator John Bonacic's current proposal for seven casinos, including two in Sullivan county and one in Ulster, Treanor talked about his need to push harder as second in line. And he said he was more than ready for the hard questions and perusal that will be involved in getting to the casino state in the coming years, if that's what the fates have in store for him.

"I'm no stranger to hard questions. After all, we are number two so we have to make sure the competitive landscape accepts us," he said, acknowledging that past problems experienced by an associate when New York City's Aqueduct Raceway was seeking a casino okay led him to sever that relationship... for the Nevele's and Ellenville's sake. Similarly, he answered questions regarding a strange settlement reached in the courts with his sister straight-on, adding that such things were distractions.

"Some have suggested we aim for having slots only at the Nevele. I've always said no to that," Treanor continued. "We have a plan that allows for the maximum capital investment we can get into this property, this community. We're pushing real grass roots community support here, hoping someone in Albany weighs what we're proposing against the huge Malaysian investment involved with the Monticello bid. In fact, we're not even looking at it as it being us up against Monticello... although, unfortunately, that's how the governor's plan makes things appear."

What happens, we ask, if Cuomo won't budge on what he's proposed? In the past Treanor had said he'd have to walk away from the Nevele without casino gambling as part of the deal...

"There's a $16 million first mortgage on the property... do they want to foreclose if our Plan A isn't working? Is that feasible," he asked. "We'd have to figure things out, including whether a casino could be possible another five years down the line. I don't know what such plans would look like yet except that I know that a slots-only resort is not the right thing for the Nevele."

We asked Treanor what he'd been learning from his experiences with Ellenville and its former glory resort. Even though he tends not to overnight here, and stays in Stone Ridge when unable to make it home to New Jersey, he's grown attached to the community and its people. He talks about the many good people he's met, whose dreams he feels he carried now on his shoulders.

"It brings me down at times, the battles ahead," he said.

But then Michael Ready Treanor pauses, and shifts tone.

"To tell you the truth, everything's outweighed by the personal satisfaction I feel fighting the good fight," he says.

In other words, the future of a community's at play.



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