The plan to build three casinos in a warehouse district east of downtown on the Detroit River now goes to the Michigan Gaming Control Board for review.
"We're obviously very happy and very pleased," said Herb Strather, chair of Atwater group. The partnership includes Las Vegas-based Circus Circus, which won one of the three casino franchises.
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| AP PHOTO Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer thanks the City Council following its approval of his $1.8 billion plan to build three casinos in Detroit. |
Mayor Dennis Archer pushed the project as a way to revitalize the city's slumping economy, but was criticized after none of the three franchises were awarded to blacks in a city that is 80 percent black.
Archer countered by saying blacks had stakes in all three casino groups and would benefit from the creation of 11,000 permanent full-time jobs and the infusion of $180 million in taxes a year that will go to fighting crime and supporting schools.
Casinos will "bring jobs, business opportunities, a new stream of tax revenue and a first-class tourist attraction to the City of Detroit," Archer said at a news conference, standing in front of the council members who approved the plan.
"This is a very, very important step that is going to make a big difference for the City of Detroit," Archer said.
Don Barden, a black business executive whose casino proposal was rejected by Archer, emphasized the state still must approve the plan.
"This is not over yet," Barden said. "This is just a first phase. We could be back to square one in a number of months."
The council yesterday approved the Greektown/Chippewa Indians and Circus Circus proposals by 6-3 votes. The MGM Grand proposal passed 5-4, after council member Kenneth Cockrel switched his vote.
Cockrel said he voted against MGM because it has approximately 3 percent black ownership, the lowest of the three winning bids.
"In a city that is 80 percent African American, I would have liked to see it go to a majority-black group," Cockrel said.
Archer also came under fire for moving the proposed casino site from the central business district to an area along the Detroit River a few miles away. Archer said the new area was the only viable site.
Council member Nicholas Hood III voted against the casinos because of their location.
"It doesn't have any economic spinoff for the downtown," he said of the riverfront site.
Some residents disagreed.
"It truly is the right thing for the city," said Brian McDonald, manager of the Soup Kitchen Saloon in the riverfront district. "It will bring a lot of revenue and physical improvements."
Archer had given the council a deadline of today to pass the plan or risk torpedoing the project. He had said a failure to act this week would endanger financing and embolden casino opponents statewide.
"Detroit cannot continue to be a boom-or-bust economy," the mayor told the council Tuesday. "There is no other economic development initiative that provides that kind of opportunity."
The state gaming board could act within four to six months, paving the way for temporary casinos to open by the end of the year or the beginning of 1999, Archer said. Permanent casinos would follow two to three years later.
The statewide ballot measure allowing casino gambling in Detroit passed in 1996.
Supporters say gambling would give a boost to a city that has been striving to come back after a long slide. Since the late 1950s, the city has lost nearly half its people and more than half its jobs. A steady flight to the suburbs was accelerated after the 1967 race riots that killed 43 people and left blocks and blocks of burned-out hulks.
04-10-98
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