Des Plaines approves exclusive agreement for casino
The Des Plaines City Council voted 6-2 Tuesday to enter an exclusive agreement with Midwest Gaming & Entertainment in the quest for the 10th casino license, rejecting an appeal that it stay neutral in proceedings before the Illinois Gaming Board, which has set a Tuesday, Oct. 14, deadline for applications.
Midwest Gaming is controlled by Chicago billionaire Neil Bluhm, who joined with the city in a bid for the license in 2002 and who said he would drop out of the bidding this time around if the city took a neutral stance.
In recent weeks, Robert Kozonis, owner of the O'Hare Lake Office Park, has said he was seeking a developer for an alternative proposal for that area, west of the Tri-State Tollway at 2200-2400 E. Devon Ave. Bluhm's proposal is for land on the east side of the tollway fronting on River Road and running south to Devon.
Kozonis' attorney, Douglas Brown, said that the council's action wouldn't preclude people working with Kozonis from making their own casino proposal, but that it wasn't helpful.
Several council members expressed unhappiness that Kozonis didn't put forward a specific proposal or identify his investors. Brown said that it was premature to do that before submitting an application to the gaming board, and suggested that the city was stifling competition and tainting the process by taking sides prematurely.
But city officials said Kozonis had gone back and forth several times on whether he was going to make a presentation and Bluhm scoffed at the idea that to do so would be giving up information that could help other bidders.
Bluhm said he has spent six years and $4 million seeking a license in Des Plaines, and that he has rejected solicitations from other communities and from Kozonis to look at their sites.
In the last round of bidding, a proposal for a casino in Rosemont won out. Questions were raised about some of the parties involved and the license became available again after years of litigation.
The agreement with Midwest Gaming basically reaffirms the deal that was reached with Bluhm last time he bid. It includes a split of gambling tax revenues with the city that would net Midwest Gaming $9 million a year until it has recovered $94 million.
City staff backed Bluhm's proposal as offering the best chance of winning approval of a casino in Des Plaines with no risk to the city's taxpayers, City Manager Jason Bajor said.