Developer wants casinos in Miami Beach, downtown Miami

http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/702108.html


Developers are preparing a pitch to voters for full casino gambling in downtown Miami.

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND MATTHEW HAGGMAN
meklas@MiamiHerald.com

The developer of a massive project in downtown Miami is quietly considering a campaign to amend Florida's Constitution to allow Las Vegas-style casinos in the city and open the door for a similar casino at Miami Beach's famed Fontainebleau Hotel.

A political committee financed by Marc Roberts, who along with Art Falcone is developing the 25-acre Miami Worldcenter, has spent more than $850,000, hired 13 petition gathering companies and has lawyers working to write an initiative for possible placement on the 2010 ballot.

A key selling point: taxes on the new casinos would go to benefit all Florida schools, just like the successful slots initiative before it.

According to drafts of the petition language obtained by The Miami Herald, the committee is considering three amendments, two of which are designed to appeal to the existing parimutuel companies in Miami-Dade and Broward by asking voters to give them the same games as the Seminole Tribe and lower their tax rate.

A draft of the proposed casino amendment allows for Class III gambling, including craps, keno, roulette, blackjack and slot machines, to be played at any of these sites: existing parimutuels in Miami Dade or Broward, a Miami location that is ''bounded by Northeast 11th Street, Biscayne Boulevard, Northeast Sixth Street and North Miami Avenue,'' and at a hotel in Miami Beach that has ''over 800 lodging rooms'' when the amendment is passed.

The Fontainebleau, with roughly 1,200 rooms, is the only Miami Beach hotel that would qualify, according to the Miami-Dade tourism bureau.

To become law, the amendments would have to be approved by 60 percent of Florida voters statewide, and the tax-related amendment would need 66 percent approval. In the past, gambling amendments have had a tough time, even before the law was changed to require they reach the 60 percent threshold.

Michael Caputo, spokesman for Roberts' group, the Committee for Critical Challenges, acknowledged that they are looking into the feasibility of offering casino games as well as other ambitious projects, such as an aquarium or an international trading center for energy credits at Miami Worldcenter.

''We've got plenty of money to do what needs to be done and we are clearly armed for the battle,'' he said. ``If we did not look at gaming in downtown Miami we would be remiss.''

If successful, the campaign would put a casino in the middle of Miami Worldcenter, a mixed-use development proposed for nine blocks in downtown's Park West neighborhood. The multiphase project is slated to first include hotels, shops, restaurants and entertainment components -- and later, offices and residences.

City commissioners are currently considering a zoning change for the development and an agreement that would cement the changes for the next 20 years.

But the prospect of a political campaign to push for a casino has been kept so secret that even the project's managing director, Nitin Motwani, said he didn't know about it until The Miami Herald told him Thursday. Motwani said he believes the project will go forward as planned.

''The project has a direction, which does not include gaming,'' he said. ``We welcome the exploratory committee's suggestions and anyone's suggestions to make a better project. But this committee certainly doesn't dictate what we are going to do.''

Caputo emphasized that the committee has not yet decided what to do and that gaming is ''the heaviest lift'' because he estimates it could take a $100 million campaign to get 60 percent of the vote.

Caputo, who has been paid $66,000 by the committee, said the development group and the political committee have been working on separate tracks, even though they are both financed by the same source.

He said the committee hired former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre in July to look at how to develop more jobs for Miami. Ferre has been paid $50,000 and would not comment.

''The reason nobody has heard anything about this is, it's not cooked,'' Caputo said.

He added that while their initial goal was to blanket the state with signature gatherers on Election Day, Nov. 4, they now ``are by no means going into the field with any signature gathering personnel.''

Caputo also said he has no knowledge of a partnership between the Worldcenter project and the Fontainebleau Hotel to pursue a casino venture. The hotel is jointly owned by Aventura-based Fontainebleau Resorts and Nakheel Hotels, a company owned by the Dubai government. But when Fontainebleau Resorts executive chairman Jeffrey Soffer acquired the resort in 2005, he made it clear he sees it as a Vegas outpost in Miami Beach.

Soffer has teamed with prominent Vegas casino operator Glenn Schaeffer to recast the Fontainebleau in a Sin City role. The new resort, slated to reopen this fall after a $500 million expansion and renovation, was designed to be an all-inclusive destination, where guests could sleep, eat and play on the grounds throughout their vacation -- similar to the Vegas model.

Fontainebleau Resorts are currently developing a $2.9 billion casino resort on the Las Vegas strip. Schaeffer and Soffer announced the venture after acquiring the original in Miami Beach, with plans to expand Fontainebleau into a global casino and resort brand.

Soffer was reached Thursday but declined comment.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who has worked closely with Falcone's team of advisors to advance the downtown project, said he is not opposed to a casino in Miami.

''I am not averse to a system with a limited number of licenses for casinos that cater to a higher-end clientele,'' Diaz said. ``But what I don't want is rundown gambling places on every street corner and I don't want people walking in with their Social Security checks and blowing them.''

Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, whose district includes Miami Worldcenter, said he hadn't heard of a proposal for Las Vegas-style gambling in the city. But he said that ``under certain circumstances, I could support casino gambling.

''My vision would be Monte Carlo,'' he said. ``Something pretty high-end where you would not be taking money from local citizens.''

Falcone and Roberts began assembling the downtown land four years ago, quietly buying up land in the blighted Park West neighborhood. In June, Roberts formed the political committee but kept its existence quiet as he started hiring consultants and petition gathering firms.

Falcone, CEO and co-chairman of Miami Worldcenter Group, was in London and couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

Caputo confirmed that the political committee has hired the Virginia-based polling firm Fabrizio McLaughlin but he said they have not yet started polling Floridians about the issue.

There are two versions of the draft amendment obtained by The Miami Herald and acknowledged by Caputo. One requires a local referendum to allow for full casino gambling, another does not.

''I can't tell you anything,'' said Ron Book, a longtime lobbyist for the parimutuel industry in Florida. ``I don't think a decision on popping something has been made . . . They've all got agreements not to talk.''

The Seminole Tribe, which owns the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood and would be the group's likely largest competition, has ''heard nothing about it,'' said tribe spokesman Gary Bitner.

Neither had several executives of other South Florida pari-mutuels. Dan Licciardi of Miami Jai-Alai, said, ``It's very interesting. I haven't heard a word.''

Dan Adkins, president of Mardi Gras Racetrack and Gaming Center in Hallandale Beach, said he has not heard about the project but had been approached by Falcone and Roberts earlier this year to sell Mardi Gras' dormant greyhound racing permit from the former Biscayne Kennel Club. Falcone and Roberts wanted to use it to allow them to operate a gambling operation on their property.

''I explained to them that couldn't happen,'' Adkins said. The law requires that only existing parimutuel sites in Miami Dade and Broward are allowed to operate slot machine gambling and it's not transferable.

Caputo said that's not the way Roberts remembers it. He said Adkins called him unsolicited and offered to sell the permit.

'Adkins' idea was rejected without discussion -- like the 24 other cold calls that day,'' Caputo said, calls Roberts gets ``just for owning downtown's most prestigious property.''

Adkins' response: ''Nothing could be further from the truth.'' He added, however, that amending Florida's Constitution to make way for casinos will be a tough sell. In 2004, Florida voters approved a proposal to allow slot machines in Dade and Broward counties by a slim 93,000 vote margin.

His advice: ``Good luck. You better have a lot of money and a lot of willpower.''

William Talbert, director of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, said a gambling push was inevitable in Miami-Dade.

''I think it's about opportunity,'' he said. ``There is gambling in Miami-Dade County today. One day, casino gambling will be here, as it is in many other places. It would be another offering for the destination . . . It's not a terrible thing.''

In addition to former Mayor Maurice Ferre, the roster of hired help paid by the committee includes: the law firm that employs Republican political operative Roger Stone, who is a former casino lobbyist for Donald Trump; the company owned by Miami lobbyist Eli M. Feinberg, and the company owned by Alain Jean, former director of government relations for the Broward Sheriff's Office.