If you're like me, you've been worried sick about Mickey Brown.
After all, what's a former casino CEO to do when he's suddenly stripped of his six-figure salary and even larger annual bonus?
I mean, sure, a golden parachute is nice, but how far is anyone supposed to stretch a few million these days? For God's sake, do you have any idea how much comb-over wax costs?
Thankfully, those of us who have been losing sleep ever since Brown's unceremonious dismissal as head honcho at the Seneca Gaming Corp. earlier this year can finally rest easy. Our Mickey is continuing his quest to spread the wonders of gambling throughout the land. He's sort of like Johnny Appleseed, except with neon, vodka and personal bankruptcies replacing nutritious fruit.
According to an article in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Brown has surfaced in French Lick, Ind., hometown of basketball legend Larry Bird.
Brown was named project manager of the proposed Blue Sky Casino, a $240-million facility scheduled to open in late 2006.
He was hired after negotiations broke down with a riverboat casino owner from Gary, Ind., who was hired in May to run the new gambling joint.
According to the newspaper, Brown would have less control than during his tenure with the Seneca Gaming Corp. or during the five years he ran Connecticut's Foxwoods Resort Casino.
"Brown is expected to oversee the casino development and start-up process, design and construction," the article reports. "He would also oversee the hiring of a casino management team and help develop the casino operation."
The article didn't mention whether Brown intends to introduce Blue Sky's developers to Lim Kok Thay, president of Genting Berhad, the Malaysia-based company that financed both renovation of the old Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center into the Seneca Niagara Casino and the construction of Foxwoods.
Those loans carried astronomical interest rates starting at 30 percent.
"I've been doing finance for a long time, and this is the worst deal I've ever seen," John Tarras, a professor at Michigan State University who teaches casino finance, told the Buffalo News last year.
Procuring such usurious terms for his longtime benefactor might not be so easy in Indiana, though, since the Blue Sky Casino will be regulated not by a sovereign Native American tribe, but by the state government.
In addition, state policy requires that all top casino brass undergo a background check in order to earn a special license.
There's no arguing that both Foxwoods and Seneca Niagara have been spectacular financial successes for the tribes that built them, with Brown receiving a lion's share of the credit for their rapid construction -- thanks in no small part to his Malaysian financial connection.
But in both circumstances, he had many millions of dollars in other people's money to spend, as well as little if any governmental oversight to deal with.
And state investigators are more than likely to concern themselves with other aspects of Brown's time in Niagara Falls, such as his dismissal as head of the Parkway Condominium Board of Directors during a scandal involving Judith Dale, the facility's superintendent with whom he was romantically linked by casino employees and condominium owners.
A grand jury indicted Dale on multiple felony counts in July. Documents obtained by the Niagara Falls Reporter charged that she misused Parkway credit cards while running up a tab of more than $100,000.
Indiana's background checkers also figure to be interested in the results of an internal investigation into casino operations launched by Seneca Nation officials, which were never publicly released.
The bottom line, however, is the bottom line. The casinos Brown built with Lim's money have produced mountains of cash for the Pequots and the Senecas, even if Brown's brusque style (Citycide has been unable to confirm reports that he had his sense of humor surgically removed back in the 1980s) ultimately alienated employees, tribal leaders and just about everyone else who dealt with him. And government officials in Indiana, like government officials everywhere, are probably more than willing to overlook personalities in order to get their share of the loot.
Seneca Niagara Casino and the adjacent hotel scheduled to open in December stand as Brown's legacy in Niagara Falls. Here's wishing him all the best in French Lick. And wherever he winds up after that.
If you've got an extra million bucks or so clogging up your wallet, mark Oct. 13 on your calendar.
That's the day the New York State Department of Transportation plans to auction off more than 13 acres of land along John B. Daly Boulevard. The minimum bid is $1.25 million, with a deposit of $125,000 required. Bidders can register at the DOT's office at the Donovan State Office Building at 125 Main St. in Buffalo starting at 9:30 a.m., with the auction commencing an hour later.
The acreage has been at the center of a dispute between state officials and Niagara Falls Redevelopment. NFR has maintained the property was promised to it in 2002, a claim backed by correspondence between city officials, company president Anthony Bergamo and former USA Niagara head Michael Wilton.
Wilton's replacement, Merideth Andreucci, has denied such a deal was ever made, an assertion contradicted by state Sen. George Maziarz.
And people wonder why nothing ever gets done around here unless a sovereign nation other than the United States is involved.
Whoever ends up with the land, one fundamental question remains -- why do government agencies like the DOT own valuable real estate in the first place?
That's not an issue unique to Niagara Falls. The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority owns much of Buffalo's undeveloped waterfront. This goes a long way toward explaining why the waterfront remains undeveloped after a half-century of the NFTA's sorry stewardship.
The most recent rumored location for a Buffalo casino is at the DL&W terminal behind HSBC Arena, a property owned by, you guessed it, the NFTA.
Such agencies were supposedly created to serve taxpayers by keeping major issues, such as transportation, free of partisan politics. Instead, they've become cash-sucking patronage pits operating without a trace of accountability. And some of the biggest land speculators around.
Speaking of the DOT, Citycide would like to offer kudos on the detour caused by the closing of the ramp connecting the northbound I-190 to the Robert Moses Parkway and Buffalo Avenue.
Rather than exiting right just beyond the Grand Island Bridge and following the river downtown, as before construction began, motorists are directed to Niagara Falls Boulevard, where they remain after not seeing the tiny, easily missed orange arrow pointing them left and back onto the expressway.
Just about the time a visitor would start wondering, "Hey, did I miss something?" the boulevard splinters to become Packard Road, Walnut Avenue or Pine Avenue, depending on which direction the now-thoroughly confused motorist veers.
Counting on tourists getting lost is a proud tradition in Niagara Falls. Not so long ago, drivers exiting the I-190 at Niagara Falls Boulevard were treated to signs indicating that the falls themselves could be reached by turning either left or right.
That bit of intentionally lousy signage at least sent visitors past restaurants, stores and motels that might benefit from the creative misdirection before they wound up in Buffalo.
In this case, the poorly indicated detour sends non-native drivers through a dormant industrial district and into a poorly lit area resplendent with vacant lots and power lines.
Thankfully, the ramp reconstruction is a state job, so things should be back to normal by 2007 or so.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Oct. 4 2005 |