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Calif. company pushes Henrietta site for casino

By Joseph Spector-Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
April 30, 2005

A California company continues to roll the dice on a plan to build a massive casino and resort at the former Eastman Kodak Co. Riverwood campus in Henrietta.  This week, the company gave a tour to the Seneca Indian Nation, which owns casinos in Niagara Falls and Salamanca, Cattaraugus County.

Tower Investments bought the land for $3.5 million in December and is exploring options for the huge office buildings and park-like land along the Genesee River. But its top option is clear: a casino with a hotel, conference center, golf course and a host of other amenities.

The idea is so extraordinary and would need to overcome so many legal and legislative hurdles that politicians and town leaders aren't putting much stock in it.

Yet Tower remains aggressive in trying to market the 150 acres off East River Road to a Native American tribe in hopes of scoring a casino deal. A few months ago, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, which last year unsuccessfully pitched a casino for downtown Rochester, toured the property.  Tower officials wooed the Senecas on Wednesday with a guided tour and lunch at the vacant 381,000-square-foot office park on the site. Tower also recently placed an option to buy about 700 acres adjacent to the site, said Henrietta Supervisor James Breese.  "If they had their druthers, Tower Investments would want a casino there," Breese said. But "in the real world, that might not happen."

Breese said the firm has not submitted any plans to the town. Seneca President Barry Snyder said Friday that the tribe has made no determination about the site. Yet Snyder said they are eager to expand gambling into other markets, including Rochester and the Catskills, and continue to look at possible locations.  "We're exploring everything," he said.

The Senecas would be the top prospect to build a casino in the Rochester area because they have exclusive gaming rights in western New York. As part of its gambling compact with the state in 2001, the tribe has the rights to build three casinos, in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and its sovereign territory in Salamanca.

But the compact also includes a provision that gives the tribe the exclusive rights to operate slot machines west of Route 14, which runs south from Sodus Point in Wayne County to the Pennsylvania border.

The tribe would need a new state compact for a Rochester-area casino, yet already having the gaming rights would certainly make the process simpler. When the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma wanted a casino in Rochester, a main hang-up was getting around the Senecas' exclusivity.

Nonetheless, expanding casino gambling in New York is at such an uncertain point, it's hard to envision Tower's proposal gaining steam anytime soon, political leaders said.  "I'm not sure (a Native American nation) would be able to come in under the umbrella of a sovereign nation," said state Sen. James Alesi, R-Perinton.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that Native Americans could not expand sovereign territory by buying up land that has long been outside their control.

The case, which involves the Oneida Nation and the city of Sherrill, Oneida County, has stalled the state's plans to build five casinos with Native Americans in the Catskills.  Todd Alhart, a spokesman for Gov. George Pataki, said, "there have not been any discussions about a casino in Monroe County."

Tower, which owns more than $1 billion in property around the country, appears to have taken an interest in the Rochester area.  The company toured the when it was up for sale earlier this year and, according to its Web site, owns the St. Joseph's Garage on North Clinton Avenue and a manufacturing facility on land near the Greater Rochester International Airport.
 
Tower also hired as its local public relations manager Arnold Rothschild, who owns a local marketing company and has close ties to the local Republican Party. Tower officials could not be reached for comment.  Rothschild said Tower is looking at various property investments in Monroe County but said, "Obviously, a resort and a casino destination would be their dream project" for the Henrietta site.

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