Valhalla developer Louis Cappelli”™s Entertainment City may be shrinking in size and scope, but his plans to build a new hotel at the site of the former Concord in Kiamesha Lake will move ahead, thanks to some concessions made by Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature.
They approved Cappelli”™s request to lower the bar on how big Entertainment City in the town of Thompson can be after the recession dried up funding streams and left Cappelli scrambling for dollars.
Now, rather than the $1 billion resort with conference center and luxury hotel originally proposed, Cappelli”™s Catskill venture will be a $600 million effort, and plans to build a convention center will be postponed.
Cappelli”™s agreement with the state, to recoup 75 percent of the video lottery terminal revenues at the racino he plans to build remains in place. His original agreement with the state was to move Monticello Casino and the adjoining harness track to the Kiamesha Lake property. Those will now stay in place, and the new plan is to build a smaller VLT racino and harness track on the Concord grounds.
Cappelli spokesman Joseph Apicella, senior vice president of Cappelli Enterprises in White Plains, told HVBiz in an interview earlier this year that the new harness track”™s scheduling will not compete with the existing track in Monticello, so guests could enjoy racing at Entertainment City and still have the opportunity to visit Monticello Casino and Raceway, where Cappelli sits on its board of directors.
In return for the state”™s investment, Cappelli must hire 1,000 employees (as opposed to the original 2,000 when Entertainment City was to be a $1 billion project) and have at least 1,500 employees working within three years of opening. The original target date to open Entertainment City was January 2010. That date has not changed and town of Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini has gone on record saying he”™s got faith that Cappelli will pull it off.
After years of waiting for a comeback, Sullivan County has become the “show me”county, after numerous attempts to revitalize the once bustling tourism destination have failed to materialize.
