Cappelli comes to the Catskills

Some believe it will never happen, but those who know the track record of Louis Cappelli say you can make book the Concord Hotel will rise from its own ashes with the sort of flash and zing Buddy Hackett never knew.

Cappelli, whose luxury condos and commercial developments in Westchester have made him a household name in that county, is now readying to take on Sullivan County.

Cappelli bought the Concord Hotel in 1999 and has been watching to see how Empire Resorts”™ proposed casino deal at Monticello Raceway with the St. Regis-Mohawk tribe would play out. Now that the deal has been permanently put to rest by Secretary of the Interior Dick Kempthorne, Cappelli has moved ahead with the Concord, promising not only to build a luxury resort at the former Borscht Belt site, but to move there the racetrack and a new “racino” with 2,500 slot machines.

The proposed $700 million “Entertainment City” will include a 500-room hotel, a convention center, a new racetrack and gambling establishment, along the requisite luxury perks that are part Cappelli”™s Ritz-Carlton style.

Developer Donald Trump, who has teamed up with Cappelli on several big Westchester County and Fairfield County, Conn., projects, is said to have expressed interest in working with the developer on the Concord deal ”“ despite Trump”™s fight to block the proposed casino in Monticello in 2000.

The Concord”™s renaissance has received the blessing of U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Mayor Jim Barnicle.

Cappelli also has an option on Kutscher”™s Country Club, the last family-owned hotel in the Catskills: selling price, $35 million. Five years ago, the family presented plans at a Monticello Raceway meeting that proposed turning their 1,400-acre resort and golf club into another Indian casino. That deal, along with three similar proposals at other hotels with other tribes, fell through. Cappelli has put $2.5 million down on his option to buy the entire country club within one year”™s time. He also plunked down an additional $1 million to keep the hotel and golf course open during the 2008 season.

Sullivan county residents wonder what Cappelli will do with Camp Rov Tov, a summer destination affiliated with a Brooklyn Hasidic Orthodox organization. The Rov Tov school currently holds the lease on the land that was the former home of Kutscher”™s Sports Academy. No one was available to comment on the future of the camp.

Some residents quietly speculate Cappelli bought Kutscher”™s to eliminate competition ”“ the two hotels were in close proximity to each other ”“ less than 10 miles apart. After the Concord becomes “Entertainment City,” these Cappelli-watchers say, Kutscher”™s renovation will be next on his list.

For many who have watched the Catskill hotels”™ downward slide for the past quarter-century, there”™s a “wait and see” attitude among residents and local officials. Cappelli promises 3,000 new jobs will be created, along with the economic stimulus Sullivan county”™s Catskill region lost when hotels started folding. Most say, “Seeing is believing,” but add that if anyone can do it, “Cappelli is the one who will.”

Before anyone starts tearing down Monticello Raceway, however, Capelli must receive approval from the state”™s Racing and Waging Board and the town of Thompson Planning Board to move the track to the Concord site.

Concord Associates says permits are in place, and demolition and construction of the new hotel where the crumbing Concord now stands is slated to begin in July.

There”™s definitely the smell of money coming to Sullivan County, albeit slowly. Catskill Regional, the county”™s only hospital, is now under the auspices of Orange Regional Medical Center and has welcomed back doctors from Crystal Run Health Care, who bolted the hospital in 2006. Further up the road from Cappelli”™s proposed Entertainment City, cable mogul Allan Gerry has built a multi-million-dollar music venue, Bethel Woods for the Performing Arts, in addition to purchasing nearly 2,000 acres surrounding the site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. A number of gated communities with high price tags are popping up around Bethel Woods and new restaurants are coming to the once forlorn town. It”™s a start in the Catskill Mountains, which were once home to more than 500 hotels and hordes of summer visitors.