Developers of a proposed casino, horse racing and hotel complex at the former Concord Resort site in Sullivan County expect to create about 1,200 construction jobs for union workers with the recent signing of a project labor agreement.
LP Ciminelli Inc., the Buffalo-based construction manager for the development on the 1,500-acre Concord property at Kiamesha Lake, inked the agreement with Hudson Valley Building & Construction Trades Council (HVBTC), which includes 28 construction union locals and more than 10,000 trades workers in Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties.
Development partners in the project are Empire Resorts Inc. in Monticello and EPR Properties, a real estate investment trust in Kansas City, Mo., that owns the Concord property. The casino, hotel and harness racetrack will be built by Empire”™s subsidiary, Monticello Raceway Management Inc.
The partners do not yet have financing in place for the $600 million destination resort development and must still receive required regulatory approvals.
A master development plan for the site was prepared by Hart Howerton, a New York City architectural and planning firm and leading designer of golf  course resort communities. New York City-based JCJ Architecture designed the casino, hotel and harness racetrack to be built in the project”™s first phase.
“We expect this project will create hundreds of good-paying local union construction jobs without having to wait for the multiple legislative and referendum uncertainties associated with the legalization of table games,” Todd Diorio, president of HVBCTC, said in a press release. “This project can get built under current, not prospective, law.”
