Call it Borscht Belt déjà vu.
The Nevele Grande, another jewel in the Catskills resort chain that”™s lost its luster, has been slowly deteriorating since former owner Joel Hoffman abruptly closed it down in July of 2009, locking employees out.
After Hoffman bailed out on the town of Warwarsing and left both the municipality and Ulster County holding the bag for nearly $5 million in unpaid taxes, he also reneged on a loan from his former partner, Mitchell Wolff, who ended up with ownership of the Nevele”™s 500 acres and high-rise hotel.
Manhattan-based Claremont Investments, LLC, has purchased it for approximately $6.5 million in a deal approved by acting Supreme Court Justice Mary Work on Feb. 6. The purchase is contingent upon New York State approving a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling.
Michael Treanor, one of Claremont”™s principals, agreed to pay the Nevele”™s former employees $100,000 owed in back wages but did not commit to anything further. For Claremont and its principals, the deal to renovate and resuscitate the Nevele hinges on the approval of casino gambling by state voters in 2013.
Claremont Investments is not the only company waiting for the state to change its current constitutional prohibition on gambling. Genting Malaysia, the world”™s largest entertainment/resort chain and owner of Resort World New York Casino at Aqueduct Raceway, wants to build a state-of-the art convention center, touted to be the largest in the United States, on 67 acres next to the Queens racetrack. Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the private investment in his 2012 state of the state address on Jan. 4.
Empire Resorts, stakeholders in Monticello Casino and Raceway in Sullivan County, is planning to build a hotel-and-entertainment complex and move its current harness racing site to the former Concord Hotel site in Lake Kiamesha. It is also keen on seeing the state legalize casino gambling, which proponents say will create thousands of new jobs in the once-popular resort area and re-boot the Catskills.
Empire City Casino in Yonkers is one of the state”™s biggest generator of VLT (video lottery terminal) profits, contributing approximately $3.5 billion to state coffers.
The Nevele, with its distinctive high-rise façade and more than 400 rooms, also has two golf courses that have fallen into disrepair since the hotel closed. Treanor says plans to turn the hotel into a family resort”” which would include gambling ”“ will be on hold until the voters have their say in a 2013 casino gambling referendum.
The Business Council of New York State, along with dozens of racino owners and race tracks, support the measure and have expressed their confidence that New Yorkers will see the benefit of legalizing the multibillion dollar a year industry already in place in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and most recently, in Massachusetts.
But not all are impressed by the numbers or the notion of casino gambling becoming so readily available in New York.
The Coalition Against Casino Gambling in New York (CAGNY) says a change to New York”™s constitution would make serial gambling and gambling addiction even more of a problem than it has already become. On its website, CAGNY states, “Some of our members oppose commercial gambling because it violates the State Constitution. Others oppose gambling on moral or ethical grounds. Others see the introduction of casinos to an area as economically, environmentally and socially detrimental to a community.”
