(6th in a series of posts on Wind Creek Bethlehem)

Anna Smith is a life-long Southside resident and Director of the Community Action Development Corporation of Bethlehem, a non-profit dedicated to improving the quality of life in south Bethlehem by fostering economic opportunity, promoting community development, and empowering residents to actively participate in the decision-making process regarding the future of our diverse community

Gadfly:

Feelings on the water park aside, I think having a plan for the Number 2 Machine Shop was seen as important for gaining State and City support for the sale. But as today’s article in The Morning Call mentions, they only have $150 million of the $250 million available to commit to the project. I have a feeling the plans for the site are likely to change before long, now that the sale has been approved. . . . Unless there is someone sitting around with $100 million to invest in partial ownership of an indoor water park . . .

Anna

(5th in a series of posts on Wind Creek Bethlehem)

Gadfly needs help.

He feels a CAVE*** coming on.

He may need an intervention. Or an exorcism.

He felt the onset writing this post headline yesterday: “A step closer to the windfall from Wind Creek.”

He coo’d over the idea of a “windfall” there, and as he did he heard a faraway sound of nails or chalk screeching on a blackboard.

Windfall . . . dollar signs . . . big bucks . . . mucho dinero

“Windfall” temporarily blinded him.

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

Gadfly wants the money, but he doesn’t really want a waterpark.

Feels like a pact with the Devil.

Before he was struck from his horse like Paul on the road to Tarsis, Gadfly-to-be was just passively negative to the idea of a casino.

He thought of the Sesame Street game: “Which of these things doesn’t belong?” Religion, industry, gambling.

How does gambling fit with a lineage of piety and hard-work, of people fleeing from persecution and poverty, of contributions to spiritual and physical well-being?

What does gambling contribute to the good of mankind?

Rah, rah! Ok, Gadfly, get off the soapbox, get out of the pulpit.

So, something had to be done with that wreck of a site, and, frankly, the casino has been barely a blip on Gadfly’s radar. He accepted it, hardly even notices it, thinks not much about it. It’s become part of “us” to him. And we have not become Sodom and Gomorrah.

But — now struck by lightning and converted to Gadfly — he feels uneasy about Wind Creek’s plans.

He recognizes that they seem to be good people. The plan designed seems to “fit in” architecturally. They aren’t chopping heads of employees, and, in fact, are bringing jobs — lots of them. Yes, yes.

Gadfly hears Mayor Donchez’s affirmations that the Wind Creek plans are people-oriented, community-oriented (Gadfly’s aphrodisiac word!), fun-oriented. Yes, yes.

And there will be a windfall. Visions of firetrucks, pedestrian bridges, and Rose Gardens dance in his head. Yes. yes.

But yet something sticks in Gadfly’s thin throat.

A waterpark in Machine Shop #2. A waterpark in South Bethlehem.

It just doesn’t “feel” right. (CAVERS suffer from this a lot.)

Gadfly’s not sure that he wants Bethlehem to be “the No. 1 resort destination in the Northeast.”

There, he’s said it.

Southside Bethlehem — a community of Stacks, Steeples, and (Water) Slides.

Gadfly guesses a good PR person will make something out of that.

Gadfly guesses he should get over this feeling.

Especially since there’s nothing to be done.

And especially since he has no constructive alternative.

And especially since he hears no one else whimpering.

Gadfly, maybe a true, lone CAVER on this one.

---

***CAVE: “citizen against virtually everything,” famously attributed to Councilman Callahan, recently self-described as “a gentle teddy-bear,” in a moment of impatience with citizen criticism.

Gadfly wonders if his funk is triggered by Lou James’s letter on the Southside.

(4th in a series of posts on Wind Creek Bethlehem)

Jon Harris, “With state’s approval, Wind Creek Bethlehem plans to become ‘No. 1 resort destination in the Northeast’.” Morning Call, May 29, 2019.

• More than 14 months after the deal was announced, the $1.3 billion sale of Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem to an affiliate of an Alabama Indian tribe is almost across the finish line.
• With state approval now in hand, the sale of arguably Pennsylvania’s most successful casino is expected to close as early as Friday, Wind Creek President and CEO Jay Dorris said.
• Wind Creek is planning a hotel and meeting space expansion, a $90 million project that will take about two years to build a 276-room hotel along with another 42,000 square feet of meeting space.
• Then there’s the head-turner proposal for the No. 2 Machine Shop at the former Bethlehem Steel site. Wind Creek is planning to transform the crumbling structure into a 300,000-square-foot adventure and water park that also will include a roughly 400-room hotel.
• “Our expectation for this property is it will be the No. 1 resort destination in the Northeast,” Dorris told the board.
• With the hotel expansion, Wind Creek believes it will be able to unlock revenue and earnings potential by growing lodging, meeting space and food-and-beverage offerings to meet existing demand. The Machine Shop redevelopment, meanwhile, offers diversification for revenue growth and could bring an estimated 1.4 million new site visits.
• Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez said he was pleased with what he heard from Wind Creek at the hearing: that it would develop family-friendly attractions to augment the gaming operation as it prepares to compete with gambling expansions in the Northeast. “They really emphasized that they were community-oriented and that they would be making investments that would bring jobs,” Donchez said. “That’s what they’ve told me from the beginning, and I’m encouraged that’s what they are continuing to say today.”
• Wind Creek, in its presentation, said the Sands Bethlehem management would be retained, including all nine members of the senior team, who are signed to three-year employment contracts that begin once the transaction closes. Wind Creek also plans to keep all of the facility’s 2,500 employees.

(3rd in a series of posts on Wind Creek Casino)

Today is a BIG day. Approval of the Sands sale is expected. The Mayor announced last Council meeting that he, Alicia Karner, and Eric Evans are traveling to Harrisburg for the BIG meeting. Probably entering the turnpike as I write. Wind Creek has already announced BIG plans for a Water Park and etcetera and etcetera (see below). And the City coffers are lusting for a BIG windfall.

Here’s how that last part goes, as reported here on Gadfly March 15: “See the City 2019 budget p. 278. See the column for “Casino Transfer Tax.” The City estimated revenue from the CTT at $5,995,000. But that was just an estimate for budgeting purposes. It may have little relation to reality. The actual amount is not known at this time. And could be significantly less. What would you do with the extra money, however much it is? In that column, you will find a list of specific proposed expenditures agreed upon by the City and Council based on the budgeted figure. If the actual CTT income is less that $5,995,000, the City and Council will negotiate again, using that list as a basis, on how to allocate the actual amount. Everybody will have different favorites on that list, but Gadfly knows that many followers will be pulling for the $50,000 that would be earmarked for the Rose Garden and the $40,000 for the pedestrian bridge study. Of course, these projects would be competing against such items as a fire truck!”

Jon Harris, “Sands Bethlehem casino sale up for state approval today.” Morning Call, May 29, 2019.

Jon Harris and Nicole Radzievich, “Wind Creek has $250 million plan to turn storied Bethlehem Steel machine shop into massive adventure and water park.” Morning Call, May 16, 2019.

(2nd in a series of posts on Wind Creek Casino)

Gadfly:

First, I’d cut real estate taxes for city property owners by one-half mill, or approximately $750,000. Second, I’d put $1 million in a “rainy day” fund so the city has cash reserves for those times cash is tight (it would be repaid if borrowed from) or a special project arose that needed funding. Finally, I would take the remaining $4.2 million and plug it into city projects like streets and parks.

Dana

(1^st in a series of posts on Wind Creek Casino)

At the Planning Commission yesterday, perhaps the first visible “signs” that Wind Creek is taking over the Sands casino occurred as the PC approved the changed signage.

All went smoothly.

Simultaneously, the Morning Call published a brief summary of Wind Creek’s petition to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, where final approval of the transfer will take place.

Financial matters.

Jon Harris, “Details of the deal: What was included in Sands Bethlehem-Wind Creek petition to the state?”

• Wind Creek will acquire 100 percent of the interests in the gaming and retail entities, allowing it to own the structures and improvements on the site such as the casino, hotel, parking garage, event center and outlets
• Bethworks Now will become the ground landlord, leasing the land to Wind Creek
• Wind Creek has accepted a binding commitment letter from Credit Suisse for up to $1.4 billion in financing
• Wind Creek is requesting that a change-of-control fee of $3.75 million be imposed

This is not the kind of info most of us care about, of course.

What we’re especially looking for is the amount of the Casino Transfer Tax (CTT) that the City of Bethlehem will benefit from as one-time revenue.

See the City 2019 budget p. 278.

See the column for “Casino Transfer Tax.”

The City estimated revenue from the CTT at $5,995,000.

But that was just an estimate for budgeting purposes. It may have little relation to reality. The actual amount is not known at this time. And could be significantly less.

What would you do with the extra money, however much it is?

In that column, you will find a list of specific proposed expenditures agreed upon by the City and Council based on the budgeted figure.

If the actual CTT income is less that $5,995,000, the City and Council will negotiate again, using that list as a basis, on how to allocate the actual amount.

Everybody will have different favorites on that list, but Gadfly knows that many followers will be pulling for the $50,000 that would be earmarked for the Rose Garden and the $40,000 for the pedestrian bridge study. Of course, these projects would be competing against such items as a fire truck!

Fingers crossed.