Buffalo Casino

[300miles]

There's a sidenote buried in the recent news that buffalo is seeking more state money from Albany:

...
Council President David Franczyk admits it is a big request, but says that's the point. He says the city is also calling on the state to give Buffalo 100 percent of slot revenues from the Seneca's new downtown casino.
"We don't want all the mess they have in Niagara Falls between the county and city. They set up an independent entity to collect all the money and the city has not received one penny yet," Franczyk said. Under the casino compact, the state is to receive 25 percent of slot revenues, and the city would receive 25 percent of that amount.


http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wb...ICLE_ID=890318

I think it's about time the city grew some balls and pushed to receive all the revenue from the casino. Given Buffalo's fiscal condition and given Buffalo has to support this new attraction with police etc., no money should be siphoned off to Albany.
Hopefully they start playing hardball.

[Boost Buffalo]

Cant understand why our common council attempts to limit the Senecas to just the 9 sovereign acres.

The Senecas offer to take a long-time Buffalo hellhole slum and convert it to greatness, all with their own funding, but they get assaulted and restricted by our own city officials. Fifty+ acres is the right amount in the Falls and Cheektowaga, so why limit it to only nine acres in Buffalo?

It would be wise to welcome and encourage the Senecas to invest their hundreds of millions to develop high-end tourist traps in our city, especially in that slum.

[300miles]

well it's not exactly a hell-hole slum BB. The ellicott lofts are literally across the street and another set of co-op apartment lofts are being renovated on the other side of their site.

[300miles]

So much for the Casino being "privately funded" by the Senecas. They are now seeking $6 million in infrastructure improvements from the city.

[300miles]

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...29/1038202.asp

[300miles]

Seneca plan for casino aims locally
SEC filing contrasts "world class' billing
By MATTHEW SPINA
News Staff Reporter
4/9/2006

The Seneca Gaming Corp. confirms in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its emerging Buffalo casino will cater primarily to Buffalo and its suburbs, raising worries that it will drain assets already here without pulling significant outside dollars into the local economy.

The disclosure kicked up these events Saturday:
After conferring with Mayor Byron W. Brown, City Hall's development commissioner called the news "very troubling" and said it "speaks strongly" against the city providing $6 million in water, sewer and road improvements the Senecas want for the casino.

County Executive Joel A. Giambra urged the County Legislature to join him in filing a "friend of the court" brief on behalf of the forces trying to block the casino in state and federal courts.

An Assembly Democrat said he would write to the U.S. Department of the Interior to say the public rhetoric from the Seneca Gaming Corp. had not jibed with their less-visible filings with government regulators.

A Seneca corporation spokesman responded that the Buffalo casino, to be built near the Cobblestone District, will significantly benefit Buffalo.

"We believe that Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino will provide tangible economic benefits to the community, most notably in the share of slot revenues," responded Seneca Gaming spokesman Phil Pantano. "It is a $125 million investment in an area that hasn't seen that kind of investment in some time, if ever."

Meanwhile, he said the casino could retake some of the $60 million to $80 million a year that leaves the Buffalo area to be wagered at the Fort Erie race track.

"We would certainly like to capture as much of that as possible and support local jobs," Pantano said.

The Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino's 1,900 to 2,200 slot machines, 30 to 50 gaming tables, plus its restaurants and stores are expected to "cater primarily to the local market," the corporation said in a February filing with the SEC, explaining that Buffalo Creek would "complement" Seneca Nation's casino to the north, Seneca Niagara, and its casino to the south, Seneca Allegany.

That disclosure, not the first of its kind from Seneca Gaming, provides fodder for Buffalo's anti-casino forces. While the corporation's SEC filings have been frank, its officials have publicly spoken in grander terms, saying they want to build a "signature destination" and a "world-class" facility in Buffalo.

"The public pronouncements in the press releases differ greatly from the written pronouncements in the official Securities and Exchange documents," Giambra said. "It appears that we might have a situation of fraud here."

He has said the casino ought to be a resort-style, tourist destination, not a downtown development, and he wants lawmakers to join him in filing an amicus curiae brief on behalf of anti-casino forces, or join their lawsuits.

Legislature Chairwoman Lynn M. Marinelli, D-Town of Tonawanda, without knowing the wishes of the full Legislature on Saturday, said a court brief could be signed by those legislators who agree with the statement, regardless of whether they form a Legislature majority.

Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, longtime critic of a Buffalo casino, plans to write the Interior Department about the inconsistency. "The official documents submitted to regulators say one thing," the Buffalo Democrat said. "The public rhetoric and the sales pitch to people who have a decision-making role in granting them a license, were something entirely different.

"I have said for years this is going to be just picking our own pockets. I am anti-casino, not for religious or moral reasons but for economic reasons."
The Senecas' recent disclosure raised serious issues within the city, which would gain a share of casino revenue and a projected 1,000 permanent casino jobs, not to mention construction jobs. "The primary economic justification for a casino in Buffalo has been that more tourist dollars will come to and stay here than will leave the host community," said Richard M. Tobe, the city's commissioner of development, permits and inspections.

He said information in the SEC document "raises the strong possibility that the Buffalo Creek Casino will have negative impacts on our local economy" and "speaks strongly against the city providing any support for the infrastructure improvements requested by the Seneca Nation around the Buffalo Creek Casino site."

Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder Sr. in March requested that the city provide $6 million in road, sewer, water and traffic signal improvements. Pantano did not respond specifically to Tobe's statement Saturday.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...09/1031471.asp

[300miles]

Casino talks marked by divisiveness
By MATTHEW SPINA and BRIAN MEYER
News Staff Reporters
4/13/2006

More Buffalo lawmakers are becoming perplexed and confused about some of the negotiating tactics of Seneca Gaming officials.

In private meetings with city lawmakers, some Common Council members claimed, Seneca gambling officials threatened to put 10 or 12 slot machines in a trailer and call it a casino if City Hall put up obstacles to their $125 million casino complex.

"Everyone saw that as a threat. It was a stupid ploy, and they wisely backed off of it," Council President David A. Franczyk said.

A Seneca Gaming spokesman insisted Wednesday that the statement was "misconstrued" and apologized to Council members.

The latest concern involves plans by casino operators to focus mainly on attracting local residents, as opposed to tourists. The casino controversy is "getting more curious" with every passing week, Franczyk said, adding that the issue has created a "pressure cooker."

"Opposition is building," said Franczyk, who conditionally supports a casino.

In fact, the opposition grew Thursday, when County Executive Joel A. Giambra announced that the county will join lawsuits seeking to block the casino.

"We are going to court to fight on behalf of our citizens, our children, our businesses and for the rule of law," Giambra said.

And at City Hall, leaders are worried about Seneca Gaming's disclosures in corporate filings that the slot machines, gaming tables and restaurants will cater primarily to Buffalo and its suburbs and not try to pull in tourists.

As a result, the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino could just feed off assets already here and not bring new dollars into the region's economy, as hoped.

"This is a very troubling development and raises the strong possibility that the Buffalo Creek Casino will have negative impacts on our local economy," Mayor Byron W. Brown said in a statement Tuesday, repeating words expressed by his economic development director over the weekend.

Brown, who has conceptually supported a downtown casino, stopped short of withdrawing his backing Wednesday. But he stressed the need to meet with Seneca leaders to discuss worries.

"This disclosure in the SEC filing raises some very serious concerns for us," he said.

He added that the disclosure speaks strongly against the city paying to improve roads and utilities around the site, a $6 million undertaking the Senecas have now lowered to $2 million.

A smattering of public officials said Seneca Gaming's public descriptions of its new project were grander than its more sobering statements in dry reports for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Buffalo Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano on Tuesday said the disclosure was a major reason why he announced his opposition to a casino, which would be built just blocks from the arena where his team takes the ice.

"An "urban European casino' was code for a poor people's casino," Giambra said during a news conference, when he said Erie County would become a plaintiff in two citizen-based lawsuits trying to block the nine-acre project in the Cobblestone District, near the waterfront.

"We have never ever held the position that the casino will be the be-all and end-all or the panacea," Seneca Gaming spokesman Philip J. Pantano said recently. "It will be a significant piece of the puzzle in the inner harbor area, but it would not be the one thing that would turn that region around."

Pantano also apologized to Council members Wednesday for a comment made by a Seneca official who noted in a private meeting that the nation could comply with a state compact merely by setting up a trailer that has slot machines. Pantano said a trailer operation has never been an option, and he denied that the comment was made as a threat.

But the nation might consider setting up a small-scale casino in a vacant building on the site if complications impede construction of the $125 million complex, Pantano said.

The Seneca Nation says the casino offers tangible economic benefits to Buffalo - 1,000 permanent jobs, plus construction jobs, sales to vendors and a share of slot machine revenue. "Just as we have led the charge in job creation in Niagara Falls and Salamanca, we hope to be a part of Buffalo's economic revitalization, as well," nation President Barry Snyder Jr. said in a written statement.

Giambra had initially suggested the County Legislature join him in filing "friend of the court" briefs on behalf of Citizens for a Better Buffalo, which is arguing in state and federal courts that rules were not followed as the Seneca Nation won the right to build a tax-free casino in Buffalo. On Wednesday, he said the county would join the lawsuits as a plaintiff, its legal work handled by County Attorney Laurence K. Rubin and his staff.

Citizens for a Better Buffalo believes that the economic benefits of a casino are only a myth.

"If the studies that are supposed to be done are done, then there will never be a casino in this community because it will never make sense," said Joseph Finnerty, the group's secretary and the lawyer coordinating its lawsuits.

[300miles]

Casino promises - still waiting

Three years after it opened, the Seneca-Niagara Casino hasn't sparked the new development state and local leaders promised

By PHIL FAIRBANKS - News Staff Reporter
4/16/2006

Aging neighborhoods exist in the shadow of the Niagara Falls casino, which hasn't sparked the renewal that state leaders promised when it first opened.

When casino gambling arrived in Western New York, state and local leaders promised new hotels, restaurants, shopping centers and thousands of non-casino jobs.
It's a promise never kept.

The Seneca Gaming Corp., after three years of operation, rakes in nearly $500 million a year, two-thirds from its Niagara Falls casino, and turns a weekly operating profit of $2.7 million.

But outside the casino walls, the economics are murky, with a mix of good - more than 3,000 people are employed at Seneca Niagara Casino - and bad - the glaring lack of development and job growth around the complex.

Niagara Falls' experiment with casino gambling - and the model it provides Buffalo - resembles Atlantic City more than Las Vegas.

A Buffalo News analysis of government records and casino documents, as well as interviews with 35 developers, local officials and business owners, found:

• Most of the $306 million spent at the Seneca Niagara casino comes from local wallets - an estimated $177 million last year.

• The promise of spin-off development, new hotels, restaurants and stores, remains unfulfilled. One reason is competition from the Senecas. They took in $58 million in food, beverage and entertainment sales at their two casinos last year.

• Sales and bed tax revenues collected by the City of Niagara Falls have remained flat in the three years since the casino opened. Property tax collections are up, but largely because of annual increases in the tax rate.

• Property values around the casino have increased but not because of new development. The increases are driven by speculators.

Seneca Niagara, of course, is more than a casino. It's also 26 acres of shops and restaurants.

And since late December, it is home to one of the city's newest landmarks - a world-class, 26-story hotel that single-handledly altered the image of Niagara Falls and created a new tourism market - the well-heeled gambler.

Still, the casino created cash for the city and state, and jobs:

• More than 3,050 people work at the casino complex, earning an average of $28,000 a year with $8,400 in fringe benefits.

• The casino, through its spending and its employees' spending, may be responsible for another 1,000 local jobs, notably vendors serving the casino. • The city received $9.8 million in slot machine revenue from the Senecas in 2003 and is waiting for another $24 million from the past two years. The state, by comparison, took in $100 million over the same three-year period.

Spending siphoned off
One thing is certain. The casino's impact is huge.

In 2005, Seneca Gaming - with its casino in Niagara Falls and a smaller one in Salamanca - tallied $498 million in revenue. That's nearly double the annual revenues of large local employers such as Wilson Greatbatch and Computer Task Group.

The company also made money. Its two casinos reported an operating profit last year of $144 million, or $2.7 million a week.

Not all casino money comes from the local economy, but most of it does. That's the rub.

A 2005 study by the state estimated the local share of the Seneca Niagara's annual revenues at about 58 percent. The authors of the study, the Center for Governmental Research in Rochester, think the same trend continues. If it does, that would put the two-county spending at Seneca Niagara at about $177 million.

Some is money that would have otherwise gone to casinos in Ontario. But most - about $101 million using the Rochester study's formula - is money previously spent in other ways, including other forms of entertainment, culture and recreation.

Yes, there are now world-class dining and accommodations in Niagara Falls. But it's all within the tax-free Seneca territory.

The casino is now a casino resort. In addition to the 614-room hotel, there are six restaurants, a 443-seat theater and retail shops. As a rule, its 6 million visitors a year stay within the resort.

"As far as we can tell, they drive to the casino and then drive back," said Kent Gardner, director of the Rochester study.

Retail operations at the two Seneca casinos rang up $58 million in sales last year, all tax free.

"It's the intent of the casino to hold onto its visitors, and this casino does a good job of that," Gardner said. "When people get hungry, they don't want them hitting the streets."

So what about the new hotels, restaurants and shopping centers Gov. George Pataki and others promised when he signed the law authorizing casino gambling?

"Thousands of additional jobs will be created outside of the casino walls as investors build new hotels, restaurants, shopping centers and businesses," Charles Gargano, Pataki's top economic development aide, predicted then.

An overstated promise?
Or a benefit still to come?

Four years after Gargano made that pledge, there are no new hotels and no major restaurants. And certainly no new shopping centers.

To help spur development, Pataki formed the USA Niagara Development Corp. and offered another promise, a pledge to turn downtown Niagara Falls into Times Square.

"We're still at the beginning of the beginning," said Christopher Schoepflin, president of USA Niagara. "The true impact of the casino is still in its infancy."

So far, development around the casino consists of an $18 million conference center, a $22 million upgrade in an existing hotel, a $7 million renovation of the historic United Office Building and a largely cosmetic makeover of downtown's Third Street.

There are plans for more. But right now, they're just plans.

Niagara Falls Redevelopment, a private partnership buying property east of the casino, unveiled an $800 million redevelopment strategy last year but has yet to build anything downtown.

"We view the casino as a positive," company Vice President Roger Trevino said. "It gives us a 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year economy, which was not present before."

Trevino thinks the casino eventually will create niche markets that will lead to private development outside the casino resort.

The question remains, when?

Eating our own

In tourism circles, people talk about "cannibalism." The theory is that a community has only so much money to spend, so a new attraction might eat away at an existing one.

And that's the fear with Seneca Niagara and, even more so, with a new casino in downtown Buffalo.

Will a Buffalo casino take away from Chippewa Street or Elmwood and Hertel avenues?

Will it eat away at the Buffalo Sabres or Shea's Performing Arts Center?

"I don't see it complementing downtown, I see it competing," said local developer Paul Ciminelli. "Economically, it's a bad deal."

Tourism officials say there's no concrete evidence of "cannibalism" in the Falls, but restaurant owners disagree.

By now, many in the Falls know the story of Macri's Palace, the Pine Avenue institution that shut its doors last June and moved to Wheatfield. Owner Gary Macri was public in his criticism of the casino's competitive advantages, most notably free drinks and tax-free food, and a policy that allows smoking. "There seems to be an unlevel playing field," said Dominic Colucci, owner of the Como Restaurant, another Falls institution. "It's been very detrimental to the smaller restaurants and bars around town. People only have so much money to spend."

The other 800-pound gorilla is the Seneca Niagara Hotel, the city's first world-class luxury inn. It contains a spa, salon and enough meeting space to accommodate banquets, trade shows and conventions of up to 2,200. And believe it or not, competitor David Fleck wishes there were five Seneca hotels.

Fleck owns the Howard Johnson Hotel on Main Street and, while disappointed with the lack of new restaurants downtown, he's ecstatic about the growth in his own business, especially during the slow winter months.

"There's enough for everyone," said Fleck. At the Falls' larger attractions, venues like Maid of the Mist and Cave of the Winds, the Seneca Niagara casino is welcome, but viewed with skepticism.

Sure, ticket sales at the Maid of the Mist jumped 6 percent last year, but no one at the company sees a link to Seneca Niagara.

"There's been no spike at all in our business because of the casino," said Tim Ruddy, vice president of marketing. "But it's one more element, and the more reasons you give people to come here, the better."

One of the tradeoffs a city hopes for when it hosts casino gambling is more tax revenue.

The hope is that it may come in the form of higher property tax collections because of nearby development and growth. Or maybe increased sales or bed tax revenue because of more people spending money on hotels, restaurants and stores.

None of that happened in the Falls.

No new development
In 2000, three years before the casino opened, the city collected $22.2 million in property taxes, $12.5 million in sales taxes and $1.3 million in bed taxes.

Six years later, three years after the casino opened, the city's tax collections are virtually flat.

Sales tax and bed tax collections still hover at about $12.3 million and $1.2 million a year.

The city also raised tax rates each year, which helps account for a $4 million increase in property tax collections.

The reason, of course, is the lack of a new tax base, although speculation has fueled an increase in some values downtown.

In short, no new development, no new tax revenue.

"We all thought there would be more interaction with the casino," Mayor Vince Anello said. "I have to say, the spin-off impact hasn't been great."

Should the city and state have known better?

The state's own consultant issued a separate study on the idea of a casino in Rochester and warned of the perils associated with casinos that have their own restaurants and hotels.

"We've seen only a minor impact on tourism," said David Rosenwasser, president of the Niagara Tourism & Convention Corp. "Long term, I think the casino will help. Short term, people took some hits."

The one benefit casino supporters can legitimately crow about is jobs. Seneca Niagara is flush with opportunities.

At last count, 3,052 people worked at the casino. The Senecas' payroll is upwards of $85 million, and a full-time employee earns an average of $28,000 a year with $8,400 in benefits.

"They're probably the second-largest employer in Niagara County," said Schoepflin, of USA Niagara. On top of that, the casino and its employees spend money that creates even more local jobs. Again, a state consultant estimates that number at about 1,000, many of them with the 600 vendors and companies that do business with the casino.

"Our employees live in every area of the region and feed money back into the local economy," Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr. said in a statement last week.

The question is: How many of those 3,000 jobs are new jobs, given the large amount of local money spent at Seneca Niagara?

Even casino supporters concede that some replaced jobs that disappeared when local residents started spending at Seneca Niagara instead of the local bar or restaurant.

In a study for the state, a consultant estimated 600 of the casino's 2,100 jobs replaced lost jobs.

If that trend is true today, 2,200 of the casino's jobs are newly created jobs. Critics think the number is much lower.

The other boon to the city is the growth in its share of the casino's slot machine take.

In 2003, the city's share was $9.8 million. In 2005, it's expected to be $13 million.

Not a bad sum, unless you compare it to what the state gets. In just three years, Albany took in three times as much as the city, or about $100 million.

One thing is certain. Seneca Niagara generates a lot of cash. As Snyder said last week, the casino is one of the region's leading "economic engines."

The question remains, where will it take us?

[300miles]

Snyder puts onus on leaders of Buffalo
Says casino can't bring development on its own

By GAIL FRANKLIN and BRIAN MEYER - News Staff Reporters
4/20/2006

NIAGARA FALLS - Buffalo will begin attracting businesses when local officials do their part instead of expecting a planned Seneca Nation of Indians casino to spur development, Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr. said Wednesday.

"We're not going to change a whole lot in Buffalo if the leadership is not going to change," Snyder said after a news conference held at the entrance to the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel. "We can help, but we're not going to be the catalyst. The leadership in the City of Buffalo is going to have to help."

He said the $125 million Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino planned in the Cobblestone District will create 1,000 jobs and provide union construction work, but will help to improve the area's economy only if "the city comes along with us and does not take a back seat."

City and state officials, meanwhile, made it clear Wednesday that the Senecas should not expect government to pay for millions of dollars in road improvements near the proposed casino site.

Nine members of the local state delegation met with seven Buffalo Common Council members to discuss growing concerns about the casino project.

They reached a consensus that neither level of government should pay for the infrastructure work, said Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga.

Developers, he noted, often pick up the tab for work on streets that border project sites.

"I don't think the improvements are things that are critical to the operation of the casino," Tokasz said.

Such attitudes, Snyder responded, keep developers from choosing Buffalo.

Originally, the Senecas asked the city to pay for about $6 million in road improvements, signals, signs and sewer work on city-owned streets near the casino. When some Council members objected, casino officials scaled down the request to a "priority list" of about $2 million in infrastructure work.

Some Council members vowed to oppose spending even a dollar of city funds, claiming that streets, curbs and sidewalks in their districts need repair.

Snyder said the Buffalo casino would be built with or without the city's help, but the scope of the project may have to change.

"Regardless of whether Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino comes to Buffalo or not," he said, "the City of Buffalo has to come up to the plate because, if somebody else would come down now, they would want exactly the same thing."

"It's not that we're asking for this for ourselves," he added. "We're asking for the complete development of the downtown area of Buffalo."

Snyder - chairman of the Seneca Erie Gaming Corp. board of directors - also discussed issues raised by the corporation's recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which said the Buffalo casino's customers would consist largely of local residents, rather than tourists.

Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown has called that revelation "troubling," and Buffalo Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano cited it as a major reason for his opposition to the casino.

"They've overemphasized what we said in there," Snyder said of the federal filings. "You have to realize that, if you go to Fort Erie right now, you'll find a whole bunch of Buffalo people over there. . . . I think it's to the advantage to the Seneca Nation and also to the City of Buffalo to capture some of that and keep people downtown."

Snyder added that he will be "making a change to the filings shortly."

The relationship between Seneca Gaming officials and local elected leaders has deteriorated in the past week, and Snyder claimed Wednesday that Brown's office has not returned several calls in the last 10 days.

He said he did not invite Brown to the news conference in Niagara Falls, where about 200 casino employees and construction workers appeared as an example of a positive benefit from casino development.

Brown said Wednesday that suggesting that his administration has been unresponsive to the Seneca Nation would be "absolutely ridiculous."

He noted that he and other city officials had met with Snyder on Feb. 24 in Niagara Falls. Since that meeting, he said, his staff has had numerous discussions with officials from Seneca Gaming Corp. Brown said staff members have been working to set up a mutually convenient time for a follow-up meeting.

Snyder said he looks forward to sitting down with the mayor to go over any issues.

"We're the ones taking the risk," Snyder said. "And I think we've done the right thing. I've convinced my people that staying in Buffalo is the right thing to do."

[300miles]

How much land is enough?

Last fall, the Senecas sought a bigger 'footprint' for the casino - well beyond 9 acres.

By JERRY ZREMSKI - NEWS NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT
4/21/2006

WASHINGTON - On the same day last fall that the Seneca Nation Tribal Council authorized the purchase of nine acres of downtown Buffalo for a casino, it passed another resolution establishing the tribe's "Buffalo footprint" - the area it might want to buy.

That area is several times larger than the casino site and includes the HSBC Arena.

Spokesmen for the tribe and its gambling corporation said Thursday the resolution establishing the Buffalo footprint is now obsolete and that the tribe has purchased all the land it needs for its Seneca Buffalo Creek casino.

Nevertheless, Buffalo city and business leaders, as well as property owners within the footprint, said they were surprised to hear that the tribe ever designated such a large area as "the site for its Nation Gaming Facility" in Erie County.

"It seems inconsistent with what they've been telling everyone," said Larry Quinn, vice president of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. and managing partner of the Buffalo Sabres whose owner, B. Thomas Golisano, recently announced his opposition to the casino.

Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder Sr. has repeatedly told local officials the tribe is done buying land for its Buffalo casino, although he said he was "insulted" when Common Council members asked for a written commitment to that effect.

Told about the Buffalo footprint, North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr. said: "This simply strengthens my position that I want everything in writing."

The Tribal Council resolution establishing the Buffalo footprint was passed last Oct. 3 - the same day the council approved the purchase of its nine-acre Buffalo property and asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to approve the transaction. Federal officials allowed that purchase to proceed without comment.

The resolution, which The Buffalo News obtained from federal officials under the Freedom of Information Act, defines the footprint as "gaming suitable land."

The footprint "is bounded to the north by Perry Street, to the east by Chicago Street, to the south by Ohio Street and to the West by Main Street," the Seneca resolution added.

That's a territory several times larger than the nine-acre casino site the tribe purchased along Michigan Avenue.

The Tribal Council established the footprint because it felt it needed to authorize continued negotiations regarding the possible purchase of several other properties in the area, including the DL&W Terminal, said Philip J. Pantano, spokesman for the Seneca Gaming Corp.

Those negotiations have ended with the tribe purchasing no additional land, Pantano said. "It's the nine acres. Period," Pantano said.

HSBC Arena was included in the footprint because the tribe was negotiating to buy parking lots nearby, Pantano added.

Property owners and city leaders had varying interpretations of what the "footprint" might mean.

Sam Savarino of Savarino Companies, a real estate development firm, echoed the Senecas' view that the footprint might be nothing more than a vestige of a time when the tribe was seeking to buy more property. "That might be all it means," said Savarino, whose company is based within the Seneca footprint.

But Buffalo Common Council President David A. Franczyk said: "This is going to raise eyebrows all over town."

The footprint could prove to be controversial because the Senecas have been using an unusual two-step land purchasing process in both Buffalo and Niagara Falls. For example, a tribal gambling corporation bought the Buffalo property for $4.6 million and then sold it to the tribe for $4.

That procedure appears to be intended to allow the tribe to sidestep a cumbersome federal review and to extend the life of a congressionally designated $30 million fund that the Senecas can use to buy land under its 1990 Salamanca lease settlement.

In addition, the tribe's gambling agreement with the state includes a 52-acre area in Niagara Falls that has come to be known as its footprint there. The land the tribe has purchased to expand its casino operations in the Falls has been within that area.

Pantano said the Niagara Falls footprint was vastly different from the one in Buffalo because the Buffalo footprint was not defined in the gambling compact, which includes a guarantee that the state will help the tribe acquire properties in Niagara Falls through condemnation of private property.

While the Niagara Falls footprint has been common knowledge since the gambling deal was struck in 2002, none of the city leaders, property owners or casino opponents interviewed for this story had heard of the Buffalo footprint. "It certainly seems to be seriously at odds with the nation's public statements about its plans," said Joseph Finnerty, a lawyer who represents a Buffalo citizens group that has sued the federal and state governments in hopes of stopping the casino.

Pantano insisted that the resolution establishing the Buffalo footprint was obsolete, but when asked if it had been repealed, he said: "Not to my knowledge."

And that prompted Franczyk to say: "They should formally rescind it."

[300miles]

Last fall, the Senecas sought a bigger 'footprint' for the casino - well beyond 9 acres.

[300miles]

Questions and answers about Seneca land deals
The Buffalo News - 4/21/2006


Q: Can the Senecas buy additional land in Buffalo?

A: Yes. Under a 1990 lease settlement agreement for Seneca-owned property in Salamanca, the tribe received $30 million in federal funds it can use to buy "land within its aboriginal area in the State or situated within or near proximity to former reservation land." The casino site and nearby lands were once part of the tribe's Buffalo Creek Territory, so they could buy it back under that settlement agreement.

Q: How have the Senecas been buying land for their casinos?

A: They've been using an unusual two-step procedure whereby a tribal gambling corporation buys the land at its market price and then sells it to the tribe for as little as $1. Theoretically, that procedure could allow the tribe to buy vast amounts of land with that $30 million Congress set aside to settle those leases in Salamanca.

Q: If the Senecas were to buy more land, would it be removed from the tax rolls?

A: It depends. The Senecas made their nine-acre Buffalo casino site sovereign territory and took it off the tax rolls. But when the tribe's gambling corporation recently bought 257 acres for a golf course in Lewiston, the Senecas kept the land on the tax rolls.

Q: What does the tribe's gambling agreement with the state say about a Buffalo casino?

A: That it should be in Buffalo, or elsewhere in Erie County if the tribe rejects sites in the city. But the state's highest court has ruled that the casino must be in Buffalo, affirming lower-court rulings that the State Legislature intended the casino to be in the city.

[300miles]

Brown accepts Senecas' word on casino site
But Hoyt asks state to let city out of deal

By JERRY ZREMSKI and ROBERT J. McCARTHY - News Staff Reporters
4/22/2006

Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown said Friday he isn't concerned that the Seneca Nation of Indians will buy more land in the city, even though the Tribal Council established a "Buffalo footprint" that covers several times more property than the Senecas bought for their casino.

Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, meanwhile, said Buffalo should be removed from the state's gambling pact with the Senecas.

Hoyt, who cited a "real pattern of deception and misleading information," and Brown were reacting to a Buffalo News story revealing that last Oct. 3 the same day the Senecas bought a nine-acre casino site east of Michigan Avenue in the Cobblestone District the Tribal Council approved a "Buffalo footprint" that includes HSBC Arena.

A spokesman for the Senecas' casino company said that was obsolete, repeating Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr.'s contention that the Senecas had bought all the land needed for a casino.

Brown said he believes the Senecas.

"They have said publicly a number of times that this nine acres is what they consider their territory to be," he said. "I've found them to be honorable people, and I take them at their word on this."

Brown acknowledged, however, he hadn't heard of the footprint until this week, and that it had caused concerns.

"I'm going to meet with Mr. Snyder at some point in the near future and certainly will be discussing a number of these concerns with him," Brown said. "But I believe him at his word."

Hoyt, in contrast, said he was worried about indications that the Senecas could target more downtown property.

A consistent casino critic, Hoyt said he has asked the U.S. Interior Department to investigate what he called the "Seneca two-step," in which a Seneca corporation purchased its Buffalo property for $4.6 million and then sold it to the tribe for $4.

The move may be intended to allow the tribe to sidestep a federal review and to extend the purchasing power of the congressionally designated $30 million fund for buying land under its 1990 Salamanca lease agreement.

Hoyt called on Gov. George E. Pataki to remove the city from the compact. The Buffalo Democrat said he also asked the federal government to negate the compact and promised to introduce legislation to rescind it.

Pataki's office did not return calls seeking comment.

Hoyt said he was upset about the Senecas' recently revealed plans to gear the Buffalo casino largely to local patrons, which contradicts expectations raised when the compact was authorized.

"The deception of the authorization is what I'm getting at," he said. "The decision was made at the state and federal levels based on statements that this would be an economic engine for Buffalo, with thousands and thousands of tourists."

At a noon news conference at the casino site, Hoyt repeated his objections to the project.

"This casino will primarily target Western New York residents and will cannibalize existing jobs and discretionary income that would otherwise be supporting local businesses and entertainment venues," Hoyt said.

[300miles]

Hoyt Calls For Part Of Casino Compact Rescinded
Friday, April 21, 2006 05:35 PM - WBEN Newsroom

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - Assemblyman Sam Hoyt is calling on Governor Pataki and the federal government to void the Buffalo portion of the casino compact with the Seneca Nation of Indians.

He also plans to introduce legislation in the legislature calling on his colleagues to carve Buffalo out of the compact.

Hoyt claims the feds and Pataki made their decisions based on false information from the Senecas.

[300miles]

Snyder Says Full Steam Ahead With Buffalo Casino
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 03:22 PM - WBEN Newsroom

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - Despite a lawsuit and mounting opposition, the Senecas are not backing down when it comes to a new Buffalo Creek Casino. President Barry Snyder says the Seneca Nation will meet compact requirements and have the casino built by the end of next year.

Snyder tells Newsradio 930 WBEN he wants to bring people downtown with the casino, and he's willing to work with Mayor Brown. However, Snyder claims Brown has not returned his calls.

Brown says that's not the case, saying his staff has worked with Snyder's office for months. Brown says he supports a casino with conditions. It's his job, he contends, to look out for Buffalo's best interests.