Is the Seneca Nation of Indians ready to roll the dice on Henrietta?
Late Tuesday morning, the Seneca Nation sent out a press
release saying that it had retained a Flaum Management subsidiary to “organize
and coordinate gaming and hospitality development in the Town of Henrietta.”
The announcement caught some Henrietta officials by
surprise. Town Board member Bill Mulligan says he knew something was coming,
but doesn’t have details on what the Senecas are pursuing. He says he’ll keep
an open mind about a potential casino proposal, just as he would any
application to the town.
Jack Moore, a Town Board member who’s challenging incumbent
Supervisor Michael Yudelson in a Republican primary, also says he doesn’t know
the details. He says he’s “in the middle of the road” until he gets specifics,
such as a proposed location and plan for a casino.
Yudelson could not be immediately reached.
It’s unclear, however, whether the Senecas are looking
exclusively at Henrietta. Susan Asquith of Travers Collins, the Buffalo-based
public relations firm working with the Seneca Nation, says she doesn’t know if Henrietta
is the only location in the Rochester area under consideration. She also says that
she doesn’t know why the Seneca Nation set its sights on Henrietta, though the
Thruway exit may be a factor.
And there are locations in Henrietta that have been
mentioned as possible casino sites. Among them: vacant land on East Henrietta
Road north of I-390, several hundred acres of former Kodak land near East River
Road owned by developer Dutch Summers, the Flaum-owned plaza at South Winton
and Brighton-Henrietta Town Line roads, and a Wilmorite-owned site at Hylan
Drive and Calkins Road.
Asquith says that while the Senecas are looking at a casino,
there are no specific plans for a broader development. Meaning it’s unclear if
a proposed casino project would include a hotel and restaurants.
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2013.
the dome will be the site for the casino just watch.
:Seneca Nation eyes Rochester for a casino”
Did I miss something? When was Henrietta annexed by Rochester? How’d they jump over Brighton?
The Dome site will probably be used for a casino…and that would explain moving the county fair.
Perhaps the dome site will be used for this. Imagine the cries of “Winner winner Wegmans dinner!”
Henrietta is a bad place for a casino and ditto with downtown within the Inner Loop. The best places for this would be Medley Center or Beebee Station, whether or not the existing buildings are used or torn down and the casino is built from scratch. Those two sites, plus the Dome in Henrietta, land down the street from there on the southwestern end of Hylan Drive, D&C building, Midtown site, or Sibley Building could alternatively hold a re-formed Nat’l Soccer Hall of Fame by U.S. Soccer side-by-side with re-formed Int’l Women’s Sports Center and Hall of Fame by the Women’s Sports Foundation. There could then be a new Sahlen’s Stadium on Midtown if the museums are in downtown or at Medley if they are put there. The existing Sahlen’s Stadium could be retrofitted into a softball stadium for the National Pro Fastpitch women’s softball league franchise, which could alternatively go to the baseball stadiums in either Webster or Batavia, should either of those two teams fold. The former Kodak Elmgrove should be the new home to the Monroe County Fair to benefit from both the surrounding agrarian area and technology of the park, to rival the Erie County Fair outside Buffalo and be along roadways where neighbors won’t be disturbed by traffic.