Bell Placing Its Bets on a Revived Casino : Revenue: The defunct club added up to $2 million a year to city coffers. It’s coming back with a new name and ownership.

Mark Tenner has made his living turning faltering or fledging businesses into sleek, successful corporations.

He also plays a mean hand of poker.

That combination is just what is needed to turn the now-defunct California Bell Club into the profitable club it once was, Tenner said.

City leaders are betting on it. On Monday, the City Council unanimously approved a card casino license application by Mutual Investment Group, the corporation Tenner heads.

Bell has a large stake in the success of the casino. It was once the city’s greatest source of money. At its peak, the club generated about $2 million a year for the city.

When legal and managerial problems struck the club in the mid-’80s, the city could do nothing as the money dried up and its budget shriveled. Bell’s finances have not improved since. The city lost $1.5 million when Cudahy decided to switch its contract for police services to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Another $735,000 was lost when the federal government stopped general revenue sharing in 1987.

Bell now operates on a general fund budget of about $5 million and began the year with about $152,000 in reserves, the lowest in recent history, City Manager John Bramble said.

Tenner is predicting that the club will gross about $12 million in its first year. Bramble projected that the city could receive about $750,000 in tax revenue during that period.

“If the club ends up the way Tenner envisioned, it’s going to be quite an attraction,” Bramble said. “We’re really excited.”

Tenner said when the casino opens this summer as the Regency Card Club and Casino, no one will remember the tainted history of the old California Bell Club on 4901 Eastern Ave. He said he has hired the best people to get the club off the ground, so there is no reason the new club will not succeed.

Roland Waters, former tournament director at the successful Bicycle Club in neighboring Bell Gardens, has been hired to manage the new casino, Tenner said.

“I have never been associated with a business that didn’t make money,” he said. “I don’t intend for this to be the first one.”

Tenner said he has been a consultant to banks, insurance companies, real estate companies and light-manufacturing firms all over the country. “All businesses that I have brought into have either been start-up companies or companies with financial problems,” he said.

In Bell, Tenner has begun with a $3-million reconstruction of the casino. Workers were gutting the casino last week. Nothing remains of the old card parlor except for a dozen or so worn red chairs, a few chandeliers and stray Christmas decorations. The carpet has been stripped and the walls ripped apart, and the sounds of drilling, sawing and hammering fill the empty hall.

The only reminder that this building was once the

CaliforniaBell Club are the red letters hanging outside. Today, its marquee proclaims the impending arrival of the Regency Card Club and Casino.

Tenner plans to achieve a look of “understated elegance” in the midst of the industrial section of Bell: “We are not Las Vegas-style glitz. We are a cross between an East Side New York club and 1930s Hong Kong.”

The casino will have 60 tables, 110 fewer than the giant Bicycle Club and about 50 less than the California Commerce Club in Commerce. Tenner said he plans to take advantage of the small size to create a more intimate, exclusive atmosphere.

Most of the casino will be built of polished granite, marble, wood and brass, Tenner said.

There will also be a bar and grill, and 24-hour restaurant.

“I’ve been playing in card clubs for over 25 years,” Tenner said. “This is an opportunity for me to provide an environment that is everything I’ve ever wanted in a casino.”

Still, Tenner acknowledged that all the elegance in the world will not be enough to churn profits if no one knows about the club. Unlike the Bicycle Club and the Commerce Club, which are conveniently off the freeway, the Regency Card Club and Casino is in the remotest corner of Bell, where the industrial sections of Bell, Bell Gardens and Commerce meet on Eastern Avenue.

“Sure, we would love to have a freeway off-ramp,” Tenner said, but he added that what location can’t give him, advertising can.

He said Mutual Investment Group plans to spend $1.5 million on first-year promotion. The casino will be bannered across 250 billboards in Southern California in mid-June, and advertised in newspapers and on radio.

“We want to get people to come and check us out,” Tenner said. “If they check us out, we believe they’ll come back.”

Tenner’s lofty ambitions are a dramatic contrast with the ambitions of the former club owners, city leaders said.

“This is the first time someone has come with the right approach,” Mayor George Cole said. “I think most people who were interested in the club had been watching too many of those late-night TV shows that advertise real estate with no money down.

“This group has already invested more than the last group ever did. Tenner’s got the background in business management, and Mutual Investment has a business marketing plan. The previous owners’ idea of a marketing plan was putting ads on bus benches.”

Cole said the California Bell Club was not always a failure. It was the first card casino in the Southeast area and was a huge success. But in 1984, a former Bell councilman, a Bell city administrator and several of the club’s general partners were convicted of various illegal activities in connection with the club.

“That was the beginning of disaster,” Cole said.

Sam Torosian, a partner in the club, took over as general manager on behalf of the California Bell Management Corp., and the fighting began.

“There were owners that thought that just because they were owners they could manage the place,” Cole said. “They would walk in and fire people without telling the general manager. There were huge screaming fights in front of the patrons. It was insane.”

Things only got worse. In May, 1988, authorities raided the club, the homes of the general partners and the office of the club’s consulting firm. A general partner suspected of skimming money by writing checks to himself was charged with grand theft; his case is scheduled for trial later this year.

Meanwhile, customers were leaving in droves, only a fraction of the 560 seats were being used, and the city was losing millions of dollars in back taxes and gaming revenues. At one point, Bell considered condemning the club and finding someone to run it for the city, but backed down.

Several groups approached the city to buy the club, but for one reason or another most deals fell through until Mutual Investment Corp. stepped in, Cole said.

City leaders predict that business with Mutual Investment Group will be much easier than with previous owners because there are just three partners. The corporation has just two stockholders: John Chi, a Newport Beach real estate developer, and Michael Montgomery, a redevelopment lawyer and former chairman of the state Republican Party. Tenner is president and chief executive officer.

Mutual Investment Group offered to buy the club for $8 million in November. At the time, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court was trustee of the club, which had filed for bankruptcy in April, 1989. The court was in charge of selling the club and approved the sale to Mutual Investment Group earlier this year. The group took possession April 23.

BACKGROUND For four years, the California Bell Club card casino was everything city leaders could have wanted. It was literally the only game in the area. Players came from miles around, and at one time the city earned $2 million in tax revenues. In 1984, the picture changed dramatically. Two former city administrators and several club partners were convicted in a racketeering scheme in connection with the club. And down Eastern Avenue, the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens opened. Five years later, the California Bell Club went bankrupt, while the Bicycle Club brought in $100 million a year in gross profits.