Detroit Council Approves $1.8-Billion Casino Plan

The City Council on Thursday approved a $1.8-billion plan to make Detroit the largest city in the country with casino gambling, despite complaints that blacks were shut out of the project and concerns about the riverfront location.

The plan to build three casinos in a warehouse district east of downtown on the Detroit River now goes to the Michigan Gaming Control Board for review.

“We’re obviously very happy and very pleased,” said Herb Strather, chairman of Atwater group, a partnership that includes Las Vegas-based Circus Circus, which won one of the three casino franchises.

The other two went to MGM Grand and Greektown/Chippewa Indians.

Mayor Dennis W. Archer pushed the project as a way to revitalize the city’s slumping economy, but he was criticized after none of the three franchises was awarded to blacks, who make up 80% of the city.

Archer countered by saying blacks had stakes in all three casino groups and would benefit from the creation of 11,000 permanent full-time jobs and the infusion of $180 million in taxes a year that would go to fighting crime and supporting schools.

Casinos will “bring jobs, business opportunities, a new stream of tax revenue and a first-class tourist attraction to the city of Detroit,” Archer said at a news conference, standing in front of the council members who approved the plan.

“This is a very, very important step that is going to make a big difference for the city of Detroit,” Archer said.

Archer had given the council a Friday deadline to pass the plan or risk torpedoing the project. He had said a failure to act this week would endanger financing and embolden casino opponents statewide.

“Detroit cannot continue to be a boom-or-bust economy,” the mayor told the council Tuesday. “There is no other economic development initiative that provides that kind of opportunity.”

The statewide ballot measure allowing casino gambling in Detroit passed in 1996.