State accepts casino’s backers
Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 23, 2004
The state Gambling Commission has now looked at the Stillaguamish Tribe’s contract to build a casino near Arlington, and the state agency’s investigators say it looks legitimate.
The key issue for financing tribal casinos in the state is whether the money is coming from federally regulated banks.
Any money that is not from such a bank requires close scrutiny from the Gambling Commission. The state’s policy is designed to prevent organized crime from financing casinos.
"Our review indicates that it’s all bank funding," said Neal Nunamaker, the commission’s agent in charge of licensing investigations.
This is the tribe’s second attempt in a year to get a casino up and running.
In May, the tribe abandoned its first attempt to finance a $31 million, 40,000-square-foot casino after Nunamaker and his staff insisted that the main investors — trustees of a Detroit carpenters pension fund — submit to criminal background checks.
In January, the tribe signed a new deal, this time with Marshall Bank of Minneapolis, for a scaled-down, $19 million, 22,000-square-foot casino.
At the time, Nunamaker said he had questions about the deal because of the involvement of The Marshall Group, a Minneapolis investment banking firm with connections to Marshall Bank.
He got answers to those questions at a recent meeting with representatives of the casino project. The commission’s agents reviewed the contract and verified that all the investors lined up by The Marshall Group for Marshall Bank are federally regulated banks.
"We have no issues at this point," Nunamaker said.
Eddie Goodridge Jr., the tribe’s executive director, said The Marshall Group lined up "quite a few banks, from all over." He said the commission staff advised the tribe to avoid investors that weren’t banks.
"We took their recommendation to heart," Goodridge said.
He said the casino’s designers are putting the finishing touches on plans, which should be done within the week. A construction trailer has been hauled onto the 20-acre site, and work could begin soon after plans are finalized.
Goodridge said the tribe has recently applied to put an adjacent 10 acres to the south of that site into federal trust status, which would make it mostly immune from local land-use rules.
He insisted the land was unnecessary for casino parking or future expansion.
The tribe "had been trying to buy that land for 10 years," Goodridge said. "I didn’t even work here then. It’s for a buffer, to keep that a natural-looking area."
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
