Shawnee Tribe aims to build $400M OKC resort
The Journal Record
January 24, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Shawnee Tribe wants to build a casino and resort in northeast Oklahoma City, but will face a long road if the project is to come to fruition.
A number of obstacles stand in the way of a project that, if completed, would cost about $400 million. It would include an entertainment resort on 104 acres, and could have an economic impact of $354 million annually on the city and county. It would employ about 1,900 people.
Preliminary plans call for an 18-story, 400-room hotel with restaurants, a casino, 2,400-seat performance hall and a 70,000-square-foot shopping center.
One of the key issues will be placing the land into a federal land trust. The land sits between Interstate 35, Bryant Avenue, Britton Road and NE 82nd Street.
The Shawnee Tribe was originally in the eastern United States and forced west, ending up in Kansas and Oklahoma. In 1869 the tribe joined the Cherokee Nation, where it remained until 2000.
In the 1980s the Shawnees made a push for federal recognition and in 2000 were granted status for a government-to-government relationship between the tribe and the United States through a special bill.
Since 2000, the tribe has been headquartered in Miami, Okla. The initiative is led by Greg Pitcher, chairman of Shawnee Development LLC.
“At that time we became a landless restored tribe,” Pitcher said. “The language in that bill said we could not relocate ourselves within the historic boundaries of any other tribes in Oklahoma. Therefore, the only option for us is to go to an area that’s unassigned.”
A map of Oklahoma shows the only unassigned lands are in the central part of the state and the panhandle.
On Tuesday, the tribe filed with the U.S. Department of the Interior to place the Oklahoma City land into trust for gaming purposes.
Michael McBride, an Indian law and gaming attorney with Crowe & Dunlevy, said one section of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, passed by Congress in 1988, says that a tribe cannot place land acquired after Oct. 17, 1988, into trust for gaming purposes unless it complies with certain provisions.
If the land is placed into trust, the U.S. government will accept the land on behalf of the tribe. It becomes U.S. government land for the benefit of the tribe and held in trust.
McBride said the tribe must consult with local and state officials and nearby Indian tribes to convince the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs within the Department of the Interior that it will benefit the tribe and its members and not be detrimental to surrounding community.
The site presents a further complication by being off the Shawnee reservation. Miami is about 200 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, which would make it hard for tribal members in Miami to seek work at the resort.
“Those are factors that the secretary would take a pretty hard look at,” McBride said. “There’s a strong preference for providing employment for tribal members.”
Opposition could also come from the Oklahoma horse industry, which expressed concern that the tribe had not contacted them, or nearby Remington Park, which has horse racing and a casino.
Scott Wells, general manager at Remington Park, said the tribe had not contacted them at all. Wells declined to comment further.
Debbie Schauf, executive director of the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association, said the horse industry in Oklahoma contributes $1.2 billion to the state’s economy each year and provides 50,000 full-time jobs.
“Oklahoma voters, with their vote of support for the horse racing industry and Oklahoma school children, approved a very restrictive expansion of gaming in 2004, and we believe that support was based in part on the public’s understanding of where gaming would and would not be permitted,” she said. “Additional casinos in the Oklahoma City market or any other location in the state that was not previously designated as tribal lands were neither permitted nor contemplated at the time the state question was approved by voters.”
Schauf said efforts to expand gaming, especially the Shawnee project, would in all probability create a financial disaster for Remington Park and the horse racing and breeding industry in the state.
Pitcher acknowledged that the tribe has not had discussions yet with Remington Park. He said this is simply the beginning of what will likely be a lengthy process if the resort is to be built.
“Today is the first step in this process,” he said. “We anticipate working with the federal, the local and the state government during this long process.”
Pitcher said the focus will be working with several entities to benefit all parties.
“For it to be good for the Shawnee it has to be good for Oklahoma City,” he said. “One of the ways that we can do this is to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County.”
If an intergovernmental agreement is formed between the Shawnees, the city and the county, the tribe would make multimillion-dollar payments annually to the local governments.
Roy Williams, president and CEO of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, said he was impressed with the initial plans and congratulated the tribe for its vision, but stopped short of an endorsement.
“What we’ve been asked to do is to be a part of hearing about the project, learning about the project and commenting about the project,” Williams said. “What we’re interested in is growing the pie here in terms of the economy. To the extent that this does that, that’s what we’re all about.”
Williams said in the early stages of the project there will still be much to learn about the actual project and the dealings with the federal government that will be required to even get the project started.
“This is really our first opportunity to see a lot of those details,” he said. “Up until this point it was them telling us what their process was because this is so different from a normal development project because of the tribal presence and the approval process going through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We’re on the learning curve as are a lot of other people.”
In the meantime the tribe will continue forward with the federal application process. Pitcher said while many, including Mayor Mick Cornett, have reservations, the tribe hopes to continue working with local entities to sell them on the ultimate merits of the project and the economic impact it could have for central Oklahoma.
“We appreciate the fact that the mayor, although he is not convinced yet, says he is willing to talk with us,” Pitcher said. |
