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Is the casino project over The 57-acre casino site up for sale, according
to local real estate expert
The troubled Hesperia casino project
is history, according to one of the Victor Valley's most-influential real estate
analysts.
Speaking as the guest of honor at the Hesperia Chamber of Commerce's
monthly luncheon last Monday at Hesperia Senior Campus, Joe Brady of Bradco told
the assembled business owners and civic leaders that the proposed Timbisha Shoshone
casino is effectively dead. Casino developer Gary Fears has put the property,
on Main Street near I-15, across from the Bob's Big Boy Restaurant, up for sale,
with an asking price of $32 million. "I never thought the casino project
was going to happen anyway," Brady said Thursday. "They have to have
a compact with the governor, and they're not handing out compacts in Sacramento." Bradco
was involved in the acquisition work for the proposed multi-tribe casino project
in Barstow. "They?re having their challenges with the subcommittees
up there, and they have a compact," Brady said. The property being
placed on the market follows a bumpy two years since Hesperia voters indicated
their approval for the project in March 2004 when they approved Measure X. The
Timbisha Shoshone have been engaged in fierce internal disputes, with accusations
of tribal council members being bribed by the Rinaldo Corporation, the company
originally slated to develop the casino. Multiple competing tribal councils emerged
for a time, before the Chicago-based Rinaldo Corporation was allegedly fired from
the project. In May 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger included Hesperia in
a list of communities where he would not approve gaming. But Fears had already
purchased the land specified in the Municipal Services Agreement approved by the
Hesperia City Council in August 2003. Getting approval for building a casino in
a location other than the location now up for sale would likely require having
a revised MSA agreement approved by the city council, a majority of whom have
said they would vote down any such proposal. "The MSA would go away,
I would think," Brady said. "The MSA is really tied to the parcel, and
if the parcel goes away, I think the MSA goes away." But if the odds
of the Timbisha Shoshone opening a casino in Hesperia are worsening, Fears is
likely to find a buyer for the increasingly valuable 57-acre site. "There's
not a whole lot of available spots on the I-15" in Hesperia, Brady said.
"That's the only large chunk of property right now that is available, with
infrastructure, within two miles of the main I-15 interchange along the freeway
that does not yet have an approved development plan on it." As for
what could be built there, Brady says there are several good choices. "You
could do amusement," such as an amusement park, he said. "You've got
enough ground there for hotels. ... You may take it and do something with it really
unique, but the valley needs something for entertainment." But although
Brady previously had a financial stake in the Barstow casino project, he has no
particular stake in his comments to the chamber of commerce regarding the proposed
Hesperia casino. "I'm just telling it the way it is," Brady said.
"I want to see jobs. We want to see Hesperia prosperous, we want to see Victorville
prosperous, we want to see all the cities up here in the High Desert prosperous." The
head of the Timbisha Shoshone gaming committee and a representative of the Rinaldo
Corporation could not be reached for comment by press time. | 
