January 3, 2007
Ex-owner of MotorCity gets Nev. casino license
Celani led effort for Detroit gaming
BY MARGARITA BAUZA
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Nevada gaming regulators have awarded veteran gaming figure Tom Celani -- who helped bring casinos to Detroit -- a license to run the Cal-Neva casino on Lake Tahoe's North Shore.
Frank Sinatra briefly owned the casino, once a fabled playground for Hollywood stars.
Celani, a former owner of the MotorCity Casino, takes over the resort today and will invest $35 million in renovations to the casino, its hotel and spa. He was awarded the license Dec. 21.
Dennis K. Neilander, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said Luna Gaming Tahoe LLC, Celani's company, plans to lease the casino from the property's owner, Namwest LLC.
Neilander and Celani declined to disclose the lease amount.
Celani of Bloomfield Hills has held more than 20 licenses at casinos around the country. This is his first license in Nevada.
Celani helped spearhead the 1996 Michigan statewide referendum that led to casino gaming in Detroit.
His group was selected as one of the three companies to receive a casino license for MotorCity Casino, which opened to the public in December 1999.
Celani sold his interest in MotorCity Casino in April 2005.
"It took us 12 months to get licensed in Nevada," Celani said. "They have a very thorough process."
Celani will work with historians to restore the casino, which has a rich history as a hangout for the famous Rat Pack, a group of entertainers from the 1950s and 1960s that include Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.
The original Cal-Neva was built in 1926. Sinatra owned it during the early 1960s, when its guest list included Marilyn Monroe as well as Sinatra's Rat Pack pals.
"I have two historians helping me put together the history of the casino. I want to bring back the nostalgia and the pictures from the '40s and '50s," Celani said.
Construction begins in April and is expected to take 12 months.
Contact MARGARITA BAUZA at 313-222-6823 or mbauza
@freepress.com.
You may also want to review these posts:
The Verifiable Truth: The Detroit Gaming Syndicators: Marian Ilitch, Michael Malik and Tom Celani
No comments:
Post a Comment