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Valley View Downs, the harness racing and slots complex slated to be built in Mahoning Township, stalled nearly a year ago after Credit Suisse Bank yanked a $995 million line of credit for Centaur Gaming, the Indiana-based company that's been planning the project for several years.
"At the moment, there's not a lot of news to report," Centaur spokeswoman Susan Kilkenny said Thursday. "We are negotiating with various partners to develop strategic alternatives to launch the project."
Presumably, those "strategic alternatives" involve raising enough money -- about half of the previous $995 million was earmarked for Valley View Downs -- to start construction. And, just as she did for in April, Kilkenny insisted last week that Valley View Downs remains "an extremely attractive endeavor" for Centaur.
At first, Centaur planned to build Valley View Downs on farmland along Route 51 in South Beaver Township in Beaver County. However, years of legal wrangling ensued between Centaur and Lawrence County businessman Carmen Shick, who, along with his siblings, sought to build Bedford Downs on the family's Mahoning property.
To avoid more costly and time-consuming litigation, though, a deal was struck in 2007 in which Centaur abandoned South Beaver for the Lawrence County site and agreed to pay $75 million to Bedford Downs for land and stock.
In return, the Shick siblings dropped their bid and said they would build a complex featuring a water park, hotels, restaurants and stores near Valley View Downs.
With a harness-racing license in hand, Centaur was then able to apply for a slots license. Unfortunately, the company's financing problems have hampered those efforts.
Officials have described the situation as a Catch-22, with Centaur unable to get credit because it lacks a slots license, and the state Gaming Control Board unwilling to award a license without solid financing in place.
"They've been trying to line up financing. They still have an application pending before us," said Richard McGarvey, a spokesman for the gaming control board. "We're in a holding pattern."
McGarvey said Centaur does not have a deadline to meet, so it is free to seek a slots license whenever it gets financing.
Chris Ryder, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, which oversees the horse industry, said the harness racing commission in August 2008 granted Centaur an extension to September 2010 to obtain a slots license or face the possibility of losing the racing license.
"They're doing everything they can in a difficult (financial) market," state Rep. Chris Sainato, D-9, Union Township, said of Centaur's financing efforts. Valley View Downs would sit in his district, and Sainato said residents are eager for the jobs that would come from the project.
"It is frustrating," he said of the delays, "because people are waiting."
J.D. Prose can be reached online at jprose@timesonline.com.
To see more of Beaver County Times, Pa., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesonline.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Beaver County Times, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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