Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 15

Sunday, October 19, 1997 The Detroit News ISA Change in Greektown casino proposal Rising 41 stories, the new design of the proposed Greektown casino is dramatically different from earlier versions, say merchants, who worry they'll be squeezed out. Millennium brings clout to Greektown 1 CrBdiOttii -A 't 't Proposed V.K casino r' y'-. People V- M0V6P 4 'et 4 Summers Detroit Map area The Detroit News Detroit River CASINO Continued fivm Page 1A But the new design also eliminates much of Bricktown, an area that includes the historic Globe building and a number of small bat and eateries, including Niki's Pizzeria and the Loco Bar and Grill. "First we were included; now we're excluded," griped Jimmy Panagopou-los, co-owner of the New Parthenon restaurant on Monroe in Grcektown. "We feel left out." Even a mild critique speaks volumes in the tight-knit Grcektown business circle.

Merchants have traditionally been staunch supporters of casino developer Ted Gatzaros, a key figure in the Greektown community. But the latest round of Grcektown casino plans has riled merchants up and down the brick paved streets, where fear and anger now mingle with the smells of fresh-baked bread and souvlaki. "They're saying all we'll get is new strcetscaping," Panagopoulos said last week, standing among a knot of other restaurant owners, all of whom nodded in agreement at his frustration. "What is that? 1 put $5 million into renovating my restaurant, and now they're making it so gamblers don't even have to come outside the casino to eat." One reason for the frustration is that the plan submitted to the city in the final phase of the casino bidding process does not contain some of the perks Grcektown merchants were counting on to boost sales things such as heated sidewalks and a canopy along Monroe. "We kept Detroit alive when no one else would stay," said Plaka Cafe owner Tom Karadimas.

"We spent, we invested, and now they don't need us anymore." The specter of gambling has been on the horizon in Greektown ever since Gatzaros, owner of Fishbone's and the International Center on Monroe in the district, began his campaign to legalize casinos in 1994. Gatzaros and many others in the area, including the Greektown Merchants Association, the formal group representing 20 shop owners, are convinced that without casinos, the popular tourist and entertainment district will die. "We're deader than dead without casinos," Gatzaros said. "The people who are complaining are the people who have never done anything for this area." Added Steve Georgiou, owner of the Olympia restaurant and president of the Greektown Merchants Association: "If the casinos are anywhere but more resigned than anything about having a casino in Hellas' back yard, "What's the point?" Anton asked dejectedly last week. "It's going to be there no matter what we do." Astoria Bakery owner Tasso Teftiss, however, has not been silent about his opposition to a Greektown casino.

He wrote letters this year opposing the project to City Council members, Mayor Dennis Archer and Archer's top casino adviser, C. Beth DunCombe. Now that Teftiss has seen the plans, he's even more enraged. "It's ridiculous. It towers over the whole area," he said.

"My architect said it looks like something an eighth-grader drew." Concerns about declining sales in Greektown are not borne out by merchants like himself, who have reinvested in their businesses, he added. "We're having our best year ever," said Teftiss, whose shop has undergone an elegant makeover, with polished wood and gleaming ceramic tile now framing his picture-perfect baked confections. "I'm a firm believer that you get out of a business what you put in," he said. The baker's letter-writing campaign drew only one response, from council member Mel Ravitz, who said, in effect, a Greektown casino is the law and the City Council must uphold it. DunCombe's mayoral advisory committee tried to sink the idea of a Grcektown casino, citing some of Teftiss' concerns, including congestion and a loss of the area's unique ethnic flavor.

In the end, however, the political punch packed by Gatzaros and his partner, the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa tribe, the biggest single contributor to state Democratic lawmakers' election campaigns, proved too powerful for Archer to ignore. Greektown is included in the city's casino district; and Gatzaros' group is considered a favorite among seven developers vying for the final three spots, to be announced Nov. 7, after the election. But Teftiss, once the lone casino dissident, said he has been joined by at least 13 merchants and churches up and down Monroe and around Greek-town.

And though the reasons for the complaints are different some, like Teftiss, worry about the area losing its character, while others say they are angry about not being more directly incorporated into casino plans Gatzaros and company clearly do not have the universal support they once enjoyed. "I just don't see how can they incorporate Greektown into their plans," Teftiss said. 1 I. Li Tribe of Chippewa Indians, which owns five casinos in Michigan. So while casino companies and local business people eyed each other for joint ventures last summer, the Greektown group believed it had the gaming experience and local clout city officials desired.

But they needed more punch. At the same time, Paulos and partners Bill Wortman and Guy Hillyer were looking for a project their year-old business could take oa They liked what they saw in Detroit. "This is our first real move as Millennium, as independent entrepreneurs," said Paulos, 50. "We've formed our company. We've put our money where our mouths are.

"All we have is our reputations. That's more important to us than any single dollar we can make. We want to ike the property, develop it, staff it, operate it and make it extremely successful." The Millennium team will direct the planning, opening, management and operations of the Greektown casino if Mayor Dennis Archer selects the group. Archer is expected to announce his picks Nov. 7.

The three principles of Millennium are longtime friends, each with their own accomplishments. Wortman, 51, is the former chief financial officer of Caesar's Palace, the man who made Las Vegas known as a boxing venue when he brought the Muhammad AliLarry Holmes fight there in 1980. Hillyer was part of Arthur Anderson's audit division and a 12-year member of the Las Vegas Gaming Control Board, where he helped enact programs covering responsible gaming and underage gamblers that have become models. Later, he wrote gaming legislation for Greece. Together, their gaming experience spans more than three decades.

The men predict they can transform Greektown, already one of Detroit's top tourist attractions, into a mega resort that will draw more than 8 million visitors each year. "There's an amazing exodus of Midwesterncrs to Las Vegas from October to May," Paulos said. "After the casinos open in Detroit, we want them to think twice. We want the people who come to Vegas two or three times a year to come to Detroit one of those times. "Or maybe all of those times." By Judy DeHaven Die Detroit News Bill Paulos rarely walks through a Las Vegas establishment without someone stopping to shake his hand.

He is recognized by everyone from casino brass to valet parkers, who know him affectionately as "Mr. In 17 years of working in the casino business, starting as the director of hotel administration for Circus Circus Enterprises, Paulos counts among his accomplishments the building of the Excalibur and creation of the Luxor, an architectural feat that brought an Egyptian-style pyramid and sphinx to Las Vegas. If Paulos is successful in Detroit, his name and face could be known just as well here. The developer and his two partners in the Millennium Management Group two men who are equally known and respected in gaming circles provide Las Vegas muscle in the Greektown Casino Group, a company that has been criticized by some for not having the power of a major casino firm behind it. The Greektown group, which has a preference but no guarantee for one of three gaming licenses, is competing against six groups, including multimillion-dollar casino firms and local multimillionaire Don Bardea who operates a riverboat casino in Gary, Ind "Hiring one or two key executives doesn't compare to the depth that a Mirage or an MGM Grand can bring," said Joe Coccimiglio, a Prudential gaming analyst.

"If there was no preferred status, I would think most people would say they would be looked as the weaker competitor." But Bear Stearns analyst Jason Ader said comparing the Millennium group with Mirage is "like comparing apples to oranges. It's just different." Ader said Millennium gives Greek-town the pull it needs on Wall Street. "I think very highly of Bill Paulos," Ader said. "He's a very well-respected gaming executive on Wall Street. We would all be supportive of any financing solely on his reputation.

The decision not to align with a high-powered gaming company was a conscious one, Greektown spokesman Roger Martin said The group already had the hotel and restaurant expertise of Greektown businessmen Ted Gatzaros and Jim Papas, who built the Greektown district, and the gaming experience of the Sault Ste. Marie II, lj.l.M I 1 1 ppJi, We want to sell Detroit as a package and Greektown as a place to visit. We want everything to shine." Hatch and other members of the development group point out that the project sits back from the street and does not present a fortress-like facade to passers-by. It will not overpower Greektown but blend into the streetscape, they insist. In fact, the developers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars devising a plan that would encourage pedestrian traffic and easy movement from this district to other downtown neighborhoods.

Merchants and workers in the area can now see and feel the radical changes that a casino would bring Gatzaros and company, for example, have been optioning or buying virtually every parking lot and empty building in the district. And some either feel left out, like Panagopoulos, or fear they will be wiped out by the sheer enormity of the project. "It's not going to be Greektown anymore," sighed Zoe Anton, owner of Hellas restaurant on Monroe. Anton's husband's family has owned Hellas for 100 years. Never a vocal critic of casinos, Anton didn't object, she said, because she felt it would do no good.

Even now, she is Model of the proposed Greek-town casino. Greektown, there's not going to be much of a Greektown left." John Hatch, a spokesman for the Sault Ste. Maria Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a partner with Gatzaros in the Grcektown casino proposal, explained that the development group had to adapt its casino plans in order to compete with other bidders. "The industry is headed toward large casino developments that are inclusive and that become destination sites in and of themselves," Hatch said. "We had to follow or we would simply be out of the running." Hatch adds that his group views the historic district "as its front lawn.

ii' 11,4 i wf i rf 1 l- i jr i i 'v I If tf rr-4J "Scottie and I've been aiming out here since we were kids. Never missed a game. But then Scottie goes to work for Ameritech, and suddenly the guy's totally MIA. Los Angeles comes to town, but Scottie's over in Elmhurst put tm.2 in a second line. Last week, he passes up a twi-night doubleheader with New York.

New York! Said he had to do an afteriiours installation for a store over in Wheeling. He says when people need you, you've gotta be there for them. Besides, it's only baseball. Only baseball? Lord! What have they done to you? (OTtech. In a world of technology, people make the difference:".