KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- EPR Properties
(NYSE: EPR) and its co-developers today unveiled Adelaar, a new
four-season destination resort planned in Sullivan County, New York. The new
$750 million development, including
land value, is located 90 miles from New
York City, is estimated to create nearly 5,000 jobs and will
sit on 1,700 acres of land at the site of the former Concord
Resort. The Company has teamed with Empire Resorts, Inc. ("Empire")
(NASDAQ-GM: NYNY), the company that currently operates the
Monticello Casino and Raceway and intends to apply for a license to
own and operate a destination gaming resort that will include a
four-star hotel. Adelaar – the Dutch word for eagle – will feature
a broad variety of leisure and recreational programming.
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Adelaar has been planned as a world-class destination gaming
resort to deliver significant economic benefits for local
businesses, create dependable local employment, and have a positive
impact on tourism in upstate New
York. Master planned by Hart Howerton, the award-winning
architectural and design firm, the state-of-the-art and sustainable
destination is designed to offer four seasons of indoor and outdoor
activities within several distinct areas: hospitality and spa,
sports and leisure, dining, entertainment and retail, and gaming.
Adelaar is uniquely positioned to achieve the tourism and economic
investment goals set forth by the Upstate New York Gaming Economic
Development Act.
Adelaar is estimated to generate significant economic activity
for the region, including 2,550 construction jobs. It is estimated
that approximately 2,200 full and part time workers will be
employed at Adelaar, with expected annual compensation of more than
$60 million.
EPR Properties President and CEO David Brain stated, "As a major Sullivan County landowner, we are very excited
about the prospect of bringing the Adelaar vision to life. This new
world-class destination resort will deliver significant economic
benefits for local businesses, create dependable local employment
and have a positive impact on tourism in upstate New York. With our SEQRA, permitting and final
site plan in place, Adelaar is well prepared to come to market
quickly."
Adelaar has in place essentially all of its approvals and
permits to commence construction immediately upon the awarding of a
destination gaming resort license to Empire. This includes all
zoning, master development and environmental approvals for the
destination resort, as well as site plan, infrastructure and
permits to commence and complete the state-of-the-art casino and
resort core, indoor waterpark hotel, and renovation of the 18-hole
Monster golf course.
"We believe Adelaar is exactly the type of development
envisioned by the Upstate New York Gaming Economic Development
Act," said Emanuel Pearlman,
Chairman of the Board of Empire Resorts. "We are pleased that
after three years of intense planning and preparation, our proposed
casino and four star hotel is already designed, and we can begin to
build without delay, should we receive a destination resort
license. We have created a bold, sleek and modern facility that
will provide an exceptional gaming and entertainment experience for
our customers."
EPR also announced an agreement to design, develop and operate a
new indoor waterpark hotel and adventure park at Adelaar. EPR
is partnering with the same team that is currently developing and
operating the Company's Camelback Mountain Resort in Tannersville, PA. The proposed project
at Adelaar will consist of 135 acres of hilly terrain that includes
a 350-room family-style lodge with an indoor waterpark, and an
outdoor adventure park with zip lines, a snow tubing facility and
mountain coaster.
The waterpark development team includes Ken Ellis, President and CEO of Aquatic
Development Group in Cohoes, NY;
Art Berry, President of Camelback
Mountain Resort in the Poconos; and Pete
Helland Jr., Co-Founder and Co-Owner of the 600-acre
Wilderness Hotel and Golf Resort in the Wisconsin Dells and
Wilderness at the Smokies in Pigeon
Forge, TN.
Additionally, famed golf course architect, Rees Jones, has been retained to oversee the
renovation of the 18-hole Monster Golf Course at Adelaar. In
working with existing golf courses, Jones' philosophy is to
preserve the past while recognizing the needs of the modern game,
earning him the moniker "The Open Doctor" for his redesign of
courses in preparation for major championships.
Empire previously announced that Monticello Raceway Management,
Inc. ("MRMI"), its wholly-owned subsidiary, has signed a Labor
Peace Agreement with the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council
and that MRMI's construction manager has signed a Project Labor
Agreement with the Hudson Valley Building and Construction Trades
Council.
Renderings, tenant information and other details can be found at
www.AdelaarNY.com
About EPR Properties
EPR Properties is a specialty real estate investment trust (REIT)
that invests in properties in select market segments which require
unique industry knowledge, while offering the potential for stable
and attractive returns. Our total investments exceed $3.5 billion and our primary investment segments
are Entertainment, Recreation and Education. We adhere to rigorous
underwriting and investing criteria centered on key industry and
property level cash flow standards. We believe our focused niche
approach provides a competitive advantage, and the potential for
higher growth and better yields. Further information is available
at www.eprkc.com
About Empire Resorts
Empire Resorts owns and operates,
through its subsidiary Monticello Raceway Management, Inc., the
Monticello Casino & Raceway, a harness racing track and casino
located in Monticello, New York,
and is 90 miles from midtown Manhattan. Further information is available at
www.empireresorts.com
About Hart Howerton
Hart Howerton is a creative team of land planners, urban designers,
architects, landscape architects and interior designers with four
decades of experience optimizing the value of real estate assets
from offices in New York and
San Francisco. The firm is
currently working in more than 30 countries worldwide. Hart
Howerton projects include US News and World Report's top two Best
Hotels in the USA 2014 and six of
America's Top 20 Golf Communities, according to Travel + Leisure
Golf. Further information is available at www.harthowerton.com
About Aquatic Development Group
Headquartered in
Cohoes, NY for over 50 years
serving customers around the world, Aquatic Development Group, Inc.
is a leading design/builder of indoor and outdoor waterparks.
Involved in over 100 outdoor waterparks and 20 indoor waterparks in
North America, their client list
includes: Six Flags, Wilderness Resorts, Cedar Fair,
Dollywood, Disney and Intrawest. Further information is available
at www.aquaticgroup.com
About Rees Jones,
Inc.
Founded in 1974 and headquartered in Montclair, New Jersey, Rees Jones, Inc. customizes the design and
supervises the construction of new layouts and renovations of
private, resort, real estate development, municipal and county golf
courses. Rees Jones is acknowledged
as one of the most renowned golf course designers in the industry.
Further information is available at
http://www.reesjonesinc.com/
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking
Information
This press release includes
"forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe
harbor from liability established by the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include
statements about our plans, strategies, financial performance,
prospects or future events and involve known and unknown risks that
are difficult to predict. As a result, our actual results,
performance or achievements may differ materially from those
expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In
some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use
of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan,"
"seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict,"
"potential," "continue," "likely," "will," "would" and variations
of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these
terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking
statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions
that, while considered reasonable by EPR, Empire and their
respective management teams, are inherently uncertain.
Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from
current expectations include, among others, levels of spending in
business and leisure segments as well as consumer confidence;
the parties' plans for signing and closing on definitive
transaction documents; the construction commencement date for the
development project; relationships with associates and labor unions
and changes in labor law; the financial condition of, and our
relationships with, third-party property owners and hospitality
venture partners; risk associated with the introduction of new
brand concepts; changes in the competitive environment in our
industry and the markets where we operate; the timing of the
receipt of regulatory and governmental approvals for the
development project, including the issuance of a destination gaming
resort license to Empire Resorts, changes in federal, state or
local tax law; general volatility of the capital markets and
the ability of Empire to access the capital markets to secure
necessary financing. A more complete description of these
risks and uncertainties can be found in the filings of EPR and
Empire Resorts with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. We caution you not to place undue reliance on
any forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date of
this press release. EPR and Empire Resorts undertake no obligation
to update publicly any of these forward-looking statements to
reflect actual results, new information or future events, changes
in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting
forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by
applicable laws. If we update one or more forward-looking
statements, no inference should be drawn that we will make
additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking
statements.
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SOURCE EPR Properties