Looks like The Hammond Marina has stuck it to the boaters again, by closing the marina for rhe 2007 boating season. This article was today's local paper.






Hammond casino to expand in size, profit

HAMMOND: Project will close city marina for 2007 boating season

BY JOE CARLSON
[email protected]
219.933.4174

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, February 10, 2006 1:03 AM CST









HAMMOND | With the barest of advance notice, two city groups approved agreements Thursday that could dramatically alter the city's lakefront and bring millions more dollars into public coffers.

The agreement will allow Harrah's Entertainment Inc. to invest "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond to greatly expand the size of the existing gambling facilities, Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said.

In simultaneous and hastily arranged meetings Thursday, the Port Authority and city Redevelopment Commission approved agreements that will increase the city's gaming taxes by $11.5 million a year or more, depending on the profits of the new casino.

Horseshoe General Manager Rick Mazer would not comment on the specifics of the project because Harrah's board of directors still must approve it next week. Thursday's agreement says only that the company intends for "the construction and operation of a new casino vessel, parking garage and other amenities."

"What's on the drawing board for us is unique to the industry," Mazer told the Port Authority.

To accommodate the major in-water construction project, every one of the hundreds of boats docked in the Hammond Marina will have to vacate at the end of the 2006 boating season. The marina will be closed from October to May 2008, and the Yacht Club will be razed.

"It's like six (new barges) coming in, and they'll be assembling them within the breakwalls," McDermott said. "No one would want to be in there during this anyway. It's going to be a major construction zone."

McDermott said the expansion would make Hammond's casino "Chicago-proof," referencing the anxieties among some city officials that the casino sought by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley would shrink profits and tax bills for Horseshoe.

"If Chicago ever gets a casino, we want to have a boat that can compete with it," McDermott said. "(The new Horseshoe) is going to be one of the biggest casinos west of Atlantic City, that's what I think."

Although the meetings to approve the agreement barely made it inside the state-required 48-hour public notice period, McDermott said, the document had been the subject of intense negotiations for months.

But in order to avoid losing the 2008 marina season, the boards had to approve it Thursday so that Harrah's directors can approve it at their board meeting next week. Otherwise the company's directors don't meet again until April.

The deal will increase the Port Authority's annual fees on the casino from about $5.5 million a year to $7 million. The percentage of the boat's profits paid to the city will increase from $35 million a year to at least $45 million, McDermott estimated.

The multifaceted deal also says:

- Horseshoe will buy the Hammond Yacht Club building from the Port Authority for $2.75 million;

- Horseshoe will pay $3.5 million to close the Hammond Marina in 2007, which is the same revenue the marina normally would receive in a year;

- Horseshoe will permanently forgive a $3.11 million debt the city owes the company for loans to construct the Lost Marsh Golf Course;

- Horseshoe will pay the Port Authority $750,000 to repair the breakwall once construction is finished;

- The city will help the company find a developer for an unspecified 10-acre parcel near the casino that the company owns;

- The city has the option of accepting a $15 million loan from the casino, at 6.5 percent interest.

That is BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! What the hell is everyone going to that has docks and lifts there. I smell a lawsuit. WTF!

You got to love these A-Holes. It's all about them. If they let them put the dam casino's on the land, they own all the property where Great Lakes Marine used to be, put it there and they won't bother anyone. The gambling boats don't move anymore anyway so wants the difference.
Obviously the Mayor of Hammond is alot like Mayor Daley. Do it under the cover of night and screw the boaters.
This just pisses you off

Looks like I'll be puttin alot of miles on the truck and trailer.

Mark

WTF!!!!!!! I think Mark hit it on the head. Identical to Mayor Daley. Sounds like we lose the yacht club totally. It's nice to see the public officials looking out for our best interests.
Dan

Change the name to " The Meigs Field Marina"

I guess Chicago isn't the only town with a Dictator!!

Hrmph!

When did you become a VIP member??? I know, I know, I haven't posted since October...me bad.

One could take a step back and look at this situation from a purely idealistic point of view...using the logic and reason that has served us well enough in life to have attained the financial stature associated with boat ownership...and just say "WHAT THE F#$%!". As if it's not bad enough that we as the "middle" and "upper middle" class in America bear the tax burden imposed upon us by "elected officials looking out for our best interests," we are constantly harrassed in the media for wielding all the political clout and constantly blocking the needs and aspirations of those less fortunate. Politicians regularly use the "plight of the poor" as an excuse to motivate the passing of further taxation...then turn right around and pull something like this. We who earn our money and choose to enjoy ourselves with it in some manner get the big screw job...so that in the end some politician will get to line his pockets with all this new revenue coming in...mostly from the poor slobs that they are always claiming to help! Do you think ALL that additional revenue is going to go to the public in some way? Will it create new jobs? Will it in any way counteract the millions of dollars these people (who obviously cannot or will not think for themselves, much less act for themselves) will be donating the the Horseshoe Casino? Anybody that has visited Hammond overnight can see the constant stream of traffic to that place....hell...at 3:30 am on Sunday there will be cars heading in...is it just my faulty thinking, or do these people have a problem? I wish there was a way of screening entry at the door: If you cannot affore to pay your gas bill, you cannot enter. If you cannot afford the car you are driving, you cannot enter. If you are on welfare, you cannot enter...THE MONEY YOU HAVE IS NOT YOURS! You are gambling MY dime away...and apparently my "representative" government could give a Sh!+ about me and people like me. Perhaps I am the selfish a-hole I am made out to be in the media, or perhaps I am a person who works hard in order to play hard.

And just think, I'm in a pretty good mood today.
F--- Hammond. Just got the letter in the mail last week encouraging us to join the yacht club that's going to be gone next year!
At least we've got the trailering option...I wonder what people like Michelle's parents are going to do with their Sea Ray?

Love,
mike

I'll see what I can find out about a huge new marine on Burns Ditch in Portage. It is located where Lefty's Coho Landing used to be. It would be 15 minutes farther East on 80/94 from the Hammond exits. I don't know if they will allow lifts or not. The plans were for 500 slips, fuel dock, resturant and later, condos. I'll see what I can find out.
The lagoon is finished now. It's much larger than Portage marina is.

This doesn't look like it's going to be an option for very many people. It's called Marine Shores at Dune Harbor. http://www.marinashoresatduneharbor.com/
Looks like it's going to be all private homes and condos.