Beach Gambling: Builder Pitching a Casino at Delaware Seashore State Park

Mar 12, 2010 | Delmarvanow.com

The son of a Delaware state senator is proposing to build a casino in a popular state-owned park along Sussex County’s beaches.

The plan by Clinton Bunting — son of state Sen. George Bunting, D-Bethany Beach, who represents the area and is opposed to expanding gambling in the state — would turn an area on the bay side of Delaware Seashore State Park near the Indian River Inlet Bridge into a casino, hotel, restaurant, retail and conference center.

Clinton Bunting, a real estate developer involved in several commercial and residential projects along the coast, mentioned Atlantic City and Las Vegas as inspiration for the casino. Those gambling destinations draw mostly visitors from outside the area, not year-round residents, he noted.

“Having it in the heart of the tourist region, being able to draw from Ocean City, Md., all the way to the Lewes beaches, is just common sense,” he said.

The $35 million project faces substantial hurdles beyond winning approval from the General Assembly to add more gambling venues in the state. It also would have to get an OK for the lease of state parkland.

Sen. Bunting said he’ll recuse himself from any vote or debate on his son’s project should it come before the Legislature, but acknowledged he’s been feeling heat about the proposal nonetheless.

“It’s a difficult situation to be in,” he said. “I’m not going to go out there and bad-mouth my son.”

Reaction among coastal residents is divided. Some are concerned about increased traffic and effects of gambling while others welcome the jobs and business it would bring.

Some local leaders in towns flanking the park, a long strip of scenic waterfront on both sides of Route 1, say they’re worried about how the project would transform the resort area.

Dewey Beach, with a raucous summer reputation, sits to the north, and the quieter towns of Bethany Beach and South Bethany are to the south.

“Dewey is a parking lot in the summer,” said town Commissioner Diane Hansen. “The last thing we need is a thousand more people going through all the way down to Indian River to a gambling casino.”

Developers estimate 5 million visits to the casino annually, based on national gambling figures and coastal visitor figures. Gross revenues are estimated at between $434 million and $630 million annually.

The 47,000-square-foot casino would have 1,500 slot machines and 50 table games, plus off-track and sports-betting parlors.

Bunting and partner Ken Simpler Jr. also propose increasing the government’s take of revenues from 43.5 percent to 65.25 percent.

The area is hugely popular with summer visitors. The 2,825-acre state park drew just over 1.1 million visitors in fiscal 2009, said Melinda Carl of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

“Delaware Seashore State Park has some of our most precious state parklands,” she noted.

She said the agency has not taken a position on the project because the Legislature and Gov. Jack Markell have not decided on whether to expand gambling in the state.

Clinton Bunting said building on the site — now being used as a staging area for the Indian River Inlet Bridge construction — would not have any adverse environmental impact, and said he would preserve and expand access to the area by fishermen and surfers.

“We understand the sensitivity of the environment and state parks. … We would never be putting this on the open space where there’s trees and bushes and environmentally sensitive dunes and things of that nature. That’s not what we’re advocating. We’re putting it next to an over $150 million industrial bridge.”

Sen. Bunting Not Involved

Bunting’s firms, Coastal Property Investments and Quality Life Consultants, have been involved in several commercial and residential projects along the coast, in Fenwick, Bethany, Dewey and Rehoboth. He also founded and is a past president of the Delaware Seashore Preservation Foundation.

Simpler, his partner, is chief financial officer for a family-owned property management company in Rehoboth Beach, running hotels in the coastal region and in North Carolina.

Clinton Bunting emphasized that his father has had nothing to do with his project and is not associated with it in any way.

“He is my father, and he happens to be state senator, and he’s going to do his job for the citizens that he represents regardless of who I am and what I do,” he said. “I can’t not come out with a good idea that I think is good for the citizens of Delaware.”

State Rep. Greg Lavelle, R-Sharpley, said as long as his colleagues know about George Bunting’s relationship to his developer son, it shouldn’t pose a problem.

“Awareness upfront takes care of issues down the road,” he said. “I think that’s something Sen. Bunting and his son have to work out. As long as everyone knows, I think that’s the important thing.”

Alan Rosenthal, a professor of public policy at Rutgers University, said the appearance of a conflict, even if Bunting recuses himself, could hurt the project.

“It all depends on what the opposition can make of it,” said Rosenthal, who has been active on ethics issues in New Jersey. “You could always suspect that a legislator whispered in his colleagues’ ears, vote this way.”

He said the senator’s solution seems to be the best one. His only other option, Rosenthal said, would be to resign from the Senate entirely.

“That seems to me to be rather extreme action to avoid the appearance of a conflict,” he said.

George Bunting said he does support his son’s ideas to open up the process for expanding gambling through a bidding system or request for proposals, rather than back-room negotiations.

Jerry Dorfman, a Bethany Beach councilman, said there’s been some local debate on the casino.

“Personally, I don’t understand why they’re putting it in” with other casino projects already proposed in the county, he said. “I’m not so sure it’s a great idea.”

Lavelle said the location will likely draw strong opposition.

“It would certainly be an unorthodox use of a state park,” he said. “Is that a great site? I don’t know. I imagine a lot of people would understandably object to the use of a state park.”

Could Bring Visitors, Money

George Metz, owner of the Sea Esta motels in the Dewey Beach area, said he likes the idea, even though it would be competition for his lodgers.

“It will definitely attract year-round business — it would become a destination in itself, and anything that is pro-beach, to me, is a good thing,” Metz said.

He said the site at the state park is attractive because it won’t lead to sprawl around the casino.

“It’s in an area where nothing can really expand too much around it,” he said. “That’s a big plus.”

Many visitors who come down from the north to visit the beaches already schedule in a stop in Dover or Harrington to play the slots, Metz said, so having an outlet for that at the beaches would just keep them — and their money — here.

The project would not need a zoning change or use permit from the county, as it would be in a marine district that includes commercial use, said County Councilman George Cole, R-Ocean View, who represents the area.

With several casinos proposed across the county, Cole has proposed the county examine the possibility of an overlay zone for casinos, racinos or racetracks to govern infrastructure impacts, such as was done with big-box retail stores years ago.

“They attract large numbers of people, they have impacts on water, sewer, roads, highways, the quality-of-life issues,” he said.

County staffers are exploring the possibility and working on details of such a law, which could include the county taking a cut of the revenues. But any new ordinance would not apply to Bunting’s project, and was not spurred on by that project, Cole said.

He said casino projects in Millsboro and Delmar have wooed the towns, which don’t have the county’s experience in dealing with land-use issues.

“The zoning codes aren’t as sophisticated as ours,” he said.