Is the casino project over?

(Originally published August 29, 2006.)

The troubled Hesperia casino project is history, according to one of the Victor Valley's most-influential real estate analysts.

Speaking as the guest of honor at the Hesperia Chamber of Commerce's monthly luncheon last Monday at Hesperia Senior Campus, Joe Brady of Bradco told the assembled business owners and civic leaders that the proposed Timbisha Shoshone casino is effectively dead.

Casino developer Gary Fears has put the property, on Main Street near I-15, across from the Bob's Big Boy Restaurant, up for sale, with an asking price of $32 million.

"I never thought the casino project was going to happen anyway," Brady said Thursday. "They have to have a compact with the governor, and they're not handing out compacts in Sacramento."

Bradco was involved in the acquisition work for the proposed multi-tribe casino project in Barstow.

"They're having their challenges with the subcommittees up there, and they have a compact," Brady said.

The property being placed on the market follows a bumpy two years since Hesperia voters indicated their approval for the project in March 2004 when they approved Measure X. The Timbisha Shoshone have been engaged in fierce internal disputes, with accusations of tribal council members being bribed by the Rinaldo Corporation, the company originally slated to develop the casino. Multiple competing tribal councils emerged for a time, before the Chicago-based Rinaldo Corporation was allegedly fired from the project. In May 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger included Hesperia in a list of communities where he would not approve gaming.

But Fears had already purchased the land specified in the Municipal Services Agreement approved by the Hesperia City Council in August 2003. Getting approval for building a casino in a location other than the location now up for sale would likely require having a revised MSA agreement approved by the city council, a majority of whom have said they would vote down any such proposal.

"The MSA would go away, I would think," Brady said. "The MSA is really tied to the parcel, and if the parcel goes away, I think the MSA goes away."

But if the odds of the Timbisha Shoshone opening a casino in Hesperia are worsening, Fears is likely to find a buyer for the increasingly valuable 57-acre site.

"There's not a whole lot of available spots on the I-15" in Hesperia, Brady said. "That's the only large chunk of property right now that is available, with infrastructure, within two miles of the main I-15 interchange along the freeway that does not yet have an approved development plan on it."

As for what could be built there, Brady says there are several good choices.

"You could do amusement," such as an amusement park, he said. "You've got enough ground there for hotels. ... You may take it and do something with it really unique, but the valley needs something for entertainment."

But although Brady previously had a financial stake in the Barstow casino project, he has no particular stake in his comments to the chamber of commerce regarding the proposed Hesperia casino.

"I'm just telling it the way it is," Brady said. "I want to see jobs. We want to see Hesperia prosperous, we want to see Victorville prosperous, we want to see all the cities up here in the High Desert prosperous."

The head of the Timbisha Shoshone gaming committee and a representative of the Rinaldo Corporation could not be reached for comment by press time.

The slides used in Brady's speech can be found online at www.thebradcocompanies.com on the Resources page.

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com