Saying, “We have nothing to hide,” Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG), which has been selected to operate the Racino at Aqueduct, released its entire 225-page proposal to New York State.
The disclosure, on Tuesday, February 16, came hours ahead of the release of censored versions of documents by all five bidders by Governor David A. Paterson.
“The final selection was based on a broad range of criteria including speed of payment, pay out over time, marketing/branding appeal, union support, construction capacity, win per slot, gaming expertise, community support,” and a number of other factors, Paterson’s statement said.
A linkable list of all the documents can be found on the Governor’s web site at
www.ny.gov/governor/press/aqueduct_vlt_bid_documents.html.
“Additionally, the Division of Lottery conducted a pre-qualification review to determine whether each bidder, any associated entities and principal and key individuals, met the Lottery’s standards for a video lottery license,” Paterson said.
The information will be released to the public – again with proprietary information and data such as Social Security numbers redacted, after it is delivered to the U.S. Attorney, according to the statement.
“We wanted to be fully transparent,” said AEG spokesperson Davis Hodge, who conceded that the recent media frenzy over the award contributed to the decision to take the lead on disclosure.
Conditions set by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver before he approved of AEG led one partner, The Darman Group, to walk away, after it was revealed that in 1999 its principal, Darryl Greene, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in a $500,000 swindle involving city funds.
“Darman’s interest was subsumed by AEG,” Hodge explained, leaving Empowerment Development Corp., a community outreach entity of Reverend Floyd Flake’s Allen A.M.E. Church in Jamaica, to partner in training, development and community involvement in “the non-gaming portion of the project.”
In addition to plans, timelines, budgets and the financials and pedigrees of the various partners, the document contains a “fully diluted shareholder roster” outlining the ownership stakes, services rendered and eventual roles each would play if AEG won the award.
Empowerment Development will have a .55 percent share as a passive investor and “project co-developer” in the hotel, entertainment and retail portion of the project only. “That was his line in the sand,” Hodge said of Flake’s insistence that his involvement be limited to community development and not gaming.
This translates into Empowerment getting $5,500 for every $1 million of AEG’s net profit, in exchange for its proposed $625,000 investment.
The proposal calls for 20 percent of construction jobs to go to minority-owned businesses – half of those for women-owned firms – and the same percentage for business contracts once the facility is up and running.
Queens-based businesses would receive a preference, according to the proposal.
One in four construction jobs are to go to community residents and not less than 15 percent of retail space is to be earmarked for “qualified community-based businesses.”
Flake has been the subject of media attention because of his association with numerous elected officials from southeast Queens and the success story of his ministry.
“I remember when he was a new, young pastor,” said Carlisle Towery, president of the non-profit Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. “He used the church’s resources and his own knowledge of markets for the benefit of the community and the members of his congregation,” Towery said. “He called it ‘Economic Civil Rights,’” he recalled.
“Community development should be profitable,” Towery insisted, “so you can earmark net revenues for other projects.”
The proposal, initially submitted last May, is under the signature of AEG’s president, Richard L. Mays.
Mays, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Howard University, is a former Justice Department attorney, Arkansas prosecutor and state Supreme Court Justice, as well as a member of that state’s ethics committee, having been appointed to various positions by then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and the current governor, Republican Mike Huckabee.
