Concord owner Louis Cappelli and Mohegan Sun have locked up a key approval in the bid to resume construction on a $600 million hotel and racino at the former Concord. The state Racing and Wagering board on Wednesday sent the Westchester developer a letter indicating that if he builds a harness track and facilities, he will obtain the state’s eighth license to hold harness racing.

Such a license would enable the team of Concord Associates and Mohegan Sun to build a companion racino with slots-like video gaming machines and make use of a favorable tax deal that guarantees 75 percent of the take from the VGMs.

Racing and Wagering Chairman John Sabini wrote that while Cappelli’s Concord Racing Corp. won’t get a license until satisfactory completion of the facility, “it is anticipated that the Board will be in a position to grant priority to, and take favorable action upon, the 2011 license application.”

Cappelli, who had to stop construction in late 2008 after the financial markets fell apart, said the letter has now freed up his investment bankers and bond attorney to pursue $380 million in financing. He must invest $600 million and create 1,000 permanent jobs. He lost most of his properties in a settlement with Entertainment Properties Trust but retained the land of the former hotel, where his company has done preliminary foundation work.

“We are confident to now be able to raise the required financing by July 10th and start work immediately so as not to lose the summer weather,” Cappelli wrote. “We will be mobilizing in about three weeks to restart the job up again.”

Empire Resorts has a racino less than three miles away in Monticello and announced earlier this month that they were abandoning plans to build a hotel at the track and focus on a partnership with Entertainment Properties Trust for a new racino at the Concord. The company has threatened to file a lawsuit to stop Cappelli and Mohegan Sun and characterized the proposal as mere fantasy.

Cappelli has announced plans to build imminently several times before, each time blowing deadlines or stopping. State Sen. John Bonacic, R-C-Mount Hope, who chairs the Senate’s Racing and Wagering Committee, recently declined an invitation to tour the site again, and won’t participate in pre-construction hype.

“We would be happy to see the Empire hotel plan go forward, the Concord development go forward or, preferably, both,” Bonacic said in a prepared statement Friday. “However, we have been down this road before only to see developers pull back, so everyone forgive us if we hold our excitement until shovels are in the ground and work seriously commences.”

(Source: Times Herald Record)