Seminole Tribe ceremony marks start of hotel venture (HUGE New Hard Rock Hotel & Resort)

Under an oak tree where its elders incorporated as a tribe, the Seminole Tribe of Florida on Monday ceremonially set in motion the construction of its latest venture: a $315 million Hard Rock hotel and resort project.

The tribe recently secured the 30-year bond money to pay for the two facilities: one on the tribe's Tampa reservation and the other in Hollywood, a block away from the Council Oak Tree and just north of the tribe's current casino at U.S. 441 and Stirling Road.

The new Hollywood resort will replace the current casino and feature 250 hotel rooms (with space to expand to 750), a health spa, beach club, gaming, retail space and a 1,500-seat entertainment complex that includes restaurants and a nightclub. It also will have 29,000 square feet of convention space.

The tribe's goal was to create an entertainment attraction that would give visitors much more of a reason to visit than gambing by providing a ''well-rounded'' facility, said Jim Allen, who was hired to manage the tribe's five casinos after helping to put together the design and financing plans for the new resort complex. Allen formerly worked with Sun International.

Drawing on the tribe's history of firsts, after successfully resisting military efforts to force them out of the Everglades, Seminole leaders lauded the Hard Rock deal as another leap forward in a long-fought process of self-determination.

The tribe was the first to introduce gaming on reservations -- a venture that exploded into a $300 million operation.

''Today we're the first Indian tribe to borrow $315 million so we can fulfill our destiny that the elders planted here,'' said tribal council member Max Osceola.

When the project was first announced two years ago, it took local officials by surprise and angered residents of a mobile home park who leased land on the site of the future casino.

On Monday, with Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti and U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Pembroke Pines, present, the tribal leaders praised the project as one that would benefit South Florida as well as the tribe, creating as many as 2,500 construction jobs and 5,000 permanent jobs.

''What we do here today is for the benefit of our future,'' said Mitchell Cypress, acting chairman of the tribe.

Held up during a turbulent year that saw the suspension of the tribe's longtime chairman James Billie, the firing of its business manager Tim Cox, and the mob-style shooting of its top lawyer, Jim Shore, the project hit its greatest stumbling block after Sept. 11.

The ripple effects of the terrorist attacks hurt the nascent project as it did many others in the hospitality industry, Allen said.

''Most deals were put into question because of the uncertainty in the world at that time,'' Allen said.

Eventually the tribe worked out a licensing agreement under which Hard Rock would receive a minimum of $3 million in profits in exchange for the use of its name, and the tribe would maintain operation of the resort, Allen said.

The Baltimore-based Cordish construction company is going to build both the Tampa and Hollywood projects, and both are slated to open in early 2004.

This one paragraph pretty much sums up the economic progress of the Seminole tribe since the early part of the 20th century. Remember, it was the Seminoles of South Florida who started this whole Indian gambling trend in the 70s when they opened a big bingo hall.

BTW, I sure hope the new casino is better designed than the new Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek. Have any of you SoFladites ever been there? If you want to play poker they send you to a dingy room on the second floor. It's almost like they are architecturally telling poker players that they don't like them because they lose less to the House than the dummy slot machine players on the main floor.

The new Hollywood resort will replace the current casino and feature 250 hotel rooms (with space to expand to 750), a health spa, beach club, gaming, retail space and a 1,500-seat entertainment complex that includes restaurants and a nightclub. It also will have 29,000 square feet of convention space.

Huh? If the new Hotel/Resort is on 441 which is at least 5 miles from the beach, how do you have a beach club?????

Seminoles have a really great deal. From the casino ventures they get about $4000 per month per tribe member. That means if a Seminole couple have 3 children, they rake in about $20,000 per month for the family. I understand this might rise as high as $10,000 per member per month so after this resort is completed that family might get as high as $50,000 per month. Morale of the story: if you are a Seminole Indian have lots and lots of kids. Each one of them can earn you up to $120,000 per year.

Seminole Bingo is where this whole Indian casino thing started. One day back in the 70s it suddenly occured to the Seminoles that since they have tribal sovereignty, they don't need to abide by the state laws governing Bingo payouts so they just opened a Bingo hall with bigger payouts. When the State of Florida complained that they were breaking the rules, the Seminoles basically replied, "Rules, we don't need no stinkin' rules!" And the rest, as they say, is history.

Treaties? We dont abide by no stinkin treaties! us/gov/org

Rotflmao.

Dumb Indian marries smart lawyer and all hell breaks loose.Reservation land is legally different than the rest of the country.

White man say so.Why white man say different now? LOL!

So what, specifically, is your problem with developement on tribal property?

And what, specifically, gives you the idea you have a voice regarding Seminole tribal property? Are you tribal? Or are you just envious that the US government doesnt own ALL the land.

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