Greektown Casino-Hotel Scales Back Renovation
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Greektown Casino-Hotel in downtown Detroit is scaling back a $150 million renovation plan to work totaling $25 million to $50 million.
The update more than a year after Cleveland Cavaliers owner and Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert took control of the casino comes in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by his Athens Acquisitions LLC.
Improvements by the second half of 2015 are to include new slot machines, carpets, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning work. Jennifer Kulczycki, a spokeswoman for Gilbert's Rock Ventures, said that the initial plan for renovating the casino was "pretty robust."
"The feedback from analysts and our own analysis led us to re-evaluate," she told The Detroit News. "Our ownership of this place is new, let's do these things that are really important and will make an immediate impact ... and let's evaluate these broader things to see if they make sense."
Alex Calderone, a casino restructuring expert with Birmingham-based Calderone Advisory Group LLC, says Detroit's gambling market is saturated. The city's three casinos have seen increased competition from Ohio casinos as well nearby Windsor, Ontario.
"I don't think Greektown is a cursed location," Calderone told The Detroit News. "I don't think the issue is mismanagement, poor customer service or anything of that nature. I just think we're in a mature market."
Greektown is the smallest of the three Detroit casinos by revenue, at 24 percent of the market.
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