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Rensselaer

The Rensselaer Common Council is expected to vote on a resolution Wednesday night that would support a casino license for De Laet's Landing as a public presentation for an Albany site has been pushed off by the developer.

Rensselaer County political sources familiar with casino developments in East Greenbush and Rensselaer said Tuesday that David Flaum is moving toward making the 24-acre De Laet's Landing on the Hudson River his preferred location for a casino in the Capital Region.

The Rensselaer Common Council is awaiting a final draft of the resolution to consider, City Clerk Nancy Hardt said.

The developments in Rensselaer come as the members of Flaum's team pushing the E23 casino project at Thruway Exit 23 in Albany have been unusually quiet lately.

Flaum did not take calls or respond to an email about his interest in Rensselaer. His aides have been assuring people supportive of the E23 project that the Flaum team is pushing forward with plans to apply for a casino license for the Albany site off Noonan Lane.

Representatives of the Chickasaw Nation, whose Global Gaming Solutions has been planning to partner with Flaum, did not return calls Tuesday, nor did John Signor, chief executive of Capital Off-Track Betting Corp., which has already signed on with Flaum.

"I can't confirm or deny anything," Rensselaer Mayor Dan Dwyer said Tuesday night.

After seeing the partnership of Penn National and Cordish Companies pull out of a deal on the Rensselaer location and abandon the Capital Region market, Dwyer has been seeking other casino operators for his city.

He has promised swift approval of casino plans and touted the site having its environmental and traffic studies completed and approved, which would speed up opening a casino for business.

People close to Dwyer and Peter Marx, owner of De Laet's Landing, say the two men have signaled in recent days that they have another suitor for a casino project for the landing site. Marx said he would not discuss possibilities for the site his company, U.W. Marx, owns.

The Albany Common Council was expecting to hear a presentation either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week regarding details about the casino proposed by Flaum, Capital District Off-Track Betting Corp. and an arm of the Chickasaw Nation.

On Tuesday evening, Mayor Kathy Sheehan said the casino development team had just communicated they were not ready to present their proposal.

"Our attorney is being told that they are working day and night on a proposal to make to the city and Common Council. But we still haven't seen anything and haven't been given any indication as to when they would be prepared," Sheehan said.

The mayor expressed concerns about the absence of details for the proposed casino as the June 30 submission deadline nears.

"I have not seen any plans, and I have not had any conversations with the proposed casino operators," Sheehan said. "So I do have some concerns that we're running out of time, not just for the Common Council, but the residents of Albany (who) want to have the opportunity to consider a plan and determine whether they will support this going forward, and the less time people have to give consideration, the more of a challenge it is."

Albany Common Council members have long maintained they will not vote on a resolution supporting the casino, a requirement of the casino application, without knowing specifics about the proposal.

At Monday night's council caucus, the mayor's chief of staff, Matt Peter, said consultant Jonathan Silverstein has not received a response from casino developers about a date and time to meet, which is in sharp contrast with previous weeks when Flaum and others aggressively angled for public and government support.

"So far I've gotten nothing," said Peters. "This was the week they were supposed to meet with the council and introduce themselves based upon an internal timeline requested by council leadership."

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