He is the manager of Americas Best Value Inn, at 112 Old U.S 31, located across the road from where the casino is being built on sovereign land of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians.
"In the evenings here, there are still not a whole lot of things to do except go to bars," said Coonrod. The casino will "give our guests another option in the evenings."
But Coonrod is disappointed that a 64-slot casino won't be outfitted with blackjack, craps and roulette after the Mackinaw City Village Council declined to give permission for Class III gaming in October.
Village approval isn't needed for Class II facilities, which are limited to games like bingo, pull tabs and non-banked card games between players, like poker.
A Class III facility would have generated 2 percent of slot revenues for local governments, while the state would have collected 6 percent in lieu of normal property taxes.
The casino is located one mile south of downtown Mackinaw City, a popular tourist town that is the jumping-off point for a visit to the state's iconic Mackinac island.
Construction began last week on the 5,000-square-foot facility that is going up at the former Thunder Falls Water Park site at 1028 Nicolet St., which is located next to tribal trust lands on the south side of town. The eight-year-old park closed in October 2012.
The new casino is a sort of satellite to the tribe's existing Odawa Casino in Petoskey. It's part of a 5-year economic development plan that also includes a new 130-room hotel at the tribe's Petoskey site. Plans calls for adding an RV park to the Mackinaw City operation in 2017.
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the tribe can operate a second casino in Emmet County under a renegotiated gaming compact.
The Mackinaw City casino will be the only Class II casino in the state, although other Michigan casinos operate Class II slots. The Mackinaw City operation will be similar to the Class II DeJope-Ho-Chunk casino in Madison, Wis., Eric McLester, the Odawa casino's general manager, told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press in October.
McLester didn't return a call to MLive and The Press for this story.
Coonrod is optimistic the casino will put more heads in his hotel's beds. Several village leaders aren't convinced the casino will help the local economy or create more jobs for residents, Mackinaw City Manager David White said.
A representative for the Mackinaw City Chamber of Tourism didn't return a call from MLive.
The response to the project has been mixed from the community, White said.
There was not one big reason that drove the council's lack of support for a Class III license.
"It was all across the board," White said. "Each council member had their own reasons."
That October vote is the second rejection in more than a decade by the village council, which denied a tribal application in 2003 to construct a casino north of the new site.
The casino can reapply for Class III gaming at a later date, White said.
RELATED: Casino plans scaled back after Mackinaw City rejection vote
Shandra Martinez covers business for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.
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