EDWARDSVILLE PLANNING COMMISSION

EDWARDSVILLE CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS

690 SOUTH 4^TH STREET P O BOX 13738

EDWARDSVILLE, KANSAS 66113

March 13, 2008

Members Present: Tim Sweeten, Kelli Curry, Gerald Pappert and Robert Craven.

Members Absent: Bryan Smith, Jeff Martinique, and Woody Berry.

Special Called Meeting

Change of zoning for Tract #1, 325 N. 110^th St. and Tract #2, 323 N. 110^th St. from C-2 Commercial Extensive to C-2 Commercial Extensive on the RASD w/SUP.

Tract #3, 201 N. 110^th St.; Tract #5, 10860 Riverview; Tract #6, 10814 Riverview; Tract #7, 10750 Riverview; Tract #8, 10716 Riverview; all five tracts from AG/R Agricultural/Residential to C-2 Commercial Extensive in the RASD w/SUP.

Meeting was opened by Tim Sweeten acting as Planning Commission Chairman in the absence of Jeff Martinique.

Carl Gallagher, Legal Counsel, 707 Minnesota Avenue, Suite 400, Kansas City, Kansas, representing Sands Kansas, LLC introduced Tim Baker Director of Development for Sands Kansas, LLC and Andy Abboud, Vice President Community Development and Governmental Relations.

Tim Baker, Director of Design for Sands Kansas, LLC, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV, presented a power point presentation. (See refer to Item A attached.)

Andy Abboud, 3900 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, NV, spoke on community outreach efforts. Mr. Abboud stated that 6200 new jobs will be created and that the Sands Kansas will focus on minority and women owned businesses first. They will hold seminars on March 20 to talk about the procurement needs, certification needs for minority and women owned businesses. They are proposing the largest development in Wyandotte County at a construction cost of $777 million dollars. (See attached Item A.)

Tim Sweeten: On the local revenue share, have you done a demographic study on the retail end of it? How is that going to play into the retail we already have and the retail at Schlitterbaum?

Andy Abboud: They will be new. We don’t think it will work to bring in the same kind of retail that is here. What we will be looking to do from the restaurant side and the retail side is to bring in new vendors, new merchants, new stores that are new to the area. It will be a new offering, we tend to go to the higher end of the spectrum, it will be retail offerings that are new to the area that we are confident will succeed.

Tim Sweeten:  Have you gone into cities the size of Kansas City before and been successful with those kinds of retailers?

Andy Abboud: We have a license in Bethlehem PA currently, the market is very similar. We have had good luck attracting retail operators there.

Tim Sweeten:  What is the population of Bethlehem?

Andy Abboud: About a million people in the metropolitan area. It can draw from an area, but there is a lot of retail offerings. We are confident and we are signing people up.

Tim Sweeten: How far along is that project?

Andy Abboud: It opens next year, it is under construction. The steel is going up now.

Tim Sweeten: So the retail is all filled out?

Andy Abboud: I’m not sure it is all filled out. We are signing people up now.

Tim Sweeten: The reason I ask is, what are the chances that this will really get developed the way you have proposed it with this much retail in it?

Tim Baker: From my experience, obviously the retail evolves as the tenant wants more or less space. We are experienced at retail with our own property and our staff and team members coming from the retail environment. We believe that this is the right size of retail space. We have approximately 160,000 square foot of retail space, leasable space. The gross area is approximately 200,000 square feet. And the layout we have shown may change depending on the needs of the tenants.

Tim Sweeten: So how much retail is Schlitterbaum bringing on? They are planning on bringing a big retail aspect also.

Tim Baker: I believe they are. We are very distinct in our in offer. We don’t have any letters of intent at this time. We know that some of the tenants we are talking to in Pennsylvania are interested in coming with us. Because of the footfall we generate. We are able to attract quality tenants who are confident in our projects.

Tim Sweeten: How much of the total local revenue share is created by the retail?

Tim Baker: None of that.

Fred Kraus, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV, Those projections are for construction cost and the share is the local share of gaming revenue under the interlocal agreement with the three jurisdictions. Those projections are based on our first year of opening if we are successful in getting a license which would be 2011. What Tim mentioned about the retail mix is that our focus is building a destination resort. We don’t want to be just a gaming facility. Mr. Kraus continued to explain the retail relationship between the Las Vegas properties and their existing vendors and merchants. He explained how they would create a destination resort with many attractions. They are confident the retail will be successful because they will build it.

Tim Sweeten: Obviously you have a lot of competition. What is your edge that is going to better the chances of this coming to Edwardsville?

Fred Kraus: We think our edge is the fact we have the financing to do it. This is a downturned market. We have an existing credit facility so we don’t have to go out and try and get the money, we have the money. We can build this from existing cash flow, existing credit facility. We have an excess of 2 billion dollars available on a credit line that is part of our application to Topeka. Mr. Kraus continues to explain their business strategy to keep their debt to equity ratio low. Their company closed last year with a 5 billion dollar line of credit.

Tim Sweeten: One last question. How accurate are these numbers going to be in the end, what is the track record, the projected accuracy of these type of revenues?

Fred Kraus: I am confident that the 777 number will go up. The elements are the same as the elements in Bethlehem.

Tim Sweeten: I am more interested in the revenue share figures.

Fred Kraus: Our motto is to under promise and over deliver. The revenue projections are derived from a market study from an external party. It is based on a gravity model of expected casino visitors. It’s based on customer convenience.

Tim Sweeten: So these are not your numbers, this is a third party that has come up with these numbers?

Fred Kraus: No, but they are numbers that are derived from third party projections. But they have to be under the gaming act, they have to be adopted, certified to by a certified public accountant, that is our Chief Financial Officer in consultation with Bill Waggoner our Chief Operating Officer will subscribe to those numbers. And again our motto is we under promise and over deliver. So we are very confident that those are numbers that we will achieve.

Tim Baker closed the formal presentation with a video fly over of the project.

Robert Craven: I have a question regarding the round about driveway. Now it seems as though the delivery and loading docks are on the north side of the site?

Tim Baker: There are two loading docks, there is one on the east side and one on the north side. One is serving the main retail area which is slightly lowered out because of the topography of the site.

Robert Craven: What size delivery vehicles do you expect and will they be able to go around the round about?

Tim Baker: Yes all of that has been engineered to take the largest truck size that our tenants will require.

Robert Craven: Will there be deliveries around the clock, or will the deliveries be set times?

Tim Baker: We will try to manage the deliveries so that they do not coincide with the peak traffic hours of the local communities also not during hours of darkness. It is within our control when those trucks arrive and how big they are.

Robert Craven: Would you discourage trucks from going east on Riverview?

Tim Baker: Yes, definitely. There is no benefit for trucks to use Riverview. We would manage, by our tenant contracts, that we have to ensure they come through from the highway and into the site the way we designed it. It is not in our benefit again, we want to be good neighbors.

Robert Craven: The city has an ordinance against refrigeration units sitting and running early in the morning.

Tim Baker: In terms of the noise, etcetera and the light pollution to our immediate neighbors. The loading areas would be screened visually with landscaping screens and walls. We would discourage trucks from sitting and waiting. We are a very commercial operation, we want trucks to deliver and go as soon as possible it keeps the loading bays moving.

Robert Craven: Sometimes the truckers are in a hurry and want to get to their deliveries as soon as they can.

Tim Baker: We would do all in our power to manage that. I think that ends our presentation of the project.

Tim Sweeten: Do we have a staff report?

Dan Van Petten: Yes, Mr. Chairman. (Please refer to item B attached.)

Sue Pennington: City Engineer for this project. (Please refer to item C attached.)

Public Comments

Dave Isman, 110 S. 110^th St., Is this the basic Sands plan that was rejected by Kansas City, Kansas? Why wasn’t Edwardsville included in the Sands proposal in the first place and are you using Edwardsville as leverage to get back in again in Kansas City, Kansas?

Acting Chairman Tim Sweeten determined that Sands Kansas would respond to all question/comments after they were presented.

William Wells, 1109 S 105^th St., I remember Sands in Missouri, for some reason they left. If Sands would decide to leave, how would that affect the average citizen like me? We are in a time of reciprocity, what does this do to our taxes if this is successful?

Rhonda Smiley, 10526 Richland Avenue, If this is approved as a preliminary site plan when and how would you decide between option A or option B on the sewers?

Tim Sweeten: Are there any other comments from the public?

Mike Webb: The Sands may want to respond to the first two questions and the city I think can respond to question three.

Tim Baker: Although the basic components of our proposal regarding the square footage, the types of uses, the retail, the restaurant and number of parking places, those components are basically the same as what we submitted to the UG.  This design is totally different. Our designs are very site specific. Although it contains the same things it is arranged very differently, specific to the site. This is something we are very proud of, is we force our design teams to do, in every project we go too.

In terms of looking at Edwardsville first, or submitting a proposal previously, we looked at the Edwardsville site over a year ago. Over the next three to six months we looked at over 14 sites in the whole of the area and land ownership and length of time it would take to do the deal on land ownership was one of the issues we encountered on many sites. We chose to pursue a site that had less ownership issues but had a lot of the other attributes that this site does in terms of proximity to the highway and visibility. We chose another site for expedience process in terms of land ownership. Because of events elsewhere we have then revisited that and continued to pursue Edwardsville since that time.

As far as the sewer, we need to understand the city’s desire for what is happening in other parts of the city and where the capacity will lie, it will be a very detailed process. We want to use the best solution.

Tim Sweeten: What do you think will be your time frame on construction?

Time Baker: We believe it will be two years from gaining the license.

Fred Kraus: We have spent already in excess of a million dollars just for the site plan. That doesn’t include the 10 to 15 consultants we have here tonight which could be another million, (laughter from audience). The decision if we are lucky enough to get a recommendation from the planning commission and from the city council. It will be a decision for the lottery review panel. And the gentleman who asked about us walking away from Missouri, I think that is just name confusion. We have never had a project in Missouri.

Tim Sweeten: Any other questions?

William Wells: You missed one of mine, the second one. I want to know what will happen if they did leave. You know we got the Indians who want to have a site over on Parallel. The Woodlands plan to get slots. You know that is competition.

Fred Kraus: We don’t think that will ever happen. These are not original ideas with me. Bill Waggoner, our President, Chief Operating Officer, thinks this is a unique opportunity. As Tim mentioned, service and convenience are key to success in the casino industry. Bill Waggoner thinks we have the unique opportunity. The state of Kansas has two advantages over Missouri right now, one is the betting limits. Missouri can do away with that. The advantage that they can’t fix is the poor access to all their sites along the river. This is an ideal access site. People will go where they can get to, as Tim mentioned, easily, without aggravation, so that they don’t get there in a bad mood and they don’t get home in a bad mood. He thinks we have a real unique opportunity in Kansas and that’s not something Missouri can fix. And so we don’t see any chance of failure.

Gerald Pappert: I make a motion to close the public hearing.

Kelli Curry: Second. Motion carried.

Change of Zoning

Sands Kansas, LLC Agent for 7 tracts of land as listed above.

Kelli Curry: At this time I would make a motion for approval of the Sands Kansas application for rezoning, special use and preliminary site plan. Said approval is conditional on a Sands Kansas application for a lottery gaming facility in Edwardsville Kansas being approved by the Kansas Lottery Commission. The properties to be rezoned are a tract of land located at 201 N. 110^th St.; 10860 Riverview Avenue; 10814 Riverview Avenue; 10750 Riverview Avenue; and 10716 Riverview Avenue.

Robert Craven: I second it.

Michael Webb: Did you want to add to your motion the other two tracts does include the conditional SUP so that it covers all seven lots?

Kelli Curry: There is a conditional tract of land for the change of zoning for Tract #1 which is 325 N. 110^th Street and Tract #2 323 North 110^th Street from C-2 Commercial Extensive to C-2 Commercial Extensive on the RASD w/SUP.

Michael Webb: Thank you.

Robert Craven: I second it. Motion carried.

Gerald Pappert: Motion to adjourn.

Kelli Curry: Second. Motion carried.

The meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Michelle Bounds

Secretary