Micky Arison warns of traffic nightmare if casinos come to downtown Miami

Miami Heat owner Micky Arison warned Monday that massive casino resorts in downtown Miami would likely cause traffic nightmares, turn off local basketball fans and generally disrupt Miami’s urban revival.

“We’re on a roll, and I’m not sure this is the right way to continue it,” said the CEO of Carnival Corp. and majority owner of the Heat. “I just don’t know how Miami can handle that kind of traffic.”

Arison’s comments represent the most critical yet from South Florida’s corporate elite as the region considers a plan that could bring the world’s largest casino to the Miami waterfront. It also reveals an interesting subplot to the ongoing gambling debate, since the leading casino operator pursuing a Miami site also controls one of Carnival’s top rivals, Norwegian Cruise Line.

Genting, the largest casino operator in Southeast Asia and the United Kingdom and owner of 50 percent of Norwegian, has already spent about $500 million assembling a waterfront site in Miami. Genting wants to build a 5,200-room resort there, and current plans call for about 50 restaurants and nearly four times as many slot machines as the largest casino in Las Vegas, according to publicity materials and an architect working on the design.

Along with the Genting project, a nearby site in Miami is reportedly under consideration for a casino by Las Vegas Sands.

Genting spokesman Tadd Schwartz said Monday evening that the company is working with government officials and local leaders to solve any traffic problems the project causes. With the windfall of tax revenues and trasnportation improvements that Genting will fund, “it’s going to be better for downtown,’’ Schwartz said.

The criticism from a cruise line rival and head of one of the largest companies in South Florida got attention from the very top of Genting.

Arison wrote on his Twitter account Friday night that he agreed with a post by someone who called a downtown Miami casino “pretty much the WORST idea ever.” (It was one of two newsworthy posts that night by Arison, a prolific tweeter. His response to a post criticizing NBA owners netted Arison a $500,000 fine Monday for violating league rules against commenting on the ongoing labor dispute.)

The CEO’s two-word reply to the casino post — “agree - traffic” — made its way to both Genting Chairman KT Lim and Norwegian CEO Kevin Sheehan, Sheehan said.

Sheehan, who joked that Arison was responding like “a big baby,” said he thought the legalization of gaming in downtown Miami would be good for both the city and the cruise industry. He said he believed travelers would add on more time to cruise vacations in order to gamble and see South Florida sights.

“I think you’re going to get guests that come to South Florida,” he said. “They’ll take a little bit longer vacation, they’ll take a stop in South Beach, at the casino. It just gives them another opportunity to do something else down here.”

Arison, head of the world’s largest cruise line, largely agreed with Sheehan’s analysis of a Genting resort on bookings, even with the advantages Norwegian would enjoy as a Genting subsidiary.

Within its six-tower complex built at the current Miami Herald headquarters, Genting plans a more affordable hotel aimed at cruise passengers and families, including rooms with bunk beds. Genting purchased the Herald site in May under a deal that allows the publisher to remain there rent-free for two years.

Fuente:: http://www.miamiherald.com