For no cash up front, they would be given 7.5 percent of the stock for the riverboat and another 7.5 percent was to go into a trust benefiting local charities, according to a summary of the deal Trump’s lawyers sent to one of the men, Buddy Yosha. The eight business partners in Trump’s license application had been offered a chance to buy shares worth more than $1 million, but most didn’t have the money. Trump was to invest $153 million, including $10 million on local redevelopment projects that included renovation of the sagging downtown hotel. A May 1996 agreement signed by the Trump organization said the developer would “endeavor” to fill 70 percent of its 1,200 full-time jobs with minorities, and more than half of them women. Trump also said he would revamp an “eyesore” hotel near City Hall, according to a transcript.īased on the strength of Trump’s revamped proposal, the state gaming commission overruled Gary officials, awarding Trump one of the two casino licenses. In a September 1994 presentation, Trump’s team touted his “superior marketing and advertising abilities” to pitch a 340-foot long vessel called Trump Princess with more than 1,500 slot machines and enough nearby parking for 3,000 cars.

Trump went directly to the Indiana Gaming Commission with a beefed-up proposal. In 1993, when Gary was to get Indiana’s first licenses for riverboat casinos, there was Trump, presenting a plan for a casino he claimed would revitalize the city’s waterfront.ĭue to concerns over his finances after two then-recent corporate bankruptcies, city officials initially did not recommend Trump for a license, but he didn’t give up. Broadway, the once-thriving main thoroughfare, is now lined with vacant buildings, a boarded-up wig shop here, a once-regal theater there. The remaining 77,000 residents abide persistent crime and chronic unemployment. Gary’s fortunes fell with the steel industry.

Steel just 30 miles southeast of Chicago, Gary peaked in size in the 1960s at nearly 200,000 as black residents arrived from the South looking for jobs and an on-ramp to the American dream.

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