The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians has agreed to pay at least $25 million to two investment companies to settle years of tangled litigation over a pair of derailed Michigan casino projects.
Sault Ste. Marie, Kewadin Casinos, lawsuit
The Sault Chippewa owns five casinos in Michigan, including the Kewadin Christmas Casino, above, in the small town of Christmas in the Upper Peninsula.
The tribe had been on the hook for $88 million after a judge awarded damages to the two companies, JLLJ Development and Lansing Future Development (LFD), in January.
Neither project ever broke ground. In both cases, the US Interior Department denied the tribe’s application to take land into trust, a condition of tribal gaming. These were the Kewadin Lansing, envisaged for downtown Lansing, and another casino that would have been built close to the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
The tribe, which owns five casinos in Michigan under the Kewadin brand name, was ultimately unsuccessful in its bid to have a federal court overturn the DOI decision.
Sault Ste. Marie, Kewadin Casinos, lawsuit
The Sault Chippewa owns five casinos in Michigan, including the Kewadin Christmas Casino, above, in the small town of Christmas in the Upper Peninsula.
The tribe had been on the hook for $88 million after a judge awarded damages to the two companies, JLLJ Development and Lansing Future Development (LFD), in January.
Neither project ever broke ground. In both cases, the US Interior Department denied the tribe’s application to take land into trust, a condition of tribal gaming. These were the Kewadin Lansing, envisaged for downtown Lansing, and another casino that would have been built close to the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
The tribe, which owns five casinos in Michigan under the Kewadin brand name, was ultimately unsuccessful in its bid to have a federal court overturn the DOI decision.
