Albany

David Flaum rode in from Rochester on a white horse, announcing a casino, waterpark and hotel project that could bring badly needed jobs and revenue to Albany.

Problem is, the horse made a few other stops.

As James M. Odato reported in a profile of Flaum in Sunday's Times Union, the developer in January promised the Sullivan County town of Mamakating, in the Catskills, that he would fight "to the end of the earth" for "my only casino."

Turns out Flaum has also proposed an Orange County casino that would probably doom the Mamakating project. Meanwhile, he was also searching for a Capital Region site.

If Mamakating was duped, the town's supervisor doesn't seem to care.

"He's a businessman and he's not going to show all his cards," Bill Herrmann said. "Any developer is like a used car salesman, right?"

Maybe so. It's true that real estate development, like politics, is akin to sausage-making. You want something tasty at the end, but you don't want to watch the process.

The Albany casino might ultimately be a delicious bratwurst. A casino is going to be built in the Capital Region; the site off Noonan Lane could be as good as we're going to get.

Sure, the casino would be right at the city's entrance, resulting in some NIMFYism — as in Not In My Front Yard.

Yet the isolated land is away from neighborhoods. It's right off the Thruway. And it's in Albany, so the taxes generated by the casino would benefit a city that's economically important to the region and symbolically important to the state.

But Mamakating should be cautionary tale for members of the Albany Common Council, who are being asked to approve a resolution in support of the casino by May 5. They have little hard information with which to gauge the project, so they're relying on Flaum's word when he tells them what the casino would be.

Would casino and waterpark jobs really go to city residents, as Flaum and other members of his team are promising? Would the casino really have transportation and other links with downtown Albany? Would the casino operators really do what it takes to be the best possible neighbors?

I should note that Flaum's paid supporters strongly objected to this line of questioning — meaning they weren't exactly in love with the idea of this column. They point to Flaum's track record as a developer and philanthropist.

"As a former chair of the Holocaust Museum, and as a board member of Syracuse University, David has a national reputation as a leader in philanthropic giving," wrote spokesman Patrick McCarthy in an email. "His commitment to bringing a world-class resort to Albany is reflected in the amount of public meetings he's held over the last month."

I certainly agree that Flaum & Co. are engaging with the public as they campaign hard for the Common Council vote. I also think it's fair to look at what Flaum said when he successfully campaigned for similar casino support in Mamakating.

"You will get the negatives without any of the positives if we don't get one here," he told Mamakating Town Board in a meeting that's up on YouTube.

That line no doubt sounds familiar because it's one of the primary arguments used in support of the Albany casino. It was a frequently heard theme of the hearing on the casino held last week at Giffen Memorial Elementary School, when Flaum floated the casino as the answer to many of Albany's ills.

The forum had bizarre moments, like when Flaum told a woman who clearly hated casinos that he wanted to hire her as a consultant. ("Your ideas are fresh and new," he said.) And some in the audience were puzzled that what was billed as an informational forum felt like a pro-casino pep rally.

"Dissenting voices were shot down left and right," said Common Council member Judd Krasher, a casino skeptic. "Those who spoke in support of the casino were allowed to go on and on."

Among the unfortunate factors is that Krasher and other council members are being asked to make such a difficult and momentous decision in such a ridiculously short time frame. In gambling lingo, it's now either all in or fold — and Flaum, the dealer, is holding all the cards.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5700 • @chris_churchill