Thomas Wilmot Sr

Thomas Wilmot Sr. of Lago Resort & Casino smiles a year ago after learning the Gaming Facility Location Board recommended them for a casino license. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

(Mike Groll)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The state today awarded a lucrative gaming license to Thomas Wilmot, a Rochester developer who has spent at least 25 years trying to open a casino.



The award from the New York Gaming Commission marks the official go-ahead for Wilmot's plans to build the Lago Resort & Casino in the Finger Lakes region, at Exit 41 of the New York State Thruway.

The license is also a long-awaited win for Wilmot, who has spent millions of dollars, formed multiple alliances with Native American tribes and at one point learned Spanish in his effort to cash in on gambling.

"On behalf of my family, everyone at Wilmorite and our Lago Resort & Casino partners, employees and supporters, I want to thank the New York State Gaming Commission for the trust they have shown in us," Wilmot said in a prepared statement issued seconds after the commission unanimously approved the license in New York City. "This is a huge day, and not just for those of us connected to Lago but also for the people of Tyre, Seneca County and the entire Finger Lakes region."

Even with today's award, however, Wilmot's epic journey to join the gambling industry will likely continue.

The issuance will likely further inflame opponents of the project - including the Oneida Indian Nation - who have mounted multiple legal fights and public relations campaigns against Wilmot's plans to put a casino 76 miles west of Turning Stone Casino.

Indeed, just minutes after the commission awarded the license, the Oneida nation issued a statement saying Lago opponents were preparing yet another lawsuit to halt the project.

So far, Wilmot has either won or overcome those hurdles. At one point earlier this year, Wilmot halted the construction of Lago in the town of Tyre after opponents were successful in essentially negating local approvals for the $425 million project. Wilmot started over and won new approvals. He resumed construction this fall and plans to open by 2017.

At the same time, the Oneidas and other opponents ran television ads to argue the state made a mistake giving Lago the green light. Wilmot's financial plan includes drawing some gamblers from existing casinos, like Turning Stone, which the Oneidas own. That shifting of economic activity would not help Upstate, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo had promised in convincing New Yorkers to expand gambling in the state, the Oneidas argue.

Wilmot's backers say Lago will be a boon to the Finger Lakes region. The project is supposed to create 1,800 permanent jobs, 1,800 construction jobs and as much as $80 million annually to the state by 2019.

Wilmot is the owner of Wilmorite, a construction and development company that once owned much of the shopping centers in the Syracuse area. Wilmot joined his father's firm in the 1970s. The son began his quest to get a casino in 1990 by working with officials in Puerto Rico. Since then, he's courted multiple Indian tribes and governors to try to win the opportunity to open a casino.

Here's a look at some of his past efforts:

1950 - James Wilmot, Thomas' father, founds Wilmorite. The name is a combo of surnames for the construction company's partners: Wilmot, James Morrissey and Claude Wright. For the next decade, they build hundreds of houses in Rochester and Western New York.

1960s - Wilmorite builds Camillus Plaza, which became Camillus Mall. During the next four decades, the Wilmot family would build or buy nearly every key shopping mall (except Destiny USA) or stand-alone department store in the Syracuse area: Great Northern, Sibley's, ShoppingTown, the Addis Co., Dey Brothers, Fayetteville, Penn Can Mall, and Fairmount.

1971 - Thomas Wilmot graduates from Syracuse University, where he studied engineering. He joins his father's firm, where he had worked summers, as a land surveyor.

1990 - Wilmot makes his first venture into the casino business, this one in Puerto Rico. He learns some Spanish and records ads with the island's governor. The proposal for an oceanfront casino and hotel never wins legislative approval.

1995 - Wilmot meets a Connecticut-based Indian chief at a Washington, D.C., Democratic fundraiser. The chance encounter sparks relationships with tribes from Connecticut to California as the developer tries to get in on the casino business.

2000 - Wilmot forms Caywil New York LLC to work with the Seneca-Cayuga Indians toward the development of a casino. Also this year, Wilmot forms alliance with Rhonda Morningstar Pope, the daughter of a Me-Wuk chief, who successfully challenged her own tribe's efforts to build a casino in California on sacred land. She became a tribe of one, and began working on her own casino plan with Wilmot.

2001 - Wilmot works with the Greenville Rancheria, a 90-member, landless tribe in California with the advantage of federal recognition. Wilmot contracts with the tribe, paying $1.9 million to buy 280 acres for the tribe north of Sacramento. Also this year, Wilmot's lawyers pitch a New York casino to some 600 members of the Seneca-Cayugas in Miami, Okla., who overwhelmingly endorse the project.

2002 - Wilmot purchases 229 acres in Aurelius and Montezuma overlooking Cayuga Lake for the Seneca-Cayugas for $738,544; the idea is to build a $25 million Bingo hall.

2002 - New York signs a compact with the Seneca Nation of Indians to bring casino gambling to Buffalo and Niagara Falls.This same year, the city of Bridgeport, Conn., signs contract with the Golden Hill Paugussetts in other proposed casino venture. Wilmot spends at least $4 million to bankroll the tribe's effort to require casino rights in Connnecticut.

2004 - The Seneca-Cayugas propose a Rochester casino as part of a land claims settlement with the state. This is the same year Wilmot finalizes sale of 13 malls, including Tysons Corners Center near Washington, D.C., and Shoppingtown and Great Northern mall in Onondaga County, to Macerich Co. for $2.33 billion. The sale marks the end of 40 years of retail business by Wilmorite in the Syracuse area.

2006 - The Seneca-Cayugas and Wilmot pitch a $250 million casino resort to the Sennett Town Board in Cayuga County. The plan includes a golf course, hotel and spa and 2,200 jobs on a site along Route 34.

2007 - Wilmot and then Mayor Tim Lattimore of Auburn meet with then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer about allowing the Cayuga Indian Nation - who had consistently fought the Cayuga-Seneca gaming plans -- to build a full-scale casino in Auburn.

2008 - Wilmot floats an idea to then-Gov. David Paterson to put slot machines in a yet-to-be-built convention center hotel in downtown Syracuse. Paterson says no.

2009 - Wilmot begins working on plans to build a $100 million racetrack and casino at the New York State Fairgrounds in Geddes. Wilmot continues his push for at least two years for the state's last available racino license, a state requirement to open a harness race track with video slot machines. The state never issued that last license as Gov. Andrew Cuomo focused on bringing full-scale, non-Indian gambling to the state.

2013 - Voters approve seven full-scale casinos in New York. The first four are designated for Upstate regions that don't already have gaming operations run by Native American tribes. In return, the tribes agree to share a portion of their receipts with state and local governments. Wilmot aims to win one of those four slots.

Summer 2014 - Wilmot unveils plans for the $425 million Lago Resort & Casino in Tyre, just off Exit 41 of the New York State Thruway in Seneca County.

Dec. 17, 2014 - Wilmot learns at a public meeting in Albany that Lago is one of three casinos recommended for full licensing by the state's Gaming Commission.

Dec. 21, 2015 - State awards Lago a casino license. Also awards licenses for the Montreign Resort Casino in the Catskills and the Rivers Casino & Resort at Mohawk Harbor in Schenectady.