The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

The chief operating officer of the Connecticut-based Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority said Thursday the long-planned casino project near La Center remains “very viable” despite the tribe’s $1.6 billion debt and dismal third-quarter profits.

“We’re anxious to get started,” Jeff Hartmann said during a conference call. “It’s going to create hundreds of jobs.”

Mohegan Chairwoman Lynn Malerba echoed Hartmann’s positive outlook.

Before a shovel of dirt can be overturned in the fields west of La Center’s Interstate 5 interchange, however, the federal government must allow the Cowlitz Indian Tribe to put the land into trust.

The tribe applied in 2002 to establish a 152-acre reservation and put a $510 million casino-hotel complex on it.

Malerba said Thursday the Department of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has been “dragging its feet” on making a decision on the Cowlitz’s application. She said she has been spending time in Washington, D.C., and believes a decision should come soon.

One complicating factor has been a Supreme Court decision blocking tribes not under federal jurisdiction prior to 1934 (when the Indian Reorganization Act was enacted) from taking land into trust.

Congress has been debating reversing that decision with what’s been called the “Carcieri fix,” named after the court case.

The Cowlitz tribe contends that even though it was not federally recognized until 2000, the tribe was under federal jurisdiction prior to 1934.

“The Cowlitz tribe has a right” to have that land placed into trust, Malerba said Thursday. “We do believe it will happen.”

A June 18 memo from Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar urged the Bureau of Indian Affairs to move forward with decisions on gaming applications.

Salazar acknowledged the applications raise “difficult and contentious issues,” but that “it is important that we move forward with processing applications and requests for gaming on Indian lands within the context of objective statutory and regulatory criteria.”

A call to a Bureau of Indian Affairs spokeswoman, to ask if the agency has an idea on when it might issue the decision, was not returned Thursday.

Phil Harju, spokesman for the Cowlitz tribe, said the tribe hopes the decision comes soon.

Harju said David Barnett, a Cowlitz member and a Seattle developer who has been a driving force behind the plan, is recovering from a near-fatal truck crash last fall.

Barnett’s girlfriend has been charged with misdemeanor reckless driving while under the influence and is scheduled to go to trial next month in King County.

Barnett partnered with the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which operates the Mohegan Sun in southeastern Connecticut and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Plains Township, Pa., to build the Cowlitz casino.

Thursday’s conference call was for Mohegan executives to discuss third-quarter fiscal results.

Their financial status must be reported to the federal government because its debt is traded publicly.

“I wish we could be discussing much better operating results,” Malerba said. But the recession has had far-reaching effects, and the gaming industry has not been exempt, she said.

Net income for the third quarter was $11.6 million, down 50 percent from the same three months (April, May and June) in 2009.

The Mohegan’s chief executive officer, Mitchell Etess, said they had been optimistic about revenues but ended with the lowest third-quarter earnings since 2002.

“There’s not much vibrancy in the marketplace,” Etess said. “People are saving more. … We’re all working harder and spending more to attract customers.”

Chief Financial Officer Leo Chupaska said the tribe is analyzing refinancing options to put off paying off debt.

In addition to the Cowlitz project, the tribe has proposed to build casinos in Massachusetts and Wisconsin.

While executives say they are still optimistic a casino will be built in Southwest Washington, they’ve hedged their bets in their financial disclosure statements.

In the tribe’s 2009 fiscal report, it wrote off $8.6 million, a third of their investment so far in the Cowlitz project, on the expectation the deal could fall through.

Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4508 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.

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