Coronado submits racino application

Coronado Partners, which for more than a decade has sought a horse-racing track and casino in Tucumcari, last week submitted a revised application to the New Mexico Racing Commission and urged the agency to award a sixth license to begin the project.

Logan attorney Warren Frost, one of the principals behind the Coronado Park proposal, on Thursday emailed a copy of the application to officials with Quay County, the city of Tucumcari, villages of Logan and San Jon and the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corp.

"There is new leadership at the Commission and we hope the Governor is ready to make a move. Feel free to pass this along to your commissioners," Frost stated in the email.

Reached by phone Saturday, Frost said the racing commission in recent months has two new commissioners, including a chairman. Albuquerque attorney Sam Bregman is the commission's new chairman, replacing Beverly Bourguet after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham fired her earlier this year. There also remains a vacancy on the five-member commission.

Frost said Izzy Trejo, the commission's executive director, was "receptive" to Coronado Partners' revised application, but Frost noted commissioners make the ultimate decision whether to award a license.

Frost anticipates the commission soon will place the application on its agenda during its regularly scheduled meeting June 17.

An email to Trejo requesting comment was not answered.

With new blood in the commission, Frost said he was prompted to again press Coronado's case, plus a "continued need for economic development in the eastern side of the state," especially as the COVID-19 pandemic begins to ebb.

"It seems like the whole state is booming but us," Frost said. "After all we've been through, we need to make a decision one way or another. We're going to insist they make a decision."

Frost said he wasn't aware whether previously competing "racino" applicants in Clovis or Lordsburg also have submitted revised applications to the commission.

The Coronado Group long has argued a racetrack and casino in Clovis would financially hurt existing horse tracks in Hobbs and Ruidoso.

The proposed Coronado Park in Tucumcari, located on 337 acres between Route 66, Interstate 40 and U.S. 54 on the city's east side, would create 500 new jobs and $14 million in gaming taxes annually, according to a cover letter with the application signed by Coronado Partners principal Tom Krumland.

The Tucumcari facility would include an amphitheater on its infield for major concerts and a Route 66 museum. The application claims the racino would draw from the Amarillo metro area and I-40 and U.S. 54 traffic.

It also notes 75,000 performance quarter horses also are being raised between Tucumcari and Amarillo.

The Innovation Group of New Orleans estimates a Tucumcari racino would generate $55 million in gaming revenue by 2025. The Arrowhead Center of Las Cruces also estimated the racino would generate $67 million in all revenue by 2023 and $76 million by 2027.

The application includes a letter of interest from Pioneer Bank of Roswell to provide financing for the project.

The proposed Tucumcari racino enjoyed near-unanimous support from residents three years ago, including from more than 1,100 people who attended the commission's hearing in October 2018 at the Tucumcari Convention Center. Crowds during commission hearings at Clovis and Lordsburg were much smaller or more divided.

The commission was about to award a license in November 2018 when it was stopped by an injunction by the Lordsburg applicants, alleging flawed studies and accusations of conflict of interest by one of the Clovis applicants. The case trudged its way through courtrooms for months.

Lujan Grisham, taking office as governor just months before, fired the old racing commission in April 2019 and appointed new members.

In August 2019, the commission declined to award a sixth license "in the best interest" of the state and its existing tracks and casinos.

Coronado Partners first proposed a Tucumcari racetrack in 2008 but lost to a group in Raton. The Raton track never was built, and a second application by Coronado never was acted on by the commission.

Frost, while repeatedly expressing his frustrations with the commission over the years, didn't waver from optimism about his group's newest pitch.

"We think the fourth time is the charm," he said.