The federal process for a tribe to transfer land it owns into trust could take about six months to a year, said Fred Schubkegel, a partner in the Kalamazoo office of Varnum LLP whose practice areas include American Indian law. She also expects that some projects may take place on non-trust lands the tribe owns. Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs in the future to take as much of the land as possible into trust, King said. Gun Lake Tribe holds the title to the other parcels it owns in the corridor, but will petition the U.S. “We really want to make that corridor a destination,” said King, noting it was too early in the process to provide cost estimates for the project.Ĭurrently, the casino property and a nearly 140-acre parcel immediately north of 130th Avenue are held in trust by the federal government for the tribe as part of its reservation. Conceptually, the tribe hopes to use the development to help draw more families to the area, she added.

Parts of the development could complement the tribe’s growing casino operations, including a new 15-story hotel, but the new project will not involve gaming, King said. We do have a couple of projects (in the development) that we want to fast track and that we hope to break ground on next year.” … Twelve-hundred acres is so significant and it will be its own ecosystem. We really do need to make sure we get everyone involved. “This is really a 25-year-plus project and will be such a huge project. “The planning phase will really be about figuring out what are our constraints and opportunities, and what we can target first,” King said. Now Gun Lake Investments is launching a six-month planning phase to prioritize various uses and where they will be located. Monica King, CEO of Gun Lake Investments, the tribe’s non-gaming investment arm, said the tribe has secured about a 2.75-mile stretch of highway frontage spanning approximately 1,200 acres. 131 in Allegan County to secure it for possible future development. The tribe for years has been acquiring property north of the casino on the east side of U.S. The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, or Gun Lake Tribe, plans to transform hundreds of acres of property north of Gun Lake Casino into a massive development that could include retail, health care, housing and manufacturing.

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