News
AND THEY'RE OFF!
April 13, 2011
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| With cash-strapped states looking to enhance revenues, NY recently announced construction of a $600M gaming facility atAqueduct Racetrack in Queens. Legal Bisnow met with Clifford Chance Americas real estate chair Doug Wisner, who’s working on the financing. The gaming industry isn’t new to Doug—he repped a few lenders in Nassau, Bahamas’ Crystal Palace Hotel & Casino, several Vegas casino projects (Aladdin, Venetian, Palazzo), and more recently, the Tropicana. Above, Doug’s next to toy casino chips from the Seneca Allegany Casino financing and another from his work on San Diego’s Valley View Casino. He worked on the Sin City deals back when there was no end in sight to development (’98), but now the city is overbuilt and it will likely take at least five years before the overcapacity is burned off, he says. |
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| Once an avid biker and amateur pilot, Doug tells us he gave up both for about 20 years to comply with his wife’s wishes. He runs to keep his heart going in the meantime, but his love for the chopper never vanished. When his twin sons Stephen and Jeffrey, now 23, graduated from high school and expressed an interest in riding, he eagerly dusted off his old hog. Riding isn’t exercise, he tells us, but it’s fun, and fun is good for the heart. (Our justification for eatinggallons of ice cream is now lawyer-approved.) This pic is of him and son Stephen standing next to their Harleys during a three-day ride through 900 miles of Death Valley and the Mojave Desert last March. Doug tells us the ride was cold, but he enjoyed seeing the beautiful desert, the Hoover Dam, and getting in some quality father-son bonding time. |
