Here is a round up of business news from around Indian Country.
Finance
• The U.S. Department of the Treasury has again extended the deadline for tribal governments to file a notice of intent to apply for State Small Business Credit Initiative funds. The new deadline to file a notice of intent is Dec. 11, 2021 with SSBCI capital applications due on Feb. 11, 2022. Treasury is also holding a Tribal government listening session on the SSBCI capital application and program design from 4-5:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 12, 2022. Treasury wants to use the session to learn more about tribal interest in the program and how tribes will collaborate on the program with Native community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and other Native financial institutions. Click here to register for the listening session.
Government
• Bidtah Becker, a member of the Navajo Nation, was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve as Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice, Tribal Affairs and Border Relations at California’s Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA). Becker has led the Navajo Nation Division of Natural Resources, overseeing 12 departments including agriculture, parks, forestry, land development, mine remediation, archaeological and cultural resources, and water resources, with a staff of more than 500. She is currently with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, which is developing the $1.5 billion Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project. “Her vision, brilliance and compassion will help California achieve our ambitious agenda of combating environmental racism by empowering communities of color, rebuilding relationships with tribal nations, and helping champion environmental issues and tolerance on the U.S./Mexico border,” California Secretary for Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld said in a statement.
Gaming
• Uncasville, Conn.-based Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment, an enterprise of the Mohegan Tribe, raised $1.55 billion in funding to develop the first phase of the INSPIRE Entertainment Resort in Incheon, South Korea. To date, Mohegan Gaming’s wholly owned Korean subsidiary has secured $575 million in equity investments and $275 million from private equity firms Bain Capital and MBK Partners. The company, which is investing $300 million on its own into the project, also worked with a three-bank consortium to secure an approximately $890 million project finance loan. Additionally, Hanwha Engineering & Construction Corp., the general contractor for the project, made a subordinated investment in INSPIRE valued at about $85.5 million. The firm’s Hanwha Hotel and Resort Co. Ltd. is a strategic partner in the project and will operate the hotel once it’s completed. Mohegan Gaming expects to open the first phase of the planned multi-billion dollar development in 2023. It will include three hotel towers, a 15,000-seat arena, a foreigners-only casino, a convention center, retail and a year-round indoor water dome. “We have a proven track record in developing and operating leading integrated entertainment resorts in North America with our successes in Connecticut, Las Vegas and Niagara Falls, and we look forward to taking this success abroad as the first American IR [integrated resort] launched in Korea,” Mohegan Tribe Chairman James Gessner Jr. said in a statement.
• The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians is one step closer to finalizing the $650 million deal to acquire the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, according to a report in the Nevada Independent. The Nevada Gaming Control Board held a licensing hearing last week to learn more about the tribe’s operations and plans for the Palms. The report indicated the deal could close by the end of the month, with the tribe welcoming its first customers around March 2022. The board will meet Dec. 16 to make a final ruling on the license. If approved, the Palms would be the first Native American owned and operated casino in Las Vegas. As Tribal Business News reported in May, the deal for the 19-year-old Palms includes a casino, 700-room hotel, a range of dining facilities, meeting and convention space, a 2,500-seat theater, pool and pool.
Higher education
• Arizona State University held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Event Center within the Herald Examiner building, part of the school’s ASU California Center in downtown Los Angeles, according to a statement. The name honors the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians’ $5 million donation toward the renovation of the California Center. The tribe is also a long-time supporter of the university’s Indian gaming and tribal self-governance programs hosted within the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. San Manuel Chairman Ken Ramirez said the investments further the tribe’s interests in Native American law and sovereignty. “It is an honor to contribute to education efforts about tribal governments by supporting Indian gaming and governance programs through our partnership with Arizona State University,” Ramirez said in a statement. “It is San Manuel Band of Mission Indians’ deepest hope that the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Event Center is a reminder of the rich history Native people in California hold, and the sacredness in which it should both be acknowledged, protected and supported.” Since 2003, the San Manuel Band has contributed more than $290 million in philanthropic contributions.
Nonprofit
• Derek Koger, executive director of tribal community Development for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, was appointed to the board of trustees at the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Pace Center for Girls, which offers free year-round middle and high school academics, case management, counseling, and life skills development. Pace was formed in 1985 as a program to reduce recidivism for young girls in the juvenile justice system. Kroger has served the tribe for years and has helped establish planned communities, including housing, community facilities, water and wastewater services, solid waste disposal, and constructing and maintaining reservation road systems.
• Chicago-based Conor Green Consulting LLC, which partners with tribal economic development to launch cannabis businesses, has made an unspecified corporate donation to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center in support of the center’s efforts to raise awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous Women and to stop violence against Native women. “We are honored to donate to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center this year. Our hope is to bring more awareness and support to these issues and organizations like NIWRC, who are championing these causes,” Conor Green Managing Partner Tom Bergeron said in a statement.
