Last decade, the Seminoles broke off contracts and reached settlements with companies that developed and managed their Coconut Creek casino and the Hard Rock casinos in Tampa and Hollywood. The spa grossed a little more than $3 million last year. According to the lease, the tribe and Panofsky split construction and equipment costs and Panofsky gave the tribe 7 percent of gross sales for rent. “This is so wrong – it’s outrageous.”Īllen said the tribe has already offered Panofsky over $1 million to recoup her investment. “I want my spa back,” said Panofsky, who has filed an emergency motion in federal court. Its sovereign status allows it to enjoy great legal leverage, with cases often dismissed by judges who say they have no standing. Panofsky joins a growing list of business partners who’ve ended up in disputes with the tribe. Said Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen: “Her lease was clear that (federal) approval was necessary…At this point, we want to make her happy (with a settlement) and we’ll go our separate ways…This situation has nothing to do with us living up to our obligations with the compact.” ![]() “I was wined and dined to open a spa there, I put $2 million of my own money into building it, I tried to be a good partner and this is what I get?” “I feel used,” Panofsky said at her Plantation headquarters this week. The tribe was left with no functional alternative but to take possession of the premises.” Tribe spokesman Gary Bitner said, “All efforts to resolve the situation have been resisted and rejected. Panofsky said the tribe didn’t tell her until 2007 that the lease hadn’t been approved, after business was thriving and she rebuffed the tribe’s buyout attempts. The tribe says Panofsky never had a valid lease, because the 2003 lease they signed was not approved by the federal government. ![]() “When all this happened, I said, ‘Where am I? Is this the United States?’ What kind of people do business like this?”
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