Mar. 6--The Grand Traverse Resort near Lake Michigan north of Traverse City, best known for summer golf and conventions, has been bought by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, who would like to bring casino gambling to one of the Midwest's largest resort destinations. 

The resort, famed for its Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course known as the Bear, and other courses, is only a few miles from the Indian-run Turtle Creek Casino in Williamsburg. The Grand Traverse Band also operates the Leelanau Sands Casino in Peshawbestown. 

Any plan to operate gaming tables at Grand Traverse Resort in Acme north of Traverse City could open up a tangle of legal and financial questions. But the tribe didn't hide its interest. 

"It's an option that we'll explore," Jeff Livingston, chief executive of Traverse Bay Entertainment, the economic development arm of the tribe, said Wednesday. "We'll work with Acme Township, the region and the state to make sure it fits everybody's economic needs. But I think that's something we'll immediately look at." 

Livingston said lawyers for the tribe are exploring what state or federal regulatory obstacles would have to be overcome to bring gaming to the resort. 

The tribe purchased the resort from KSL Resorts, a La Quinta, Calif., entertainment company that's owned it for the past six years. The tribe had been a losing bidder six years ago when KSL bought the property from the City of Detroit pension system. 

Not everyone was happy with the latest purchase. Stephen Kircher, president of Boyne East, which operates the Boyne Mountain and Boyne Highlands golf and ski resorts in northern Michigan, criticized the tribe's ability to operate a monopoly gaming operation while not paying taxes. 

Because Indian tribes are sovereign, they do not pay taxes, although tribes have negotiated payments of casino revenue to local governments in lieu of taxes. 

"Non-casino-based resorts are going to have a hard time competing," Kircher said Wednesday. 

But Doug Luciani, president of the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce, said Indian-run casinos have brought enough new visitors to northern Michigan that the entire area has benefited. 

"We've been impressed by how the band has conducted its business here," he said. "There's no reason that this will be anything but positive for the region." 

Indeed, since KSL put up the resort for sale last year, many northern Michigan hotel and resort operators were more afraid the band might not buy Grand Traverse. Had the tribe chosen instead to build a major new hotel at the Turtle Creek Casino, that could have flooded the market with new rooms. 

"We view it actually as a positive thing," said Joan O'Neill, spokeswoman for the resort Crystal Mountain. "Had it not gone through, they might have built their own lodging and conference facilities. So from a competition standpoint, this is actually a better route for us, too." 

Responding to critics, Livingston said, "They're going to actually see that their business goes up because of our ownership of the resort." 

He added that he expected Grand Traverse to see an immediate boost in business, thanks to the attention that the tribe will lavish on it. The tribe intends to upgrade all the hotel rooms and try to lure more business conferences in the winter months. 

Referring to KSL, he said, "It was a property for them. In our case, it's a crown jewel." 

KSL put up the resort for sale last year in the wake of the recession and a decline in business following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 

"The resort market in the world after 9/11 is quite anemic," Kircher said. "Certainly the number of suitors out there for a resort like Grand Traverse is quite small. The business model that gaming brings to it would be more successful." 

Grand Traverse Resort and Spa features about 660 guest rooms and condominiums, about 49,000 square feet of meeting space, and 54 holes of championship golf. 

The resort also features indoor and outdoor swimming and tennis, a shopping gallery, salon and spa, restaurants, lounges and live entertainment. 

Detroit developer Paul Nine opened Grand Traverse Resort in 1980 after years of fund-raising and construction. The largest resort in a mainly rural area, it drew raves from Mobil (four stars) and AAA (four diamonds). 

But Nine had gone too deeply into debt, and the resort suffered under a crushing payment schedule. 

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(c) 2003, Detroit Free Press. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.