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Centex Landis Construction Co. President James Landis paces his Metairie office, stopping to align the wooden in-boxes at the corner of his well-ordered desk. But Landis can do little to tidy the muddle surrounding the bankrupt casino project on Canal Street.
Following his hard-fought but unsuccessful battle to secure legislative approval of an overhauled operating contract between the state and would-be casino operator Harrah's Jazz Co., the chairman of the casino's unsecured creditors' committee is waiting and hoping alongside 700 or so other creditors and the suppliers and subcontractors they in turn owe.
"The unsecured creditors' position is very simple: We want whatever can happen the quickest to get this thing resolved successfully to happen," says Landis, just back from a vacation away from the Harrah's snarl.
The Legislature snubbed the renegotiated casino operating agreement in the waning hours of the session despite support from a bankruptcy judge, the state Gaming Control Board, the City of New Orleans and others. Now, Harrah's creditors are left wondering when they will be paid the $55 million they're owed, and who to blame if they aren't.
"The state hasn't turned its back on the unsecured creditors," says Landis, whose company and vendors are owed some $34 million. "Having said that, it was very frustrating that the Legislature did not go ahead and approve this thing."
Joseph Friend, attorney for the committee, says Landis' sense of disappointment is shared by most of the unsecured creditors.
"They worked very hard to...