PITTSBURGH -- Nearly a year after the state awarded Pittsburgh's only casino license, ground was finally broken on Don Barden's $450 million Majestic Star Casino on the city's North Shore.

Celebrity partners Jerome Bettis, the former Steelers running back, and singer Smokey Robinson joined Barden at the groundbreaking on North Shore Drive on Tuesday morning.

Barden said he wanted to get started sooner but couldn't, because of design and traffic issues and complaints by the Pirates, Steelers, Carnegie Science Center and neighbors who live in the area.

"We're here to bring positive change, to be a positive neighbor to the residents on the North Shore and the city of Pittsburgh," Barden said. "We're here to do good things."

"He (Barden) is a man of the highest integrity," said Robinson. "He's a great person and a brilliant businessman. I am very, very proud to be associated with him."

Still, Barden's plans for what the casino and an attached parking garage will look like are under attack by the city's Riverlife Task Force, which unsuccessfully appealed to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to block the groundbreaking.

The group called the latest garage design a behemoth that detracts from the riverfront.

"I don't think I've been appreciated with all the commitments we've made and all the money we're spending here -- private dollars, no tax dollars -- and to be ambushed like this at the 11th hour by someone who's selfishly trying to change the design and may have ulterior motives is disheartening," Barden said.

Barden is giving $7.5 million a year for construction of the city's new arena, $3 million for North Side community development, $1 million to the science center to address traffic concerns, $1 million to build a pedestrian bridge to Heinz Field and $10 million in street improvements. He's also facing a $50 million increase in construction costs because of the long delay.

"Oh yeah, everybody has had to stick their hands in my pocket and rob me. You know, we're paying for a lot of things casinos normally don't pay for," he said one day earlier, in an interview with WTAE Channel 4 Action News.

But government leaders are praising Barden not only for the casino but for his commitment to help pay for a new arena in which the Pittsburgh Penguins will play.

"Don, you have my commitment that whatever it takes, we're with you," said Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato. "We're going to help you get this done and we are going to benefit when this is open."

"It's about jobs," said Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. "It's about the future of this economy, and that commitment you made for people to come up here and ask about those jobs."

Though Barden has approval to begin preparing the site, he does not have approval from the city's planning commission to begin building any structures yet. Majestic Star representatives have a 1:30 p.m. Tuesday meeting with the planning commission.

The latest pictures of what the two structures will look like do not sit well with the Riverlife Task Force, an advocacy group dedicated to Pittsburgh's riverfronts. They said the garage is more than twice the size of the casino itself.

"Oh, those are outrageous pictures," Barden said. "Those pictures are doctored. They're computer-generated by somebody else, and whoever did that should be ashamed of themselves. They concocted theirs, off-scale, shabby, computer-driven, redesign of our design to get their point across."

"Our drawing was rendered from a different angle than the drawing that it's compared to," said Schroeder. "This is an unusually shaped project. "Happy to see architectural treatment has been developed to integrate the garage and the casino together. We look forward to reviewing full drawings in scale to look at the impacts from many views."

"We had the opportunity to see what the new drawings look like, that the design is appropriate, that it will look good," said Ravenstahl.

"The man has done everything that we've asked him to do," said Sanford Rivers of the Gaming Control Board. "The man has done everything the county executive and the mayor has asked him to do. At what point do you say, 'Enough is enough?'"

Even though Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato have gotten a verbal commitment from Barden that he has sufficiently redesigned the two buildings, the task force is not convinced that's good enough.

The task force said the solution should come through collaboration. Members liked the original design, which included a garage that was integrated into what they considered an attractive casino building.

"Now, a structure for cars will be the most significant part of the casino rather than the casino itself, as it was originally designed to be a glass and metal structure facing the rivers with open spaces on the river, and cafes and restaurants and trail use," said Lisa Schroeder of the Riverlife Task Force.

Barden said the casino garage will be 119 feet high, but Heinz Field is much bigger at 156 feet.

"Once you look at a panoramic view from the (Monongahela) Incline, from up on Mount Washington, you'll see our casino and our garage is insignificant to all the other things that are on the riverfront. That's why it's so outrageous," Barden said.

"It is unfortunate that Don Barden is challenging the legitimacy of the Riverlife Task Force to tackle significant design issues connected to the casino," said Maxwell King, president of The Heinz Endowments, in a written statement. "It is clear from his public statements that he doesn't know all that the organization has done to make Pittsburgh's future brighter... It has taken long stretches of our waterfront and helped the community plan and create one of the greatest urban amenities in the nation. And it has worked constructively and effectively with all of the region's top leaders and institutions. Don Barden needs to understand Pittsburgh. And he needs to work with the Riverlife Task Force."

"We do not stand to gain in any way, except for the creation of a spectacular riverfront park," said Schroeder.

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