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Following the passage of Issue 2 yesterday, Penn National Gaming announced that they will be moving forward with the Hollywood Casino Columbus development on the west side as soon as possible.
“We have begun demolition of the physical structures, and are in the process of determining the extent of the environmental issues that will need to be addressed before groundbreaking, which is scheduled by the end of 2010, said Eric Schippers, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for Penn National in a press release issued yesterday. “We look forward to working with the city of Columbus, as well as neighboring jurisdictions and the community, on planning and pre-construction matters.”
Penn is budgeting $400 million for the development of the Hollywood Casino Columbus which will open in the second half of 2012. It will include 180,000 sqft of gaming space, 4,000 slot machines, 100 table games and 25 poker tables as well as a 4,000-space parking garage, entertainment lounge and multiple food and beverage facilities.
More information can be found online at www.hollywoodcasinocolumbus.com.
With a huge private business that would be interested in moving a large amount of people to and from downtown …. is it wrong that I have a small ray of hope that we might see some privately backed form of rail transit running down Broad Street in the future?
(I know its a long shot, please dont kill my dreams too quickly)
(Takes aim at dreams)
Do you have any example of a private business that did something like that in the past? Anywhere in the world?
The only examples I can think of are the companies that build funicular rail lines up the side of steep hills. They have the advantage of starting out with complete ownership of the route (steep hillsides are relatively cheap to buy).
i do wish we could have included a line item in Issue 2 that forced Penn National to come up with a different, original name. It doesn’t matter where you place it, “Hollywood Casino” is a dumb name for a casino in Columbus and assures us no distinction in an incredibly crowded market for gaming dollars.
(reopens dreams)
Yes, there is an example of just such a project. That is in Las Vegas. A monorail that connects all the casinos. A little different, yes, but a private venture.
Also, private businesses in Detroit have banded together to create a streetcar on that city’s main thoroughfare.
There is also the possibility that was showcased in Seattle with their monorail. Built for a world’s fair or somethin, it was completely paid for in a week. Was meant to be temporary, but is now permanent.
And, there is a rail line that runs directly to the casino site!
(rekills dreams)
The Las Vegas line is loosing money. And the sheer distance from downtown to the casino makes streetcar slow while a light rail line would be really expensive. Would have to be a public venture. :(
A streetcar would be nice. With the other big ideas coming along now, maybe this one can be added to it. Now the construction can begin.
I am sure they will have a shuttle from the convention center and downtown hotels, would be a nice olive branch to include a stop or two along Broad St. to encourage some development but I don’t see it happening.
It’s a good day to be a columbus resident (<strikethrough didn’t work there so it kind of killed my point..) owner of a newspaper!
another example of Columbus’ decentralization policy. and we were doing so well…
i guess a good question would be, what should be on the former casino site in pen west? will the casino sell it to nationwide for more, less or the same $28.5 million (plus demo costs) that they bought it for?
Any news on land/buildings around the new casino location being bought up?
@charlie, not sure there is much evidence around any other single casino destinations to support that being a good idea. I own a house in Westgate, so I am really hoping I get the chance to put my foot in my mouth by the way…
@tigertree, well I assume Jeni’s ice creams isn’t jockeying for position, but maybe the land might be desirable to a hotel, check cashing store, waffle house?
@charlie, Casinos prefer to keep people inside for their cash advances and waffles. I know we were told this would be different (and it would have been slightly different in the AD with the absence of a hotel) but I have seen no evidence to suggest it. Again, really hoping I am wrong.
”
#10
Charlie Says:
May 5th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
@tigertree, well I assume Jeni’s ice creams isn’t jockeying for position, but maybe the land might be desirable to a hotel, check cashing store, waffle house?”
There is already two Waffle Houses within one mile of Delphi and more than two check cashing places.
Moving this idea to the front page
How do the people of the West Side get involved in making sure this compound gets build to look good and not like a stock building. It seems like if they made this an investment and worked on making this a architecturally beautiful building that it would be a win for the people in the area and Penn. Why not?
Umm, it is going on the Westside because we didn’t have the resources to fight it, if you think we are going to have any say on anything you are in for a rude awakening.
From what I understand, the city is unable to have say in the design of the building, it was part of the constitutional amendment when people passed it last year. I’m pretty sure this is one of the reasons it was encouraged to be moved in the first place.
Tigertree: We may not have a say on the casino property proper (although in the article above Penn is saying they want community input, but we have yet to see exactly what they mean by that), but I would hope the community has a say with regards to the JEDD and surrounding development. I read an article somewhere stating that the best we could expect as a direct result of the casino being built was an Applebee’s or similar chain restaurant across the street. The rest is up to us. I’m hoping for the best (smart planning, with an eye toward sustainability once the casino is at the end of it’s useful life in 10-20 years) but bracing for the worst (trying to revitalize a mall that hasn’t been relevant in a decade or more, dealing with the check cashing places, liquor stores, pawn shops, etc. that historically pop right up around a casino). I would hope that with the lengths City Hall, Stand Up Columbus, the local media and more went to in order to get this passed, they will remain an active participant in making sure the development that does happen is truly what’s best for the west side of Columbus. They used their collective power to get their way, and I hope this means that they don’t just abandon us to the wolves at this point.
Please, if anyone knows of any public meetings that are related to all of this or any way for me to get directly involved, please let me know. I was very opposed to the casino move, but I’m still extremely interested in helping with revitalization efforts.
@GW …. nope, i’ve got nothing, just the dream.
Another thing I just noticed, weren’t they supposed to build a hotel too if moved to the west side? Nothing in this article or on their web site about a hotel. And as far as I know, there aren’t any hotels in the area. Does this mean that most of the people coming to the casino will be doing so as a day trip?
Again, those groups cared about one thing, not having a casino that had a negative effect on them. Now that they have one to get tax benefits from and non of the bad crap to deal with I am afraid we are on our own. It reminds me of when the big real estate developers in downtown LA drew up a plan to just put the homeless people on buses and deposit them elsewhere. Of course it didn’t happen because other communities fought it so hard. Well we are that community that didn’t fight… but hey, I bet that car dealer gets free shrimp cocktails for life.
IMO this is an embarrassing day for Columbus. I honestly can’t believe that anyone can keep a straight face when talking about this casino being moved out of an entertainment district to a residential area as a good thing.
Does this mean that most of the people coming to the casino will be doing so as a day trip?
Yes, you can bank on people showing up, gambling, and heading right back to where they came from. There has been a lot of shouts of class warfare and things like that, but the fact is people aren’t heading to the west side of Columbus to have dinner and enjoy a night of entertainment. I hope that’s not the case in the future, but it definitely is now.