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City Gets Tepid Response for Casino Proposal Meeting

Posted on August 18th, 2010

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St. Louis, Missouri does not have to select any developer for the replacement of the President Casino in the city, as apparently, there is only one serious bidder. A team lead by Jim and Bill Koman, local developers that make up Casino Celebration LLC, was the only party that attended a meeting that included officials of the city. These officials are the ones to decide which of the proposals they will endorse to the state’s Gaming Commission. As there was only one plan passed, then it appears that there will be no decision to be made. There was a second group that actually passed a proposal for the casino. Plain Joe Development, a firm based in California, also submitted their plan in June to the city’s leaders. However, when the meeting happened on Monday, nobody from Plain Joe came to represent the company. Efforts to contact them were futile as calls seeking a comment were not returned. There were two other groups aside from Plain Joe and Celebration that expressed their intent to join the candidates considered for the license. However, these two entities,, Isle of Capri Casinos (the current licensees of the President Casino) and Blue Sky Development Co. did not submit any formal proposal to the officials of the city.

With the three parties seemingly giving up, Casino Celebration looks like the only viable candidate. Its proposal is composed of a 120,000 square foot complex to the tune of $115 million. The site is said to be located at the base of the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, along Riverview Drive. Casino Celebration proposes an additional $26 million that they will be investing, with the inclusion of a hotel, on the second phase of the project. The company claims it could provide 625 permanent jobs in their facility that could churn out $9.4 million to the city and $29.7 million in tax revenues for the state. The company also includes a pledge to have the Great Rivers Greenway trails near the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge improved, and the Komans will also construct public restrooms for passing bikers and hikers in the area.

Casino industry speculators said that the plan is not really something major judging from the design alone. Furthermore, they feel that the market in St. Louis for casinos is already saturated. Building a casino in the area of the Chain of Rocks Bridge would only get its business from other casinos in the area and thus, not really create new income. However, the project director of Casino Celebration, Dan Farris, claims that their purpose of building a casino in the area is not really to saturate the market. He projects that the business of the casino that his company will be building will not come from the other casinos in the area but from St. Louis County and Illinois, which Farris says is still full of new gamblers, plus the influx of tourists who are passing by on Interstate 270. Thus, casinos in the state and the Missouri Gaming Commission should not be too worried. The project has another defender in its attorney, Greg Smith. Smith points out the Koman family who is in charge of Casino Celebration has been the owners and operators of the Casino Queen located in East St. Louis from 1993. Thus, they have already a thorough knowledge of the gaming and casino market.

The city is planning to have their decision on which company to endorse by September 1, as it is also the deadline of applications to be submitted to the Missouri Gaming Commission. The city officials’ endorsement is, not really a requirement by the Gaming Commission, although having this seal of approval will boost a bidding party’s chances in winning the favor of the state Gaming Commission. Other proposals the commission is most likely to consider even without the city’s approval aside from the one in St. Louis are ones in Cape Girardeau, Sugar Creek and St. Louis County. In St. Louis country, there is already a project being realized by developers costing around $350 million in the Spanish Lake area. This is being pushed despite of being blocked by Charlie Dolley, an executive of the county.