(Danville) — Danville City Council has signed off on some changes to their operating agreement with Caesars.
City Manager Ken Larking told Council on Tuesday that the new agreement increases the projected capital investment for Caesars Virginia Casino and Resort from $400 million to $750 million. It also clarifies that the entertainment venue and conference center Caesars promised can occupy the same space.
“The original agreement called for a 35,000 square foot conference center. The new agreement increases that to 40,000,” Larking said. “Additional language has been put into place to assure that this can accommodate both live entertainment and conference space.”
Caesars Virginia General Manager Chris Albrecht says combining the venues is rapidly becoming a “best practice” in the casino industry. But he says the venue will be first-rate, and they’re already lining up entertainment. “We are in conversations with our corporate entertainment team about what those first acts may look like. We’re looking to route them through in quarter one of next year,” Albrecht told Council. “Because we are similar to other properties across the country, we like to share acts within our framework. So you will see us attract the kinds of acts that you would see at other venues.”
Another change to the agreement revises Caesars’ employment goals from 1,300 to a range between 900-1,300. “A lot has changed in our country and our community since the pandemic, which is when this development agreement was originally negotiated,” Larking said. “The workforce has changed and its really hard to find employees.”
The changes to the agreement also set a new completion date of December 31, 2024. Supply chain issues and other delayed had pushed the project back a bit. “The reality was they weren’t going to meet that original 2023 deadline, so we’ve been working on this agreement for months,” Larking said.
There’s already been a casino parking study completed. One of its conclusions calls for a traffic signal to be installed at the intersection of Bishop Avenue and Memorial Drive. Other recommendations focused on crosswalks near the casino.
The new agreement also gives the City the option to purchase future open space and the former water filtration plant. “The Schoolfield Master Plan had a recommendation that the wooded area, which has a lot of topography issues going down toward the river, could be repurposed as a park,” Larking told City Council. “It would most likely be a passive park with walking trails and other things in it.”
Larking says the filtration plant, which was slated originally for demolition, could be rehabilitated and renovated into a mixed-use development.
As per the amended agreement, Caesars will donate property on Wood Avenue to the City for use as a public street. “It provides a street built to Virginia Department of Transportation standards that will allow adjacent properties to be developed,” Larking explained. “We needed that as a public street so that we could have additional development in and around the casino site.”
The new agreement will let the City lease 100 square feet of space near the casino’s main entrance for tourism promotions. “Lots of people will be going into the hotel and the casino. We will have an opportunity to market the rest of the region to those visitors,” Larking said.
Albrecht says they originally promised 300 hotel rooms, then projected 500. The new agreement calls for 320 rooms. “We believe we will still be able to serve a majority of our guests, but we will continue to use and leverage both existing hotel supply in the market and any more that comes in the future,” Albrecht said.
Albrecht says they’re still on track to open by the end of the year.
Earlier this year, Council voted to appropriate two million additional dollars in tax revenue from the temporary Caesars Virginia Casino and Resort on West Main Street. A million dollars is going towards a large splash pad at Ballou Park. The other million will install underground electric lines along West Main Street at the casino and adjacent properties.
Larking says between the up-front payments they received after city voters approved a casino referendum, and tax payments generated by the temporary casino that opened last year, the city should have over forty million dollars in collections from the casino by the end of this calendar year.
(Photo: Caesars Virginia Casino and Resort General Manager Chris Albrecht speaks before Danville City Council on 5/7/24)