DANVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A group looking to put a Las Vegas-style casino resort in the Illinois city of Danville says it wants to build a family oriented destination and promote economic growth in the area.
Haven Gaming LLC presented its proposal at a City Council meeting on Tuesday, where the group was approved as the city’s casino operating partner, The News-Gazette reported. The resort will include a hotel, full-service spa, multiple restaurants, pool and lazy river, convention center, live entertainment venue, 4,000 parking spaces and more.
“This is more than just the typical casino. It will be a resort complex. A destination. A place that people will be excited to come to, and more importantly, more excited to want to come back to,” Bill Bembenek, a Haven Gaming official, said. “We’ve opened similar resorts like this across the country, and this is really the new evolution of what gaming really is. It’s a multi-level experience.”
The casino will sit along Interstate 74, bordering the Indiana state line.
“When you drive by, we want the ’Wow’ effect,” said Scott Sypolt, Chicago attorney with the Haven group.
The group hopes to break ground next year, Sypolt said. Haven must wait for the Illinois Gaming Board to issue a license, and that can take a year.
The group expects the project to create 400 construction jobs and more than 1,000 permanent jobs after the development is complete. It will be finished in three phases, hopefully within three years.
“We always had ideas about the perfect casino resort, and now we have the opportunity to do it,” Sypolt said. “We will be building something that Danville is very proud of, something Vermilion County is very proud of.”
Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. praised the group and noted that Haven has made various donation commitments to local organizations, in addition to paying the city a 4% revenue share.
“We are thrilled to have them as partners,” Williams said.
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Information from: The News-Gazette, http://www.news-gazette.com
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