This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 10, 2010 - While the Missouri Gaming Commission weighs who should get the state's one remaining casino license -- or whether it will be awarded at all -- St. Louis aldermen moved Wednesday to show they are behind the city's proposal south of the Chain of Rocks Bridge.
But the deal almost fell apart over a $50,000 portion of a grant from the developer for use in the 2nd Ward.
The aldermanic Transportation and Commerce Committee heard from both sides on a bill designed to update the city's agreement with the developer of the proposed Casino Celebration, headed by Jim Koman. It is competing with projects in Cape Girardeau and the Sugar Creek area of Kansas City for the license that became available when the President Casino downtown shut down earlier this year.
The Gaming Commission is expected to make its decision at a meeting on Dec. 1. Between now and then, a state-funded economic impact study is scheduled to be made public. James Mathewson, chairman of the commission, has said several times that no one should assume the 13th license will be awarded, that the panel has the option of deciding that no applicant will get the go-ahead to operate.
St. Louis aldermen want to show the state that the city supports the Casino Celebration application. But before the bill can proceed, the committee needs to do three things:
- Terminate an earlier development agreement from 1995.
- End the agreement with the President, making clear that Lumiere on Laclede's Landing is the only casino now operating in the city.
- Reaffirm its redevelopment agreement with Casino Celebration.
In support of the bill, Koman told the committee that his group has owned the land in question since 1972 and has been working on a casino proposal since 1996. He reiterated arguments in favor of the plan -- tax revenue to the city and state, creation of construction and permanent jobs -- and said the plan offers "what a lot of cities would like to have."
Dan Farris, project director for Casino Celebration, noted that St. Louis is the seventh-largest gambling market in the United States. Far from what others argue, the six casinos now operating in Missouri and Illinois do not represent a saturated market. Instead, he said, St. Louis is an underserved market.
In particular, he noted that the Argosy Casino in Alton, the closest casino to the proposed site south of the Chain of Rocks Bridge, has had no major upgrades since 1992. He called Casino Celebration the right-size project in the right place, one that would bring $11 million to the city and $30 million to the state in tax revenue each year while creating 700 construction jobs and more than 600 permanent jobs when both phases of the project have been completed. He said it would capture 10 percent of the gambling market in the St. Louis area.
Rodney Crim, executive director for the St. Louis Development Corporation, called the project the proper size for the site.
"This is not another Lumiere Place," he said. "I kind of characterize it as a boutique."
Farris also said that the site is not a wetland, as some have called it, but instead is a landfill containing the remnants of the old Pruitt-Igoe housing project. He further insisted that the project won't disturb the flyway used by birds in the area near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and won't negatively affect the city's drinking water.
Susan Trautman of the Great Rivers Greenway reaffirmed her group's support for the project, saying that an agreement with Koman would lead to improved access and facilities near the Chain of Rocks Bridge, now used by pedestrians and cyclists. Even if the casino project does not go forward, she said, the developer has agreed to sell acreage that would lead to better recreational facilities.
But such assurances did not stop members of the Chain of Rocks Community Association from voicing their displeasure with the proposal.
They said it is not only out of character with the rest of the riverfront site, but a casino that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week would result in too much traffic on already congested Riverview Boulevard. Greater volume would hamper the commuters and truckers who have no other route into and out of the area, they said, and the costs of required upgrades of roads and interchanges could fall to taxpayers.
Further, they noted, public transportation that would be needed for many of the people who would hold the jobs that the casino would create is inadequate to nonexistent.
Chris Ballew of the association called the site a "hidden treasure" and said a casino in the area would be shortsighted and contradictory to the feel of the neighborhood.
"It doesn't feel like we're in the city anymore," he said of people's reaction when they visit the area. "It feels like we're in the country."
He noted that the residents are not opposed to all development of the area, citing Bob Cassilly's proposed Cementland, a redevelopment of a former cement factory in the area, as a good use of the area. But a casino is the wrong project in the wrong place, he said.
"This is our Forest Park, or even our Yellowstone," Ballew said.
At one point, chances for the committee to pass the bill on to the full Board of Aldermen appeared to hit a snag when Alderman Dionne Flowers of the 2nd Ward said she had not been in on discussions that determined how much Koman would be donating to the ward for various improvements.
But the disagreement over the amount -- increased to $200,000 a year from $150,000 -- and how it was arrived at was solved during a committee recess, and the bill was advanced unanimously.
Now, Flowers said, the board is likely to speed passage over the next two Fridays to make sure the bill is approved before the Gaming Commission knows the project has the city's support. But even as she talked about Casino Celebration in the wake of the committee's vote, she appeared to be ambivalent, acknowledging her sympathies with arguments on both sides.
And she noted she will hold a neighborhood meeting on Nov. 17, before the final vote would be held, and many residents of her ward are yet to be heard from.
"The city's pitch," Flowers said, "is if there is an agreement in place, the Gaming Commission will look at St. Louis and say it is ready and able, here is something on the books. I think the city agrees this gives them a boost.
"If I get it, I'll have to deal with it. But if it doesn't happen, fine."