Terre Haute casino on track, shows promise for continued community development
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Business and community leaders in Terre Haute are awaiting the completion of a new casino they say will boost the region’s economic development and falls in line with a variety of new projects supporting the local economy and pulling more investors and visitors to Vigo County.
Despite a change of hands, name, location and cost, the casino is on track to open in spring 2024. Almost a year after it first broke ground, construction is ongoing with the partially glass-clad hotel shooting into the sky and other structures surrounding it.
The project is anticipated to create 500 jobs with a median salary of $50,000 a year, Vigo County Commissioner Chris Switzer said, and employees will have the potential to make much more.
About 150 to 200 construction jobs have also been created at the site. Once those workers are done there, Switzer said teams will pivot to building other projects like the Entek manufacturing campus, the Saturn Petcare facility and other development in line.
“The goal would be to never have a finish line,” he said. “We want the casino project to come to an end, we want it to open up, but then, we want to figure out what’s next on the horizon.”
Switzer talks about the casino construction project staying on track and what’s the county goal for development looks like.
In addition to the potential for small businesses to benefit from new customers, Switzer said the casino will bring in $10 million a year in tax revenue for the city. Additionally, Kentucky-based developer Churchill Downs Inc. will establish a board of directors to dictate another tax, amounting to up to $5 million, for community projects, he said. Of course, food and beverage taxes will also be inflated from the casino.
It’s another feather in the cap of Terre haute, said Ryan Keller, executive director of Thrive West Central. The dramatic increase in development over the past 20 years, he said, shows great promise in the area and that the region is something worth investing in.
“We’ll have lots of opportunities to partner with the casino on community development,” he said. “The more we invest in ourselves and the more they help us invest in those areas, the more it’s going to yield greater results for them. It’s gonna protect their investment.”
The casino’s curious background
The Terre Haute Casino Resort is located on the city’s east side at 4500 E. Margaret Dr. and will be 400,000 square feet with 56,000 square feet dedicated to gaming. The floor will have 1,000 slots, 50 table games and a sportsbook, while the hotel houses 122 rooms. It will also include five restaurants and six bars, according to the Churchill Downs website.
The new spot will join the state’s other 12 casinos. The state’s gaming clubhouses have enjoyed a bump in revenue since the state legalized sports betting, while surrounding states haven’t. However, Ohio and Kentucky are now drawing betters back to their home states after making sports betting legal. Indiana’s casinos saw over $191.8 million in revenue in May.
The pushes for a casino resulted in tangible action in early 2019 when Gov. Eric Holcomb signed House Enrolled Act 1015 to move one of the two Majestic Star licenses from Gary to Vigo County.
Spectacle Jack LLC, a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based Spectacle Entertainment, was the initial developer of the casino. The company later rebranded to Lucy Luck Gaming, run by Chairman Greg Gibson.
The company and project hit turbulence when the Indiana Gaming Commission unanimously voted to not renew the gaming license for Lucy Luck because the company allegedly had not hired an executive team to run the casino and had not secured full financing, though the company said it had.
Kentucky-based CDI was selected to build the $240 million casino in November 2021. Since then, trajectory of the project has steadied and seen a few changes.
The original location was on 21 acres at Honey Creek Drive west of the Haute City Shopping Mall. However, CDI moved it in February 2022 to a 50-acre site on the city’s east side near I-70 and State Road 46.
The “queen” from “The Queen of Terre Haute Resort” was dropped in January to become “Terre Haute Casino Resort.” A “Q” and crown has instead been incorporated into the logo.
The project’s price tag has also grown to $290 million since construction began — though it is not unheard of for such projects to escalate in price. In December, CDI announced its most recent uptick from $260 million as a result of rising industry costs.
There were also slight tweaks to design plans.
Significant community impact expected
Officials have estimated the casino will generate $190 million in annual economic impact for the region.
In anticipation of an extra million people making a Terre Haute trip for the casino, the city anticipates an increased small business customer base, a $10 million tax revenue surge and a renewed interest of what’s to come.
Keller said it will act as attraction to get people out to the region and in Indiana from out of state. It provides an opportunity, he said, for organizations and the city to invest in themselves and continue to build on the progress Terre Haute has made, which includes housing and quality of life projects.
Once people visit west central Indiana, Keller said they may realize the hidden potential of the area, and consider making it a routine trip or moving there. He lists the historic areas, bike paths and county and state parks among the attractions of the area.
“We have all sorts of amenities that continue to attract people from all parts of the country right back here,” he said. “We actually have some crazy world class assets here that people don’t know.”
While casinos strive to be all-inclusive to their patrons with a hotel, entertainment and food options, local leaders and business owners want to appeal to those tourists and pull them farther into the city. Switzer said they are looking at painting the overpasses and putting up Indiana State University signage in addition to developer Gibson’s revitalization of downtown.
“We really want to have eye appealing or engaging things along the highway or in the community area to really get them to drive an extra two miles downtown and see what’s going on,” Switzer said. “That’s a big job of our what we need to do as a community.”
The city has been preparing for the economic influx it intends to come from the casino’s opening and new tourism. The Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce launched a hospitality training program for service employees to prepare small businesses for sudden growth as a result of the development.
As with new development and jobs comes housing, and Terre Haute is not excluded from the housing shortage. With a housing study in the works, Switzer said they plan to use American Rescue Act funds to inspire new residential development.
“This isn’t a 40 or 50 home problem,” he said. “This is a several thousand home problem. We need them as quickly as possible.”