Officials Launch Casino Queen's Expansion Effort
Ahead of a possible ownership change, the Casino Queen took its biggest step toward becoming Illinois' first riverboat casino to move away from the river Thursday, when executives broke ground on a planned $150 million expansion to an inland moat. Considered crucial in keeping the Casino Queen viable in the increasingly competitive St. Louis-area market, the project calls for the gambling site to move nearly 700 feet from the Mississippi River to a manmade basin on what now is the casino's 157-room hotel's parking lot.
Jim Koman, Casino Queen's president, said the new casino should open in about a year, offering 10,000 more square feet than the existing site to better jockey for business in a regional market soon to include a $400 million casino complex Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. is building across the river in downtown St. Louis.
Around here, "this is absolutely important," Koman told reporters after the ceremonial groundbreaking that state and local politicians attended. Calling the planned Pinnacle site "our biggest threat," Koman added that "to be competitive we have to have a land-based facility. "The transplanted Casino Queen will have 38,000 square feet of gambling space, with much of the rest of the planned 236,000-square-foot facility gobbled up by a buffet restaurant, cafe, steakhouse, lounge and stage bar. A parking garage also is planned.
May 31, 2006
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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