The corporate owner of the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino has received permission to move forward with its plans for a $160 million redevelopment of the existing East Peoria site.
The Illinois Gaming Board on Thursday unanimously approved Boyd Gaming’s proposal to upgrade the facility and relocate the casino floor to a permanently barge on the Illinois River.
This comes after the Nevada-based company that holds the Peoria region’s state-issued gaming license revised its original “riverboat modernization” plan. That design would have moved the casino inland, with the new gambling space built in the existing hotel parking lot, on top of a basin with water drawn from the river.
“The opportunity here to maximize this license is based on standard industry criteria for investments that are made of this type, and that never changed,” Boyd executive vice president and corporate counsel Uri Clinton told the gaming board. “The total economic outputs are consistent and the same, regardless of the design.”
The City of Peoria objected to the original proposal, pointing to a 1991 intergovernmental agreement with the City of East Peoria, and an update to the Illinois Gaming Act, that required any land-based casino in the region to be built within Peoria city limits.
After the Peoria City Council rejected a settlement proposal that would’ve allowed the original redevelopment plan to move forward, Peoria filed a lawsuit against Boyd, East Peoria and the Illinois Gaming Board seeking to block that proposal. Once Boyd presented its revised barge plan, Peoria dropped the lawsuit.
However, the city still sought to force Boyd to seek a land-based operation in Peoria. John F. Kennedy, an outside lawyer from the firm Taft, Stettinius & Hollister representing Peoria at Thursday’s special meeting, urged the gaming board to deny the pending request.
“The City of Peoria firmly believes that the region can support and the board should require Boyd to build a land-based casino in the city of Peoria at this time, that gaming facility and the related entertainment venues would maximize the return and the license for the State of Illinois and the Peoria region,” said Kennedy, claiming the revised proposal falls short of the goal to foster economic development.
“Boyd’s initial proposal establishes that the best plan would be a land-based casino plan. Boyd has refused to seriously entertain the idea of relocating to Peoria.”
In a post on social media, East Peoria John Kahl applauded the gaming board’s decision.
“East Peoria has never wavered in its support of Boyd Gaming, and as a private business, its rightful desire and decision to locate where it chooses and to spend its capital how it chooses,” Kahl wrote. “We have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for those employed by the Par-A-Dice and share in their excitement to finally see this project moving forward.”
After hearing from both Kennedy and Clinton, the four-member gaming board moved into a closed session for deliberation. Returning 25 minutes later, they followed IGB administrator Marcus Fruchter’s recommendation for final approval.
Fruchter noted Boyd’s ability to start construction on the Par-A-Dice renovation and operate the new facility remains subject to additional requests and considerations by the Illinois Gaming Board.
