The company that acquired the permission for the new casino venue in Terre Haute revealed that it is moving away from the initially proposed location overlooking the country jail and city sewage treatment plant.
The beginning of the week saw Churchill Downs Inc. apply with Vigo County officials to make a change into the zoning plans for the casino project on the east side of the city, in close proximity to the interchange of Interstate 46 and Interstate 70. The new location, which was chosen to host the project, is currently enclosing some farm fields near Clabber Girl and FedEx distribution centers. It is set to replace the originally unveiled site, which drew criticism as an inferior location in a lawsuit.
The legal action, which has already been withdrawn, has been filed by a company that went against the November 2021 decision of the Indiana Gaming Commission to grant the operating license of the Terre Haute casino project to Churchill Downs.
The chosen operator noted that many local people called for a new location to be selected for the $240-million project, which is set to include a casino and a 125-room hotel featuring a rooftop lounge. The senior vice president of Churchill Down’s corporate development unit, Jason Sauer, shared that the company decided to listen to local people. He further confirmed that the company is preparing everything to soon break ground for the project, which is to be hosted on a 50-acre site that could be easily accessed from State Road 46 and I-70.
County Zoning Officials Will Have to Consider New Casino Site in March
The new site for the Terre Haute casino will have to be taken into consideration by county zoning officials during the meetings that are set to take place on March 2nd.
The deputy director of the Indiana Gaming Commission, Jenny Reske, explained that the agency found no legal barrier to the company to change the originally chosen location for its new casino. Ms. Reske further noted that the proposed change could be reviewed by the board of the state’s gambling regulatory body during its meeting on March 8th.
As previously reported by CasinoGamesPro, Churchill Downs was picked by the state commission for the Terre Haute casino project in spite of certain questions over the initially selected site for the venue. The new location for the casino is in close proximity to where the 3 other competitors for the Terre Haute casino had lined up their locations along or near Interstate 70, on the east side of the city.
When up and running, the Terre Haute casino project would be the 13th casino site in the state of Indiana. The city, which is situated approximately 70 miles west of Indianapolis, will become the first new community in the state to be allowed to establish a new casino since 2008.
Unfortunately for developers, the project stalled over the past year, due to a probe into alleged criminal and financial misconduct faced by top executives in the company that originally sought an operating casino permit in 2019. State and city officials, however, sought a new company to operate the project after last June they decided not to renew a developer’s casino license because the company had neither secured full financing of the project nor hired an executive team for more than a year.
