The $11 million 11,000-square-foot Fremont Ballroom recently opened at the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City in Northwest Indiana. The project expands the Stardust Event Center to more than 45,000 square feet of meeting space. Blue Chip Vice President and General Manager Brenda Temple said the addition “wasn’t speculative. Based on the tremendous demand that we’ve seen for meeting space at Blue Chip over the last several years, we knew we had a great opportunity to expand our meeting and event business, and now we can meet that opportunity.”
The new ballroom can be divided into six smaller, 1,500-square-foot rooms, featuring dark wood finishes, LED chandeliers, built-in projection systems and patterned carpeting. Temple said as a result of the Blue Chip expansion, “more people than ever will come to Michigan City, and this entire community will benefit from new growth in visitation and in business.”
Temple added the new ballroom also will help fill Blue Chip’s 486 hotel rooms during the week when occupancy can drop to 60 percent compared to 100 percent on weekends. “It’s that Monday through Friday block that really makes or breaks a casino. This provides us the ability to fill our hotel rooms midweek because people have conventions in the middle of the week. They don’t have them on weekends.”
Temple stated, “We never sit still here at Blue Chip. We’re committed to the success of this community and we know that we need to keep enhancing Blue Chip, and the experience that the guests have here, if we want to remain the leading entertainment and meetings destination facility in Northwest Indiana.”
Last month the casino opened its FanDuel sportsbook. “It’s a new amenity that’s gotten off to a really great start,” Temple said.
Also in Indiana, a recent study by The Innovation Group, commissioned by the Advance West Central Indiana Political Action Committee, indicated a casino in Terre Haute could generate $168 million in annual tax revenue for Vigo County and have an economic impact of more than $80 million. The study also projected the casino would create 800 jobs.
Casino Association of Indiana President Matt Bell said, “Overall, our projections show more than $160 million in economic impact in Vigo County and West Central Indiana. That’s the kind of development we’ve seen in other communities where gaming has become part of the economic development mix.”
Bell said Vigo County residents would benefit in numerous ways if they vote “yes” for Question One on the November ballot. “I wouldn’t tell you that gaming is a silver bullet. It’s a complement to a local economy.”
