Fresno, California-based Club One Casino, which has been closed for 16 months, will reopen in Granite Park, another part of the city.
Club One Casino, which operated for more than a quarter century next to the Radisson Hotel, will occupy the space of the former Club Imperio nightclub. Recently the city of Fresno amended its card club ordinance to allow cardrooms to relocate within the city.
Owner Kyle Kirkland said he told the city: “ ‘[T]he whole building is 33,000 square feet—we have AC, we have power, we have plumbing, we have a kitchen—we can figure out how to get the cardroom in here temporarily, and build out the rest of the building, and ultimately move the cardroom in there.’ ”
Work is underway to make a temporary space for the cardroom with a capacity for 25 card tables, a bar, and dining. This will take up 13,000 SF while the rest of the building is renovated. Ultimately there will be 51 tables, said Kirkland.
One of the jobs to open the new casino is to remove what is described as “massive” beehives found in the façade walls.
He added, “The key for us is to get up and going, get people back to work, and start paying the city again. We didn’t expect to be closed for about 16 months.”
The total cost to move and renovate could be as high as $12 million, said Kirkland. He told the Business Journal, “All this is just to get it functional. We put paint to it, added carpet—I don’t want to understate it because we put thought and energy into this, but we are seeing this as a two-year space as we build out the rest of it.”
He said he hopes to open around the end of July with around 200 employees. Kirkland doesn’t expect to be fully staffed for at least 18 months.
