In Indiana, Churchill Downs officials recently filed an application with the Vigo County Area Planning Department to build the Queen of Terre Haute Casino on the city’s east side instead of the west side.
Churchill Downs Senior Vice President of Corporate Development Jason Sauer said, “Over the course of several months the people of Terre Haute were not shy about this topic. We received calls and emails and letters, and while the message wasn’t uniform, overwhelmingly people wanted us to focus this development on the east side.”
Sauer said by moving the location, the casino will be five miles and one exit closer to Indianapolis, where Churchill Downs officials hope to attract visitors. Sauer added the new 50-acre location allows future expansion. “This is more than twice the size of the site that we were looking at. It’s roughly twice the size of the sites any of the companies were looking at to build in Terre Haute. It gives us great flexibility, not just to build everything that we said we were going to build in our application, but it gives us great flexibility for future growth.”
Sauer said Terre Haute and the larger Vigo County officials have shown support for the move, including Mayor Duke Bennett and Vigo County’s three commissioners.
Sauer said the planning and zoning process will take two to three months to complete. The Indiana Gaming Commission and county commissioners must approve the application to move the casino site. In addition, Jeff Hauser, executive director at Terre Haute Regional Airport, said Churchill Downs will have to file a form with the Federal Aviation Administration since the project will be located within five miles of the airport.
He added, “We looked up the plot of land proposed for the casino and that does not affect the airport. It is just outside of our approach corridor. On approach, the height of a proposed 10-story hotel at 125 feet will not affect that, even with the use of cranes when they are building it.”
Sauer said the Queen of Terre Haute will have an annual economic impact of $190 million and create 1,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent positions.
He stated, “With continued oversight from the Indiana Gaming Commission, we look forward to taking the final steps in order to make this project a reality and we are prepared to deliver a true destination casino resort to Vigo County.”
