As the $510 million ilani Casino celebrates its first anniversary, the nearby Washington towns of Ridgefield and La Center are anticipating reaping some of the rewards of being its neighbor.
The ilani, with its large new concert and convention venue, was almost an immediate success. Last month it hosted Vanilla Ice, Little Big Town and comic Jay Leno, bringing in around 2,500 concert goers each night.
The casino is an enterprise of the Cowlitz Indians, in partnership with the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut. It is expected to lure more than 4 million visitors annually as it draws from the Vancouver-Portland market.
The casino has 2,500 slots, 75 table games, dining and retail. To accommodate additional traffic the casino has added 400 new parking spaces and widened the existing roundabout that leads traffic off Interstate 5 through a $32 million interchange the tribe paid for.
The question for nearby cities is how to get some of that economic activity to splash onto them.
Ridgefield City Manager Steve Stuart told the Columbian that the casino, which actually has a Ridgefield address, has helped attract new business and interest in the $20 million outdoor recreation complex the city is building. He said Clark County is becoming the “center of gravity for entertainment.”
“It gives great potential for us,” said the city manager. “When we talk to those types of businesses that are either hospitality or entertainment, they see that. They see that center of gravity developing in the area.”
Before the casino opened Ridgefield was already one of the fastest growing cities in the state. It is about to get a new supermarket to service the hundreds of new homes that are springing up. Besides the casino, Stuart points to the nearby Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and the casino as helping to leverage a “quality of life where people want to live, work and play, and you give entrepreneurs and startups the atmosphere and innovation and growth.”
City officials are trying to attract three hotels to build near Interstate 5. The casino’s proximity gives them more clout.
Nearby La Center is also looking to create a business-friendly growth medium. Complicating this goal is the fact that the cardrooms that the city relied on for much of its tax revenues have precipitately declined in the face of competition from the Indian casino.
Give the town’s size, 3,200, and the increased traffic passing through on the way to the casino, and its slightly growing population, the city is looking to prosper. The Cowlitz Tribe paid $5 million to help fund infrastructure near the interstate to allow for a commercial and light industrial zone.
Jeff Sarvis, La Center’s public works director, told the Columbian “I don’t know how much more shovel-ready you can get.” Although no applications have been received yet, city officials think that will happen in time. Meantime, they have definitely notice that traffic has picked up in the city, without bringing with it more crime.
The decline in tax revenues from the declining fortunes of the cardrooms is a NOW problem, however. When all four cardrooms were operating at their peak, the city collected more than $3 million taxes, which was 79 percent of its budget. Two have closed and the remaining two offer house-banked poker, which the tribal casino does not.
Current tax revenues for the first quarter were $381,178, a 42 percent decline from last year. The city is operating off a large surplus, but that can’t continue forever.
On the plus side is that housing starts are up in La Center, which can either be attributed to the influence of the casino, or just the growth of Clark County.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office and Clark Fire and Rescue have both contracted to provide some services to the tribe. According to Fire and Rescue Chief John Nohr the “overwhelming drain” on resources that many predicted have not happened.
They make medical call responses to the casino regularly, about four times a week, but not so much as to affect response times.
Sheriff’s deputies make up to three visits daily and have made perhaps 35 arrests in the last year. Sgt. Duncan Hoss compares it to the number of responses they make to the area Walmart.
But if the tribe builds a hotel—which it will almost certainly do—that could increase the number of calls from both services. If that happens, the county will just charge more, says Nohr.
But such a hotel would be one of about a dozen that are planned in the county, according to the tourism agency Visit Vancouver USA.
Another area town, Woodland, is seeing more rooms being rented out since the casino opened, according to Mayor Will Finn. He told the Columbian, “Right now they’re using our hotels.” To meet that need he wants to bring more hotels to his town. “I’m personally meeting with developers and letting them know we’re here with land and a casino up the way.”
