At a recent meeting of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, Chairman Jeff Lamberti said he and fellow commissioners will keep an open mind regarding a casino development in Cedar Rapids. Wild Rose Entertainment announced it will seek a license for a million boutique casino as part of a new multi-use, 4-story building across the street from the DoubleTree Hotel and Convention Center in downtown Cedar Rapids in Linn County.
Lamberti said their stance has not changed since the commission rejected another developer’s license application in 2014. He stated, “It’s accurate to say their take on it is, ‘Not much has changed.’ We haven’t had tremendous population growth, tremendous economic growth, revenue growth at the casinos. We are not seeing anything out there that would tell us studies will come in any different.”
Still, commissioners directed staff to prepare a request for proposal; license applications will be due February 13, 2017. In addition, commissioners ordered one and possibly two separate independent studies of market conditions.
In 2014 the Cedar Rapids Development Group was denied a license when a study indicated it would cannibalize business from Riverside Casino & Golf Resort and other nearby casinos. CRDG, which had led a successful ballot referendum to allow gambling in Linn County, proposed the $174 million Cedar Crossing with a casino, restaurants and a hotel. The investor group, which put millions of dollars into the project, still has a memorandum of understanding with Cedar Rapids and Linn County in place through 2017 and 2019, respectively, to not support any third party bid for a casino without consent, which has not been granted regarding Wild Rose’s proposal.
Wild Rose and local developers Steve Emerson and Hunter Parks, recently announced a compensation plan they hope will help them gain support from CRDG investors. However, they said they will move forward with or without the city’s and/or county’s support.
IRGC Administrator Brian Ohorilko said the new studies will determine if any markets are underserved regarding casinos, and will examine any specific proposals that come in from Linn County. He said the commission may select a vendor or vendors to conduct the market studies at its March 7 meeting. As previously, the process will include site visits, presentations to the commission and the public and background checks of applicants. A decision could be made by fall 2017, Ohorilko said.
