Norfolk Council moves delayed casino forward

Updated Sept. 11, 2024

Norfolk will have a temporary casino open by next November and a permanent resort in 2027 if all goes to plan, as the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and casino giant Boyd Gaming, its new corporate partner, received a fresh start on the long-delayed project from Norfolk City Council on Tuesday.

City Council members and the mayor voted 7-1 Tuesday to approve a development agreement between the city, the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and Boyd Gaming, which replaces Tennessee investor Jon Yarbrough as the King William County tribe’s corporate partner. In paperwork filed with the city, the partners have scrapped the casino’s old name, HeadWaters Resort & Casino, and provided a timeline to start construction of a temporary casino and a permanent structure within a few weeks of each other in early 2025.

Council member Andria McClellan was the sole no-voter Tuesday. She said that the larger casino proposed in 2020 was now smaller, and that some of her concerns, including public safety costs, had not yet been addressed.

The temporary casino is expected to meet the state’s deadline of November 2025, by which time a casino must be built and licensed by the Virginia Lottery under state law. According to paperwork filed with the city, construction of the “transitional casino” would begin in late February 2025 and be complete by mid-October 2025, with an opening date targeted for Nov. 5, 2025. The permanent casino’s construction would start in mid-January 2025 and be complete in August 2027, with its opening taking place the following month.

The budgets for both the temporary and permanent casinos are “still under review,” Boyd Gaming’s general counsel and corporate secretary, Uri Clinton, said in an interview Tuesday before the vote. However, he noted that the focus is on building the permanent casino, as opposed to the construction of the temporary space. “Just to be very direct, the transitional casino is not a big item relative to the overall project,” Clinton said. “So right now, we’re still going through that, but it is very specific to its purpose [of meeting state lottery requirements]. It’s transitional by nature.”

According to a pitchbook provided to Virginia Business by the company, the permanent casino resort will include a 200-room hotel, 13,000 square feet of meeting space, a casino with 1,500 slot machines and 50 table games, eight restaurants and bars, and 4,000 square feet of spa and gym space. The HeadWaters Resort & Casino name is no longer in effect, and Boyd is working now on a new name and brand for the casino.

Under the agreement, Boyd Gaming is now majority owner of Golden Eagle Consulting II, a limited liability company formed by the Pamunkey Indian Tribal Gaming Authority and Yarbrough, which won the city’s approval as operator of the Norfolk casino in 2020. The resort was approved by voters via referendum in November 2020, the first year commercial casinos were allowed to be brought to referendums in Virginia. Originally, the tribe partnered with Yarbrough, a billionaire who founded casino game producer Video Gaming Technologies, which he sold for $1.28 billion in 2014.

Pamunkey Indian Tribe Chief Robert Gray said Tuesday that the end of the tribe’s partnership with Yarbrough was “very amicable. We’re moving in this direction. It’s just a fantastic opportunity.”

The tribe and Yarbrough promised to build the $500 million HeadWaters Resort & Casino on the Elizabeth River, but disputes between the city and the developers over design and proposed two-phase construction delayed the project multiple times — and now developers face a November 2025 state deadline, during which at least a temporary casino must be built and licensed by the Virginia State Lottery for the developers to retain the right to build a casino under the 2020 referendum vote.

Three other casinos approved by voters in Danville, Bristol and Portsmouth in 2020 have already opened, and in November, Petersburg voters will weigh in on their own casino referendum. Richmond voters twice rejected casino referendums, and the state legislature voted to provide Petersburg the opportunity earlier this year.

Clinton said his company has finished other casinos quickly, including a $500 million Sacramento, California, resort completed ahead of schedule and under budget, and an extension of a Louisiana casino that was “a ground-up construction.”

Gray began working toward building a casino in Norfolk even before the state allowed commercial casinos to be built; in 2019, the city approved a land deal that allowed the casino to be built on the waterfront. On Tuesday, he said the tribe spoke with several casino developers earlier in the year before landing on Boyd Gaming, a publicly traded, 49-year-old company that still has Boyd family members in some leadership roles. The tribe and the company began working together about six months ago, Gray said.

“[We’re] very excited, because I believe Boyd is the group that can bring us across the finish line in time and build and create a great opportunity here in the region,” he said. As for the tribe’s members, “they say it’s beneficial to tribal citizens in the way of education, health care, housing and various other needs.”

He said that the tribe decided to partner with Boyd over other companies because they “shared our commitment to the community, shared values, family values, commitment to even the workers,” including hiring local veterans, who are in ample supply in Hampton Roads.

Based in Las Vegas, Boyd Gaming operates 28 casinos in 10 states, including some with tribal partners, but this is its first venture in Virginia. The company reported $3.75 billion in revenue in 2023.

Boyd estimates that the permanent casino’s construction phase will produce $510 million in local economic impact, as well as 2,850 temporary construction jobs and $173 million in salaries and wages. In the operating phase, the company predicts $2.9 billion in economic impact, $583 million in salaries and wages, and 850 permanent jobs. Under the partnership, the tribe retains no less than 20% equity in the casino project, the same as it did in the partnership with Yarbrough.

The permanent project must cost at least $300 million, a requirement under state law.

Tuesday’s City Council vote gives Golden Eagle Consulting — now including Boyd Gaming — an amended and restated option to purchase an additional acre, in addition to 8.35 acres already planned for the casino and parking facilities, and authorizing the city manager to execute the development agreement and enter into site plan agreements and easements.

“I am excited to recognize this significant milestone in our journey to bring a world-class casino and hotel resort to the Harbor Park Entertainment District,” Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander said in a statement. “Boyd Gaming Corp., in partnership with the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, is set to deliver a premier destination that will generate millions of dollars in tax revenues, create numerous jobs and revitalize our waterfront. This project will not only enhance our tourism efforts but also enable us to invest in key priorities that will benefit our community for years to come.”

Keith Smith, Boyd Gaming’s CEO and president, added, “We are pleased to take this important step forward in helping the Pamunkey Indian Tribe realize its vision of a best-in-class gaming resort. The greater Norfolk area is one of the largest underserved gaming markets in the mid-Atlantic region, and represents a compelling opportunity to further expand and diversify our company’s nationwide presence. We appreciate the Norfolk City Council’s support and confidence in our development plans, and we look forward to partnering with the city and the tribe as we continue the process of developing a transformational gaming entertainment experience on the Norfolk waterfront.”

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected since publication.