Petersburg casino competitors roll out details

More details have rolled in about the five Petersburg casino contenders, all of whom presented their plans during a town hall Sunday at the Petersburg Public Library.

Hosted by state Sen. Lashresce Aird, D-Petersburg, the town hall saw officials representing Bally’s, Cordish Cos., Penn Entertainment, Rush Street Gaming and The Warrenton Group reveal more details about their casino proposals, even though the city doesn’t yet have the state legislature’s go-ahead to include a casino referendum on this fall’s ballot.

Virginia Beach developer and NFL Hall of Famer Bruce Smith, who is partnering with Cordish, has called on Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott to expedite an amended bill allowing a referendum this year instead of requiring a second General Assembly vote in 2025, which would delay construction of a casino by at least a year.

“Now’s not the time to play politics with the people of Petersburg,” Smith said in an April 12 interview with Virginia Business.

The state legislature meets in Richmond on Wednesday to vote on the 2024-26 state budget and other bills amended by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who removed the reenactment clause from the casino bill, allowing a 2024 vote.

Here are the five prospective casino developers and their proposals, of which the Petersburg City Council may green-light one for development as soon as this summer:

• Bally’s, a major national player in the casino industry, previously vied for the Danville casino (which Caesars Entertainment ultimately won) and a proposed Richmond casino, ultimately losing to Urban One in 2021. The proposed Bally’s resort, with a casino, 500-room hotel, restaurants and entertainment space, would be on Rives Road near Interstate 95, and officials say 15% of the casino’s equity would go to local people.
• Baltimore-based Cordish, which competed unsuccessfully to build a casino in Richmond in 2021, received Petersburg City Council’s approval for a $1.4 billion casino development in 2022, but without state approval, that project was null and void. This year’s proposal is similar to the company’s earlier proposal, Smith says, and would include 400,000 square feet of gambling, hotel and dining space, as well as a 3,000-seat entertainment venue. To be built on 90 acres at the intersection of Wagner Road and Interstate 95, the venue would be known as Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia.
• Rush Street Gaming is the Chicago-based company that operates the Portsmouth Rivers Casino, the first permanent casino to open in Virginia. Its proposed Petersburg resort would include a casino, hotel, business and entertainment space, possibly off County Drive.
• Penn Entertainment is based in Pennsylvania, and its focus is on “community casinos,” as opposed to those based in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Its proposal includes a 200-room hotel, an 8,000-capacity amphitheater partnered with Live Nation, in addition to a casino and ESPN sportsbook.
• The Warrenton Group is a Washington, D.C.-based business developer that has an agreement with casino operator Delaware North and the Upper Mattaponi Tribe, based in King William County. Its proposal is significantly different from the other four, as development would be in two different parts of Petersburg. A 160,000-square-foot casino and 200-room hotel, as well as restaurants and housing units for casino employees, would be at the “Southern Gateway” location off Route 301, and a second phase, known as the “Northern Gateway” on the waterfront of Pocahontas Island, would include a 100-to-150-room hotel, 120,000 square feet of retail and housing for Virginia State University students.

Who’s involved

Smith, who played defensive end for the Buffalo Bills and the Virginia Tech Hokies football teams, was on hand at Aird’s town hall. He said that the Cordish ownership team would have 50% minority equity participation, more than the other development teams vying for the opportunity to develop a casino in Petersburg and, if successful, it would have the largest minority equity participation in a U.S. casino. Other investors are former Philadelphia Eagles and University of Virginia All-American receiver Billy McMullen, former Cox Communications executive Gary McCollum and the Reynolds family, which founded Reynolds Metals.

The Warrenton Group’s alliance with the Upper Mattaponi Tribe distinguishes it as the only proposal with a federally recognized Indian tribe. U.Va. basketball legend Ralph Sampson, a Harrisonburg native whose mother attended VSU, and VSU President Makola M. Abdullah wrote letters to support the project known as Gateways2Petersburg.

Rush Street said in its presentation Sunday that its casino, if chosen, would have up to 40% minority investment and ownership.

There have been Black-owned casinos in the U.S. before, most notably by the late Don H. Barden, who owned resorts in Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Colorado and Mississippi. In 2021, Maryland-based Black-owned media company Urban One promoted its Richmond casino as being the only Black-owned casino currently operating in the U.S., although the proposal failed in a city referendum. Its 2023 proposed venture was a 50-50 collaboration with Churchill Downs, and that referendum also failed, opening the doors to the possibility of a casino in Petersburg.

In 2020, the state legalized commercial casinos to be built in five economically underserved cities: Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Richmond. The first four cities passed casino referendums easily in 2020, but Richmonders voted down casino referendums in 2021 and 2023. Petersburg’s process would be similar to the other cities’ processes, requiring the city council to choose a casino operator and a city referendum to win in either 2024 or 2025 for the plan to move forward.