Richmond casino reintroduced with new name

The corporate backers of a $562 million Richmond casino on Thursday unveiled a new name for the resort casino city voters will consider approving this fall: Richmond Grand Resort & Casino. But not much else appears to be new about the proposed project.

Many of the features of the proposed ONE Casino + Resort that failed in a close 2021 referendum, are similar this time around, including a 250-room hotel, a 3,000-seat concert venue, a $26.5 million upfront payment to the city government, an estimated 1,300 permanent jobs with an average salary of $55,000 and a predicted $30 million in annual tax revenue and $16 million over 10 years in charitable contributions. Also part of the proposal again is a soundstage where co-developer Urban One pledges to invest $50 million over 10 years in TV, movie and audio productions. The casino, if passed, would be built on 100 acres in the city’s South Side, just off Interstate 95, on property owned by Altria Group.

The chief executives of business partners Urban One and Churchill Downs said Thursday that the plan’s details reflect an extensive survey of Richmond voters who supported and opposed the casino referendum two years ago. They said the project will create a 55-acre park in what has been industrial property, and that locally owned businesses, including restaurants, will have a chance to be part of the resort.

Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins acknowledged Thursday evening at a Richmond news conference that although his media conglomerate knows plenty about advertising, it was new to the arena of building political support.

“It’s no secret that we didn’t make a winning case in 2021,” he said, adding that the casino campaign that lost by 1,200 votes was driven by splashy billboards — rather than conversations with city voters.

“I know that [the] last go-round, we bought every billboard … in the entire city, and you know, it was probably annoying,” Liggins said. “Problem is, we should have been talking to more people, as opposed to advertising to more people.”

In the past year, as Richmond casino backers fought for a second referendum while other state officials attempted to win a chance for Petersburg to vote on a casino, “we have had hundreds of conversations with Richmonders,” Liggins said.

Thursday’s announcement took place at a Shockoe Bottom storefront that will be home to the pro-casino campaign, managed by Richmond resident Tierra Ward, a local elections director for the Virginia Democrats. She said after the news conference that she is still hiring staff. Also on hand were local union members who have spoken in favor of the jobs the project is expected to create, as well as three Richmond City Council members who also support the plan.

William Carstanjen, the CEO of Kentucky-based Churchill Downs, said that when his company purchased Peninsula Pacific Entertainment in November 2022 for $2.75 billion, he was “very aware” of the proposed Richmond casino project, which PPE had partnered with Urban One on in 2021. “We did a lot of due diligence on it. We were really excited about the opportunity. We joined the project after we completed the acquisition, based on the relationship we have developed with [Liggins].”

Churchill Downs, which owns the Kentucky Derby and is an investor in casinos in 13 states, is an equal partner in the proposed casino with Urban One, Carstanjen said, and if the referendum passes in November, it will become a significant part of his company’s holdings in Virginia, which also include Colonial Downs in New Kent County and six Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums across the state.

The new name — which Carstanjen said was one of “dozens and dozens” of suggestions the team heard during conversations and phone and online surveys of city residents — seems to be part of an effort to make Richmonders feel a greater sense of ownership in the project. Liggins declined to say what the budget for the current campaign is, or if it would exceed its $2 million in spending for the 2021 election, but noted, “the reality is, we’re going to invest what we need to get the proper message to as many people as possible.”

Carstanjen didn’t specify what his company would do if the referendum failed a second time, saying, “This is a project that needs to get done in Richmond … and we put together the team that can do it. Now we just have to take our message to the citizens of Richmond and convince them, and we think we can do that.”