Posted on: October 7, 2024, 04:30h.
Last updated on: October 7, 2024, 03:12h.
The Richmond City Council wants to bet on a property that was targeted for a casino resort development.
The nine-member council introduced an ordinance during its Monday meeting that would authorize the city government to spend $5.5 million to acquire 96 acres of partially developed land. The property is located west of Interstate 95 on the Virginia capital city’s Southside along Commerce Road and Walmsley Boulevard.
The city remains committed to investing in the Southside, an area of Richmond where unemployment remains high, household incomes remain lower than the more affluent northern neighborhoods, and crime is rampant.
When the casino failed, it was a council discussion to make sure we don’t lose sight of economic development in the Southside,” said Councilor Kristen Nye (D-Southwest Richmond).
Owned by Philip Morris USA, part of the property was formerly leased to Cogentrix Energy where a coal-fired power station was owned and operated until its 2020 deactivation. Kinder Morgan continues to lease about 40 acres where the company houses terminals storing petroleum products.
The Richmond City Council allocated $10 million in its 2024 fiscal year budget to advance economic development on the Southside.
Richmond Twice Rejected Casino
The Virginia General Assembly designated Richmond and four other cities for a single casino resort through legislation passed and signed into law in 2020 by then-Gov. Ralph Northam (D). The gaming statute was crafted to provide those cities in need of an economic jolt the opportunity to do so via a casino destination.
However, the 2020 law required a local referendum in support of a casino before a project could move forward.
In 2021, a little more than 51% of Richmonders voted against the casino project called One Casino + Resort. The project’s developers were to be Urban One, a Black-owned media conglomerate, in partnership with gaming firm Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E).
After P2E sold most of its assets and its Richmond casino development rights to Churchill Downs, Inc., the company best known for its storied horse racetrack in Kentucky, the consortium, with support from the City Council, presented Richmonders a redeveloped scheme, with Urban One still involved.
The 2023 referendum found even stronger opposition, with nearly six in 10 city voters going against the casino plan. To prevent the Richmond City Council from initiating a third casino referendum, Virginia lawmakers earlier this year passed a law barring cities in the commonwealth from conducting multiple referendums regarding casino gambling.
Southside On the Upside?
During each casino referendum, voters on Richmond’s Southside voted in favor of the casino resort. More affluent neighborhoods north of the James River were blamed for the more than half of a billion-dollar investment not coming to the city.
City officials say they remain steadfast in finding ways to prop up the Southside region. If the Council votes in favor of spending $5.5 million to acquire the property from Philip Morris, the city will further invest in a recreational park and the formation of a site “for commercial and civic growth with a workforce development component.”
The plan, with or without the casino, was always to have a park, walking trails, and to really develop that lands so it’s accessible and to create an amenity for the community,” Nye added.
Richmond’s missed casino opportunity has since been relocated about 25 miles south to Petersburg. Next month, voters there will decide whether a casino pitch from The Cordish Companies, the Maryland gaming firm behind Live! casinos in its home state and in Pennsylvania, moves forward.
