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Casino Project to be Added to The Legend at Sparks Marina

The $500 million hotel casino that is being planned to be added to a proposed shopping center may be a welcome addition. The area, where The Legends at Sparks Marina planned by Red Development will be, has the proper zoning and other business establishments may welcome the traffic of tourists that will be grazing the place if the casino hotel will push through with construction. Olympia Gaming LLC's project will be featuring 1,000 rooms.

"The component we look at in a favorable light is that it is growing the tourism market -- it is not parasitic," John Ascuaga's Nugget Senior Executive Vice President Stephen Ascuaga said.

The new casino is being looked at favorably because of its marketing potential. More people from outside of the region are most likely to visit the place, bringing more tourist to Northern Nevada. "It is 500 to 1,000 rooms they will have to fill," Ascuaga added.

Other casino projects have been protested against by The Nugget and Other Sparks casinos, like the plans from Peppermill Hotel Casino on Pyramid Highway. "We're not here to fight every gaming project," Ascuaga said.

"I don't know them personally," he said, referring to Olymia Gaming LLC , "but Casino Fandango (in Carson City, developed with Navegante Group) has been a home run of a project. When you look at something like that with rooms added, it is what we need with increasing tourism, not splitting what we already have."

"They're going to have to work and I'm sure they can do it. I'm sure it will be a quality project. They'll have to get out there and sell the project," he added.

Sparks spokeswoman Karen Todd said that the east area of the marina where the shopping center is set to built has the proper zoning because it is assigned for tourist/commercial purposes. However, the City Council's approval is still needed regarding the use of Sales Tax Anticipated Revenue bonds for the retail center.

Steve Graham, vice president of development for Red Development said however that the casino would not be applying for the STAR bond subsidy, a subsidy that allows most sales tax collections to be used to pay off the cost of development.

Most of the other approvals needed to get the green light on the casino are already in place, but the casino still needs to Special Use permit from the city. City officials are currently studying the project's developing plans, according to Graham.

"The casino is paying market rate for their land and paying for a significant part of the infrastructure," said Graham. "They are not being provided any incentives at all. They are developing a resort, casino, spa with all private money."

"If someone wanted to do a locals casino, we would have told them we are not interested," Graham said. Originally, the shopping center did not have any plans to include a hotel casino, but Olympia came to them a few months ago with the proposal. The shopping center alone could break ground around September or October, a project reported to be worth around $475.6 million.

The casino will open about half of its rooms initially, to be added on with other amenities like casino space, spa, convention center and the remaining rooms in the next two years or so according to D.C. Graham, Chief Marketing Officer of Olympia.

Garry Goett, Chairman and Chief Executive of Olympia already has a gaming license so it is very likely that he will breeze through the legalities from the Nevada Gaming Control board for the project. "We are working with the Legends project, but probably won't go with that name," Olympia's Graham said of the casino hotel, which is currently unnamed.

The casino is expected to break ground in early 2007 and open in late 2008 or early 2009.

 

Tuesday, September 05 , 2006
Edward O'Connor