Illinois: Waukegan releases names of all six potential casino developers

The city of Waukegan provided the News-Sun the full list of companies behind the six proposals it received earlier this month after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a gambling expansion package that includes six new casinos, including one in Waukegan. The city is expected to release a short list of finalists by today and recommend its finalists to the Illinois Gaming Board by October 25. That state agency has the final say on issuing a license.

The list includes four potential developers — like Rivers Casino Des Plaines, which announced Thursday it’s behind one of the pitches — that have released details about their projects and approaches independent of the city, as well as Waukegan Gaming LLC, which has argued it has the sole right to develop a casino in Waukegan and is in a legal fight with the city over the claim.

Also on the list is Waukegan Development Associates LLC, whose project team includes principals Andrew Hochberg and Robert King; Next Realty LLC President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Blum; and Peter Liguori of Chesapeake Gaming Group, according to city attorney Douglas Dorando, as reported by Chicago Tribune. Hochberg is an investor in Tap Room Gaming, the video gambling company owned by former Illinois state Sen. Michael Bond.

Of the nearly $400,000 donated to aldermanic candidates across Waukegan’s nine wards since December 2018, 85% came from four organizations tied to Bond or the video gambling industry, according to a News-Sun analysis of state-mandated campaign disclosure forms. Of the six candidates that received money from these groups, four won.

Hochberg said his investment in Tap Room Gaming “has and continues to be a successful one” but called his role “passive” in contrast to the hands-on involvement he will be taking as a real estate development professional with the casino project.

In addition to his investment in Tap Room Gaming, Hochberg is the chief executive officer of Next Realty LLC and Next Fountain Square LLC, which owns the properties just north of the city-owned acreage at the Fountain Square shopping complex that Mayor Sam Cunningham has expressed a preference for as the casino’s future home. The extra acreage would make the development proposed by Hochberg’s group at Fountain Square about 38 acres in size, according to a news release.

Called Casino Fontana, the complex, once fully developed, would include a 91,000-square-foot casino with 1,350 slot machines and 30 table games, a five-story, 120-room luxury hotel and three entertainment venues, including Fontana Festival Park, a green space area for public events, festivals and ice skating, according to the release.

Hochberg also emphasized the group’s promise to establish the independently managed Waukegan First Foundation. He said the foundation would have a number of initiatives but pointed specifically to assisting Waukegan District 60 with renovation projects, since the district would not receive any direct tax revenue from the proposed casino development if it is built at Fountain Square. Most of the details about Waukegan’s would-be casino developers have come from the development teams themselves.

Milwaukee-based Potawatomi Hotel and Casino and Lakeside Casino LLC, the corporation behind Warner Gaming and Bond’s proposed North Point Casino, were the first to release information about their projects, issuing news releases on Aug. 5, the day of the city’s request-for-proposal deadline. Full House Resorts, which has pitched a development called American Place, followed last Monday.

The Forest County Potawatomi currently operates the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino in Milwaukee, its only off-reservation venue. Now, the tribe wants to run a casino just 55 miles to the south in Waukegan, Illinois. Potawatomi CEO Rodney Ferguson said the development in Waukegan would be smaller than the large-scale operation in Milwaukee.

The latest to make their pitch to the public is Churchill Downs Incorporated and Rush Street Gaming, which jointly own Rivers Casino Des Plaines, the state’s most profitable casino. Churchill Downs also owns the Arlington Park racecourse in Arlington Heights and the Trackside Waukegan off-track betting facility on Green Bay Road. The Rivers Casino team proposes to bring a 1,625-gaming-seat casino featuring a poker room, the flexibility to add more gaming positions, and Luxbar, an upscale Gibsons Restaurant Group gastropub, to the Fountain Square site, according to a news release.

“We’re happy to be considered to develop and operate what we know will be a leading entertainment destination for the city of Waukegan, Lake County and the state of Illinois,” Rush Street CEO Greg Carlin said in the statement. “It would be an honor to bring the Rivers brand and experience to Waukegan.”

The plan does not currently include a hotel, said Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for the project. Instead, the developers would partner with existing area hotels, which is what they’ve done in other markets. “Rivers Casino Waukegan intends bring business to the hotels in the region rather than compete,” Culloton said. “In the future, if the market demand develops down the line and it is determined a hotel on the property would be beneficial to the community, the property and our customers, that may change.”

The Rivers team is also promising to hire minority- and women-owned companies and to make annual donations to charities in Waukegan, Park City and North Chicago. The casino would create more than 1,200 permanent jobs and 900 construction jobs and pump over $150 million annually into the local Waukegan and Lake County economy. “Opening a second Rivers-branded casino in Waukegan creates a synergy in the market,” the companies said in a news release. “With its reputation with customers, Rivers will bring Illinois’ leading gaming brand and proven record to Waukegan, delivering a tremendous benefit to the city that no other applicant can offer.”