If Patrick Hofstetter, a St. Charles printer, ever hoped to snare some business from the new Elgin riverboat, this was his moment: Coffee break at a riverboat seminar Wednesday morning, and there, standing in front of him, was Peter Simon, one of the owners of the $50 million gaming project.
Slipping Simon a business card, Hofstetter chatted him up. “I’d really like to meet with him,” he said later. “He’ll have tons of printing.”
It’s no wonder he’s so eager. In a world of corporate downsizing, recession and global competition, it isn’t often someone comes to town with a multimillion-dollar business and 2,000 jobs to fill.
For a moribund downtown like Elgin’s, it’s even better if it’s an entertainment business like riverboat gaming.
A look at Aurora and Joliet, where riverboats are already in the water, shows that gambling can bring the investment needed to start turning around the center of an aging industrial city, just as the gambling legislation intended.
“The impact is nothing short of tremendous,” said Paul Borek, an economic development official in Aurora, where the Hollywood Casino opened last June.
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When the Lady Elgin II starts plying the Fox River next December as planned, as many as 5,000 gamblers a day are expected to come to the central business district to play.
That could mean new restaurants and other shops for Elgin, which in turn could increase purchases from local wholesalers. More advertising would mean business for people like Hofstetter.
Riverboat employees will spend their paychecks locally. And then there’s the tax revenue: a projected $12 million annually for Elgin alone.
In Aurora, the riverboats’ impact is unmistakable. “With 5,000 visitors a day, tourism has generated a great deal of investment in new restaurants,” Borek said.
The newly opened Rollin’ on the River Saloon and Eatery beckons gamblers from across the river. The outdoor neon dice sign leaves no question who the target market is. Though it’s been open only five weeks, manager Michael Wiggins reports business is ahead of projections.
Bob Muzzarelli, project coordinator with the Aurora Downtown Redevelopment Corp., counts at least six other new restaurants in town, a new art gallery, at least one newly proposed hotel and increased interest in vacant real estate.
“I think we’ll see not only apartment but perhaps condominium and loft conversions,” he said. “There’s a need for it now and somewhat of a demand with 1,500 people working at the casino.”
It’s true that, as at blackjack, there won’t only be big winners. For example, it’s not certain that restaurants located outside the gaming complex can lure many players as they rush between their cars and the boats.
In Joliet, where two riverboats dock downtown, Jackie Kibler, owner of the Chicago Street Bar and Grill, has tried everything to lure casino patrons and employees to her establishment, including an advertised $7.95 steak dinner. But she hasn’t been able to get more than a handful of people to walk the three blocks from the boat.
“It’s hard to get people to venture away from the immediate area of the casino,” she said.
And no economic benefits would be enough to justify gambling for some people.
A coalition of Chicago-area religious leaders opposed to casino and riverboat gambling on Wednesday challenged Gov. Jim Edgar and Mayor Richard Daley to put the issue to statewide and citywide referendums.
“Are the mayor and the governor afraid of the will of the people?” asked Bishop R. Sheldon Duecker, who heads the northern Illinois district of the United Methodist Church. He has been the area’s most outspoken religious leader against proliferation of legalized gambling.
Edward Popper, dean of the business school at Aurora University, who has studied the riverboat issue, said it will take several years or longer for change to permeate the downtowns. In the first year, many gamblers won’t venture outside of the casino, he believes. Only after they’ve become familiar with the boat through several trips and have tired of going to the same restaurants in the boat complexes will they get curious about what’s outside.
“Success will radiate outward,” he said. “The places closest to the casino will become popular and get filled and then people will move beyond to find alternatives. But that takes time.”
Some businesses, though, appear to be benefiting from the casino right away-although not from boat traffic, as one might expect.
Attracted by the flashy lights of the casino and the perception that casino crowds make formerly deserted streets feel safer, local residents are venturing forth in downtown Aurora more frequently.
Martin Falcon, a restaurant owner from Toluca, Mexico, took a risk several years ago and opened Pique Taco across from what is now the Hollywood Casino. If Falcon and his wife, Penny, have any complaints these days, it’s that summer business, when local non-gamblers come downtown to eat dollar tacos and relax at outdoor tables, is too hectic.
In Elgin, the proposed riverboat complex will be owned by Peter Simon’s company, Nevada Landing Hotel & Casino and Hyatt Corp., owned by Chicago’s Pritzker family. In addition to the riverboat, the group is building a 80,000-square-foot dockside pavilion with shopping, restaurants and a movie theater.
While the project received a state license last year, it does not yet have a dredging permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, though Simon said he hopes to receive it soon.
The assumption Wednesday at the river seminar was not only that the boat will open on time next year, but that it will be a hit. During his talk at the event, which was organized by the local visitors bureau at the Elgin Holiday Inn, Simon predicted that the boat represents “the beginning of the revitalization of downtown Elgin.”
An informational packet given to attendees of the seminar included some management guru advice about today’s “vigilante customers.” They’re mad and won’t take it anymore, it said.
“We need to listen to the customer,” Diane Ramsay, executive director of the Elgin Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in her speech. “We can’t do business as usual anymore.”
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John Blair, general manager of Focaccia’s, a downtown Italian restaurant, said he expects business to pick up when the boat opens.
“Even if we did nothing, we’re going to get more people,” he feels. “But we’re going to actively pursue them.”