Iowa -Proposed casino site announced

Proposed casino site announced

By Gigi Wood
Iowa City Press-Citizen

Details

Catfish Bend wants to build an $80 million casino and resort about three miles east of Riverside along Highway 22. The plan includes:

• An events and entertainment complex seating 2,000.

• An 18-hole golf course.

• A 200-room hotel, which can be expanded.

• Space for housing and an RV park.

• Various food outlets.


WASHINGTON -- Catfish Bend Casino announced Thursday it plans to locate its riverboat and resort on 320 acres adjacent the Iowa River northeast of Highway 22 and Highway 218.

Voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to allow gambling in Washington County. Thursday night, more than 60 people packed the Captain's Table restaurant for a town hall meeting led by project supporters.

Dan Kehl, an owner of Catfish Bend Casinos, unveiled preliminary drawings of the casino and its placement in Washington County. The proposed casino, surrounded by an 18-hole golf course, would sit about 2 miles east of Highway 218 and a few miles south of the Johnson County line.

"Catfish Bend would own 50 percent of operations and sell shares to Washington County residents," Kehl said. "Then we would open it up to Iowa residents if we couldn't get all the shares sold."

Kehl was at the meeting with Joe Massa, general manager of Catfish Bend Casino in Fort Madison, to answer residents' questions and sell the project to voters.

"At least half the profits would stay in Washington County," Kehl said.

Catfish Bend, which operates casinos in Burlington, Fort Madison and Clinton, is proposing an $80 million casino and 200-room resort. The development, which officials want annexed into Riverside, would include events space, dining facilities and a golf course while promising 600 jobs and $70 million in gross revenues from 1.6 million visitors a year.

Financial records show Catfish Bend has bankrolled a citizens group formed in support of the project, providing the entire $20,000 in contributions reported. Opponents, meanwhile, have pulled in less than half that, roughly $8,500, with more than 50 donations from residents and Washington County businesses.

Thursday was the filing deadline with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. According to the most recent reports, supporters had about $13,000 remaining while opponents had $1,400.

"That's typically how they win these referendums," said Brad Franzwa, co-founder of Communities Against Riverboat Expansion. "They crank a lot of money and crank a lot of marketing. ... We're still working hard getting out the word to the voters that they still have to go vote. No matter what their opinion is, it doesn't really count until they check that ballot box on Tuesday."

Catfish Bend officials said 10 percent of each year's profits would be given to employees at the end of the year. In addition, Riverside and Washington County each would receive $350,000. Massa said Riverside could opt for a 50-cent levy for each of the expected 1.6 million annual visitors, which could bring in another $800,000.

Three percent of gambling profits -- an estimated $2.6 million annually -- would be required to be set aside for local not-for-profit groups, with the money dispersed by a community committee, officials said. Another $1 million is estimated to be paid to the county in property taxes on the site. Most supplies for the casino would be bought in Iowa, according to state law, they said.

If residents vote against the project Tuesday, another casino cannot be proposed in the county for eight years. If residents vote for the project, Kehl said he would submit applications for gambling licenses in November. The company could find out in June 2005 if those applications would be accepted. If approved, construction would be complete about 15 to 18 months later.

Residents asked the pair whether employees of the casino would be able to gamble there and what effect the casino would have on neighboring homes. Kehl said the company has not decided whether to allow employees to gamble and said property values might increase.


Assistant Assignment Editor Brian Sharp contributed to this report.
Reach Gigi Wood at 339-7360 or at gwood@press-citizen.

Fish - or other iowa experts, can you tell me if the casino in Tama reopened?

This looks like it reopened but I don't recall much other press on it:


Casino Brings Jobs, Money Back To Tama County
Businesses Benefit From Meskwaki Casino Reopening
The reopening of the Meskwaki casino in Tama has brought visitors and their money back to the area.

Local residents say the reopening has restored the community's attitude that was soured by seven months of double-digit unemployment.

The casino reopened Dec. 31, putting 1,300 people back to work and drawing more than 5,000 daily visitors to the Tama-Toledo area.

Motels, restaurants and gas stations are seeing more traffic because of the visitors.

During most of the casino's six-month closure, Tama County had the state's highest unemployment rate.

Workers who were unemployed now have cash to spend and families that went without health insurance again have benefits.

The casino was closed last May due to a tribal leadership dispute.

Previous Stories:
December 31, 2003: Meskwaki Casino Reopens

First off, the casino in Fort Madison will be yet another gold mine operation for the state of Iowa.

Close to Iowa City, it will draw many students from the University of Iowa.

Secondly, I am not sure if the TAMA tribal casino has re-opened or not.

I am making a few calls now to try and find out.

I called the 800 number and it sounded like they are operating - but I did not elect to speak to a human to verify - I will be interested to hear what you find out although it appears that they are opened.

It does look like a good move to relocate to a more populated location - the reason I asked about the tama casino is because I wanted to do a back of the envelope calculation on how much is already being spent in that area.

I seem to recall that this of all locations in the state is the one that is the least supplied - however iowa is an amazing case study because the spending per person in the region is higher than in any other market I have profiled.

I dont doubt that the casino will be successful but it still amazes me how this can continue. There must really be nothing to do in iowa other than gamble.

Amazing

I thought it was a relocation from the fort madison location which is already operating

am I wrong about this?


I see that it does not say the word relocation but I just assumed that was what it meant...

I guess it isnt a relocation

even more amazing

with variances depending on your selection criteria - generally speaking when adjusting for outside competition I calculate between 400k and 600k in population within the relative "market area" (which stretches over about a 50 mile radius from the center of the market center between davenport and muscatine - with the external borders of the market defined by general cutoff points between outside competition locations [peoria to the east, des moines to the west, la grange to the south, and dubuque to the north]

and about $240 million in current spending in the market (not including the tama tribal facility [between des moines and cedar rapids] which could generate between $30 to $50 million on its own if not more)

that would put current market (as defined broadly above) spending at about $480 dollars per person [persons defined as market adjusted adult NOT attendees/admissions] - a number which is obviously much higher considering I havent applied any distance or income adjustments [the cummings report on the iowa gaming commission website shows this market averaging about 570 per person in spending]
)


Another casino added to the mix will drive this number up further - and my question is where does it stop? The rate at which Iowa residents gamble is absolutely amazing to me - and add in that it does not appear to be a market that draws many visitors from out of state, it becomes additionally curious that these levels can be sustained - however it is an excellent example to the rest of the country of a nearly "fully casinoed" market and how artificially imposed supply limitations are only preventing ideal operating conditions for both the state, the operators, and consumers. I would bet that Iowa casino machines are forced to focus on enhancing their payouts more than any other market due to what appears to be such intense competition.

I cannot forsee much more expansion but at this point no maximum seems in sight so what do I know.

Realistically there IS a point where this massive supply will start to dilute revenues and reach a peak and that is the question that I am sure is first and foremost on the minds of the companies operating casinos in Iowa.

I made one misstatement sort of - Iowa does seem to depend heavily on Omaha and other Nebraska residents as a huge % of the council bluffs market area is on that side of the border. Gambling legalization in Nebraska (probably not likely though) would certainly test the limits of demand in Iowa.