A local review board approved the Lauth Group's proposal to build the French Lick Casino and Resort. The project will add 14-hundred with annual payrolls of 32-million dollars. Inside the historic French Lick Hotel.. crews work to reveal the building's original grandeur.
This is the first step toward a plan by the Cook Group and its partners to turn this place into something spectacular.
"We want people here," said Steve Ferguson with the Cook Group, "We want to bring it back to life as a destination resort. That's the only way you can impact the entire area."
The first impact though is with the workers. "We like it," said Charley Purcell of Bedford, "We like to get all the work in the area we can." The Cook and Lauth Groups now have drawings and plans in place.
They're moving ahead even though the state gaming commission still has not approved their license for a casino. "We knew we needed to start spending money," said Vernon Back with the Lauth Group, "get the design done, start the permitting process even before we get the approval of he gaming commission."
Folks in French Lick have seen plans and promises before. After all it wasn't that long ago the Trump Group was going to put a casino in town. That proposal was a failure, but there is now an excitement away from the hotel that this time it's all going to work.
"They're just excited," said Lin Wagner at the French Lick 5&10, "They saw their town going downhill at a great rate, nothing picking it back up again, and now they stand to see the whole thing come back up and be a wonderful thing again."
The entire project will cost a quarter of a billion dollars, but money won't stop it.
"Wer'e off to a running start and there's no quitting on our start," said Ferguson. That means lots of jobs and development are finally coming to the community. The state gaming commission meets in French Lick on June 23rd. They're expected to take a final vote on the casino license then.
This is the first step toward a plan by the Cook Group and its partners to turn this place into something spectacular.
"We want people here," said Steve Ferguson with the Cook Group, "We want to bring it back to life as a destination resort. That's the only way you can impact the entire area."
The first impact though is with the workers. "We like it," said Charley Purcell of Bedford, "We like to get all the work in the area we can." The Cook and Lauth Groups now have drawings and plans in place.
They're moving ahead even though the state gaming commission still has not approved their license for a casino. "We knew we needed to start spending money," said Vernon Back with the Lauth Group, "get the design done, start the permitting process even before we get the approval of he gaming commission."
Folks in French Lick have seen plans and promises before. After all it wasn't that long ago the Trump Group was going to put a casino in town. That proposal was a failure, but there is now an excitement away from the hotel that this time it's all going to work.
"They're just excited," said Lin Wagner at the French Lick 5&10, "They saw their town going downhill at a great rate, nothing picking it back up again, and now they stand to see the whole thing come back up and be a wonderful thing again."
The entire project will cost a quarter of a billion dollars, but money won't stop it.
"Wer'e off to a running start and there's no quitting on our start," said Ferguson. That means lots of jobs and development are finally coming to the community. The state gaming commission meets in French Lick on June 23rd. They're expected to take a final vote on the casino license then.
