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Commission to Consider Revised Plan for Racino
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State Racing Commission will consider Penn National Gaming Inc.'s revised plan for its proposed racetrack and gaming center in Austintown at its meeting a week from today.
The revised seating plan for the proposed Hollywood Slots at Mahoning Valley Race Course that Penn National wants to build on lands just off Route 46 calls for a total 1,400 seats, said Penn National spokesman Bob Tenenbaum. That includes 1,168 seats with a direct view of the racetrack, which was a key concern for the commission's members at last week's meeting. The plan submitted last week proposed seating for 766 people with direct views of the track, he said.
Penn National, based in Wyomissiong, Pa., is asking the commission to permit it to transfer its thoroughbred license from its Beulah Park track near Columbus to Austintown, as well as to transfer a harness track license from Dayton to a track it wants to construct in Toledo. Penn National's presentation on the two tracks took about an hour and a half. Steve Snyder, senior vice president of corporate development, and Chris McErlean, vice president of racing operations, testified on Penn National's behalf before the commission.
Site work is under way at the Austintown track. Approval of the license transfer at the commission's March 27 meeting should allow construction to get under way in April, Tenenbaum said. "We need to be able to start active construction in April in order to stay on our timetable which would have us opening sometime in the second quarter of 2014," he predicted.
The revised seating plan submitted to the commission today replaced an area featuring tables with seating, adding two additional rows. "Now it's four rows with direct views of the track," Tenenbaum said. Two wings of outside bleachers would accommodate 325 people each, he said.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.