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Penn National Breaks Ground for Racino
AUSTINTOWN, Ohio -- Public officials and community leaders today joined executives from Penn National Gaming Inc. for the formal groundbreaking of the $125 million Hollywood at Mahoning Valley Race Course, which will bring gaming and thoroughbred racing to the Mahoning Valley when it opens in 2014.
The video lottery terminal facility and its companion one-mile racetrack are being constructed at Austintown’s CentrePoint Business Park off state Route 46, south of Interstate 80 and just west of Youngstown.
Hollywood at Mahoning Valley Race Course is expected to generate approximately 1,000 construction jobs and create approximately 1,000 new direct and indirect jobs once it opens, according to Penn National.
The VLT facility will open with up to 1,500 VLTs along with a variety of food and beverage options. It will feature Penn National’s 1930s art deco Hollywood theme, a design concept shared by the company’s Hollywood Casinos in Columbus and Toledo.
The racetrack grandstand will feature more than 1,000 enclosed, climate-controlled seats with racetrack views, a year-round simulcast wagering facility and additional food and beverage options.
In addition to the $125 million in construction costs, Penn National will pay the state of Ohio a $50 million fee for its VLT license and an additional $75 million it agreed to pay for permission to relocate the racing license for its existing Beulah Park racetrack in Grove City, bringing the company’s total investment to $250 million. Legislation approved in 2012 will provide Austintown Township with $1 million in local impact funds in each of the facility’s first two years of operation, and local governments in the region will benefit from additional local income and property tax revenues.
“All of us at Penn National are grateful to our local officials, community leaders, and friends in the business community here in Austintown and the Mahoning Valley for the cooperation and strong support that has led to this historic day,” said Tim Wilmott, President and COO of Penn National, in a prepared statement.
“This formal groundbreaking is just the beginning of a process that will lead up to the grand opening of Hollywood at Mahoning Valley Race Course next year. But more than that, it is the beginning of what we foresee as a new era of economic development for the Mahoning Valley” Wilmott said. “The jobs and business opportunities we’ll be creating here, the tax revenues that will begin flowing, and the boost the facility will bring to the tourism, hospitality and retail industries in the Valley will have a long-lasting, beneficial impact on this community and this region.”
Scheduled to speak at the ceremony, which was set to begin at 1 p.m., were U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, state Reps. Ron Gerberry and Robert F. Hagan, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, Mahoning County Commissioner David Ditzler, Austintown Township Trustee Jim Davis and Don Crane, president of the Western Reserve Building and Construction Trades Council.
The Ohio State Racing Commission earlier this month unanimously approved the transfer of the Beulah Park license to Austintown, as well as the transfer of the license for Raceway Park in Toledo to Dayton. The Ohio Lottery Commission is currently processing Penn National’s applications for VLT licenses at the two new facilities.
Ground was also broken today for Hollywood at Dayton Raceway, a VLT and harness racing facility to be built in North Dayton on the site of an abandoned automotive factory.
Turner Construction has been selected by Penn National to act as construction manager for the Austintown project.
Penn National Gaming, based in Wyomissing, Pa., operates 29 facilities in 18 states and Ontario. In aggregate, Penn National's operated facilities currently feature approximately 34,800 gaming machines, approximately 850 table games, 2,900 hotel rooms and 1.6 million square feet of gaming floor space.
SOURCE: Penn National Gaming Inc.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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