New,
bigger Blue Chip nears completion
As
reported by www.thetimesonline.com
MICHIGAN
CITY, Indiana - A new Blue Chip Casino boat that is
more than twice the size of the current
vessel is afloat and should be ready for gamblers
by the end of the year.
Crews
lifted the boat off the bottom of a man-made channel beside
Trail Creek on Sunday. Since then, 3,000 gallons of creek
water has been pumped per minute into the basin just off
Lake Michigan.
The
centerpiece of a $163 million expansion and renovation
project at the site should rise to the desired level above
the 16-foot-deep basin bottom by week's end, said Bob
Marra, projects director for Boyd Gaming, the casino's
Las Vegas-based owner.
Marra and other officials of Boyd and Blue Chip took visitors
inside the new vessel, which is 402 feet by 208 feet,
for the first time on Wednesday.
Despite
setbacks during the winter, Marra said construction is
close to being on schedule.
Upon
completion, the vessel will be four stories, weigh close
to 10,000 tons, and its square footage will be more than
two times that of the existing
boat, which opened in 1997, Marra said.
All
of the gambling will be on the third floor of the vessel,
docked about 25 miles east of Gary. The bottom two levels
will contain the engine room and other features related
to the boat's operation.
The
existing
boat that is still in operation and its three floors
of gambling space will be emptied, officials said. It
will remain docked behind the Blue Chip Hotel until a
decision is made on its use.
The
new boat was floated to meet a June deadline under permits
overseen by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources,
Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Marra said.
Included
in the expansion is a four-story parking garage that will
open in July along with an expanded pavilion that will
contain more restaurants, a coffee house and much wider
opening into the casino, Marra said.
Groundbreaking
set for Emmetsburg casino resort
As
reported by www.siouxcityjournal.com
EMMETSBURG,
Iowa - Wild Rose Entertainment LLC officially breaks
ground on its $35.4 million casino and hotel resort at
3 p.m. today. The ceremony takes place at the construction
site on Highway 18 East, just east of Ken Krause Motors.
A
county-wide community picnic follows from 4:30 to 9:30
p.m. under the shelter at Soper Park. Among those turning
spades of dirt will be Wild Rose officials, Palo Alto
County Gaming Development Corp. board members, representatives
of the construction team and city and county officials.
"Our
journey together continues toward our common destination
-- a destination casino and resort, that is," said
Gary Kirke, chairman of Wild Rose. "This marks the
first step in the construction process and, more important,
solidifies our long-term partnership with the community.
We're excited to be here and we look forward to next summer
when we can all celebrate the grand opening of the casino
resort."
The Wild Rose Casino & Resort, scheduled to open in
July 2006, will generate 250 new jobs for Palo Alto County.
The project includes a 28,000-square-foot casino; a 65-room
hotel with seven suites, meeting rooms, a ballroom, a
pool and health club; an authentic Irish pub and a 100-space
RV park.