Aurora panel recommends preliminary Hollywood Casino plans

An Aurora City Council committee on Wednesday recommended preliminary plans for the $360 million Hollywood Casino resort planned for the city’s northeast side.

Aldermen on the Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee unanimously recommended the plans, as well as some rezoning, for the 18.68-acre site nestled between Farnsworth Avenue, Bilter and Church roads, and Interstate 88.

The plans will now move to the City Council Committee of the Whole, which will meet Tuesday evening.

Greg Moore, Hollywood Casino general manager, said the new development is the only way Penn Entertainment, Hollywood’s parent company, can compete in Illinois with the increased competition, such as the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines and the pending casino in Chicago.

The development along I-88 became possible with 2019 state legislation that said casinos no longer needed to be tied to a location along a river, legislation pushed by the city of Aurora. The city also helped by assembling the land along Farnsworth with the purchase and razing of two motels to give Hollywood a place to go to leave its current downtown location, where it has been since 1993.

The numbers show that Hollywood’s gaming revenues in Aurora decreased from $151.7 million in 2012 to $114.5 million in 2019.

“We’ve seen gaming revenue decrease and decrease and decrease,” said Moore. “This new location is by far superior to where we are now.”

Moore said the company estimates at the new location it will get many more than the about 900,000 people a year the current casino sees.

The new casino resort will include new restaurants, including a casual steakhouse and an Asian noodle bar, 220 hotel rooms, 1,200 gaming positions, a Barstool sports book, an events center and an outdoor entertainment area.

The location will feature 1,600 parking spaces, both at street level and in a parking garage, with the potential of adding another 500 spaces if needed.

According to Michael Carroll, vice president of construction with Penn Entertainment, the casino is putting in a main entrance off Farnsworth, and a second entrance along Bilter Road. The alternate entrance can be used by people going to some of the entertainment spaces, without going through the gaming area or hotel.

“We’ve put a large focus on the non-gaming customer,” Carroll said.

Moore said Hollywood is likely to double its current number of permanent jobs from 350 to 700 people, and Carroll said the project should create an estimated 700 construction jobs.

Penn Entertainment hired Chicago-based Langan to do a traffic study of the area around the new casino resort, and the city of Aurora hired HR Green, a national engineering firm with an Aurora office, to review Langan’s study.

Brian Witkowski, of the city’s engineering division, said the study was done of all traffic needs in the area – not just what the casino would generate – out to the year 2050.

The city would plan to expand Bilter Road from its current two lanes to four lanes, and eventually expand Farnsworth Avenue to six lanes, three in each direction, between Butterfield Road and I-88.

Overall, he said HR Green looked at 10 intersections in the area and is already planning on modernization on some. Some already have been modernized, Witkowski said.

“We would look at substantial completion (of road work) by 2025, before the casino is ready to open its doors,” he said.

Witkowski, responding to questions from Ald. William Donnell, 4th Ward, a committee member, said the city still is negotiating with the Illinois Toll Highway Authority on how the interchange with I-88 might be changed, and that could include a second exit lane from the tollway that would go directly into the outlet mall road.

Witkowski said roads are not designed for specific events – such as a Black Friday sale crowd at the Chicago Premium Outlets mall or even overall holiday traffic – but that the roads there would handle much greater traffic capacity.

“That work out there will help everything,” said Ald. Patty Smith, 8th Ward, committee chair.

The city and Penn Entertainment have a redevelopment agreement that has the city giving the land and donating $50 million to the casino, which it will pay back. The city would plan to pass $58 million in general obligation bonds for that money.

The payback would be done through a tax increment financing district on the casino property which would be tied to the bond payments. City officials have estimated that the land will generate about $5.5 million in property taxes a year, which would make the bond payments.

If the TIF district does not generate enough to make the bond payments, Penn Entertainment would make up the difference, according to the agreement.

slord@tribpub.com